Bee Happy

Hi everyone, this month’s Visible Image Facebook ATC swap has a very open theme, as it asks participants to choose their favourite theme from previous swaps, of which I believe there have been 33!!

I had an additional criterion I wanted to include, as I recently won a VI store voucher so I thought it only right I should use some of my new stash! There were lots of great themes to choose from, but  I eventually settled on “Twinkle” from November 2022  as I adore twinkly things and have previously made several cards and ATC’s using twinkly VI butterflies including ones for that challenge posted here. However this time I decided to get my twinkle on with my new VI bee stamps and dies. I made an ATC and card for my swap partner, plus 2 more ATC’s to trade separately - here they are.

I started by assembling various pieces of white card, and creating smoosh backgrounds using orange and yellow shades of Elements ink. I then cut three ATC bases each 3.25” x 2.25” and a card panel 14cm square. On both the ATC’s and card I stamped the hexagon background in opposite corners and I coloured them by painting with Posca sparkle pens which I had tapped onto an acrylic block.  

I  stamped the large bee and 3 medium bees onto various card snippets and heat embossed with clear EP, then coloured the bodies with yellow Stardust pen and the wings with Zig watercolour pen and a wash of Wink of Stella. I die cut the bees with the matching die set - the first time I have had matching dies for a stamp and I really like the effect! - and placed them on the cards to enable me to position the wording which I then stamped and heat embossed. On the ATC’s I attached the die cut bees directly to the background, and on the card I die cut a mesh background from my last snippet of pale gold card and placed under the large bee before attaching. Finally each piece was matted onto a black border, some gold faux spatters added to the background with Posca pen, and the card matted onto a 6” square card blank.

Here's a closeup of the card.

... and an angled picture to show the twinkly effect of the various sparkle pens I used for colouring.

... and finally a closeup of the ATC which I enclosed with the swap.

Stamps: Visible Image Bee Happy;

Media: Lavinia Elements inks (Sundance, Sahara, Russet Orange); Versafine Clair (Nocturne); Sakura Stardust pen (yellow); Posca sparkle pens (orange, yellow); Posca metallic pen (gold); Kuretake Zig watercolour brush pen; Wink of Stella;

Tools: Visible Image Bee Happy co-ordinating dies, Broken Mesh die.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Card:

Allsorts #763 - Make Your Own Background (2nd entry)

Fab ‘n’ Funky #587 - Stamp It

Incy Wincy (January) - New (2nd entry)

Moving Along With the Times #162 - New Craft Item (2nd entry)

My Time to Craft #525 - Something New In Your Stash

NBUS #58 - Use Your Never-Before-Used Schtuff

Path of Positivity #119 - Anything Goes Positive

Simon Says (Monday) - Sparkle and Shine (2nd entry)

We Love Stamping (January) - Something New (2nd entry)

Word Art Wednesday #631/632 - Anything Goes  (2nd entry)

ATC:

ATC’s Around the World #109 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Crafts Galore Encore #119 - Anything Goes

Everybody Art #549 - Anything Goes

Kraftin’ Kimmie’s Skrappy Challenge (January) - Anything but a Card

Lost Coast Portal to Creativity #181 - Anything Goes (4th entry)

Love to Craft #78 - Anything Goes

Love to Scrap #165 - Anything Goes

Mix It Up #69 - Anything Goes

Outlawz (January) - Anything Goes in a Card Free Zone (2nd entry)

Worldwide Crafters and Colourists #13 - Anything Goes

I must say I'm very thrilled and happy with these craft goodies that I won, and hope I'll be back soon with  further makes.

Take care and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,