Make art, not war - AJ page by Corrie

Hello everyone,

welcome to the VLVS! blog where today I have an art journal page to share.

I don't think this is my best work, I am just not very inspired at the moment but these things happen and usually they pass ! Anyway here's how I did it :

First I painted the pages roughly with pink, yellow and orange acrylic paints by Amsterdam.

I then knocked it back by brayering white paint over the top. 

I then stencilled over the top with the same three colours of paint. 

Again knocking it back with white. 

I then added some stamping...

...some more stencilling with white paint, doodling and splatters with Posca paint pens also in yellow, pink, orange and white. 

I stamped the man on book pages and cut him out, the sentiment was also stamped on book paper but on the unprinted edge. I adhered everything to the page and added some washi tape here and there. As an afterthought I added some more black stamping with the 'x's'. 

I have used the following stamps :

20419 - Vintage African American gentleman

20342 - Library return dates

20166 - Scribble Circle

20162 - Carved X's

20165 - Cross Marks background

19973 - Banksy make art not war

Other materials;

Amsterdam paints :

Azo Orange - Nickel Titan Yellow - Quinacridone Rose - Titanium White

Posca Paint pens:

Orange, yellow, pink and white

Bookpaper

Washitape

Black fineliner

Stencil

Thank you for stopping by today ! 

Mail Art Monday

Hello Crafty Friends!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!
Happy Mail Art Monday!

Today I want to share a super fun postcard I created for a friend.

I wanted something fun and bright, so I went with an Alice in Wonderland theme.

Stamps Used:

Plate 1508

This book belongs to

Library Return Dates

Library Return Card

Mad Hatter

Stars

I started with a 4x6 base for my postcard. I started by stamping the Mad Hatter in memento ink and masked it off. 

Next, I stamped return library card in watering can archival ink.  To add extra detail, I stamped library return dates, and "this book belongs to". 

Next, used my distress ink to add a gradient for my background colors. 

After removing my mask, I stamped my stars in cornflower blue. 

I used various markers and colored pencils to color my Mad Hatter. 

I also used a few flicks of black dylusions ink, and perfect pearls sprays to add a bit of grunge.

I hope you all like this postcard as much as I do. 

Index Card Art by Jenn Engle - A Corner of Your Heart

 Hey everyone! I have a 4" x 6" index card made of watercolor paper to share with you today.

Stamps Used:

Young Lady

Cottage Scene

Waybill Invoice

I started out by spraying a few different kinds of spray ink thru stencils. I sprayed this with water to get a very soft look. 

I then stamped Cottage Scene in grey ink. 

I added a few more colors of ink on my background, centering them around the Cottage Scene. I then embossed Waybill Invoice with a shabby blue embossing powder. 

Then, I stamped out my Young Lady and colored her with copic markers. After that, it was just a matter of adding elements around my lady to finish of the card. 

I added some die cut wings, some vintage ledger paper die cuts and some word stickers. The finishing touch was some sparkling clear droplets and some white ink splatters.

Stamps Used:

Young Lady

Cottage Scene

Waybill Invoice

Other Supplies Used:

Lindy's Stamp Gang Spray

Distress Oxide Spray Stain

Tim Holtz Stencils

Archival Ink

Shabby Blue Stampendous Embossing Powder

Tim Holtz Geo Insect Die Cut

Clippings Word Stickers

Liquitex Acrylic Ink

Sparkling Clear Droplets

If you have any questions, let me know!

Thanks for looking!

~jenn

Es Neta | Sue Plumb

Hi everyone!

It's Sue Plumb here to share my latest design team project with you. Today I am sharing a mixed media scrapbook layout I created to document some fun photos of me that were taken at a local Mexican restaurant. 

For my page, I took my inspiration from the colourful striped blanket in the background of the photo. I began by adding some red and yellow acrylic paint to my cardstock, swiping each of them randomly across the page.

I wanted to draw in the striped pattern from the blanket to add structure, so I used the Row of Distressed Lines stamp several times horizontally down the page using black ink. I also used the Texture Background stamp vertically down the central line of my page.

With the black ink down over the paint, I also wanted to draw in a small amount of the green that could also be seen on the blanket. I used the Scribble Circle stamp with 'Mowed Lawn' Distress Oxide. I stamped the image three times in its entirety, but then also used one edge of it to stamp extra colour randomly down the page (as you can see below).

With my background colours in place, it was time to add some texture to my page. I gathered together an assortment of items to use as layers behind my photos - black & white striped tissue paper; a die cut black tag; a green paint sample card; some yellow punchinella; and some frayed gauze. I stapled the layers in place before adding my photos on top.

Once the photos were down, it was time to add some embellishments. I started by adding a round Charms Creations handmade circle alongside them, before adding the Curly Moustache that I had stamped onto white cardstock and cut out, on top. Behind that, I tucked a little die cut cactus and then a small die cut banner along the bottom edge of my photos. I also tied a little piece of green and white striped twine onto my black tag.

To finish off my layout, I stamped the Incredible As It Seems stamp multiple times; added the title "Es Neta" (which means "it's true" in Spanish) using Thickers; and then added my journalling at the bottom of the page using a felt pen.

Thanks for stopping by so I could share this with you. I hope I have inspired you to get inky too!

Stamps used:

- Row of Distressed Lines

- Texture Background

- Scribble Circle

- Curly Moustache

- Incredible As It Seems

Other materials:

- Miracle Tape

- Art-C acrylic paints

- Tsukineko Staz On ink

- Ranger Distress Oxide

- Assorted layering materials (as specified above)

- Charms Creations circle embellishment

- Die cuts

- American Crafts Thickers

- Felt pen

Black and White

Time goes by so fast...it just doesn't make sense.  The older I get the faster is goes.

The sentiment on my card today is perfect for how I am feeling about it.

We've got stamping...with Ethos Plant, Ethos Not Everything in Black, Ethos Thress Sheep all by Tina Walker.

And we've got inking...Distress Oxide Ink for a perfect blended background
We've got splattering...Distress Oxide Sprays
And we've got somne coloring,,,Posca Paint Pens

A little masking and we have our sheep in the shade of some plants.  A little coloring and we have some depth to our images.

I absolutely love the hand carved font on this sentiment!!  Oooh la la!!

Hope you are enjoying SPRING (finally!!)
Until next time...get inky!!

Freaky little thing

Hello everyone,

Welcome to my post where today I am sharing a postcard.

I used a piece of gel printed paper for the background and stamped it randomly. 

I then stamped the balloon dog, reversed him and coloured him with Copic Markers. I added some highlights with a white paint pen. 

The girl was stamped without her heart and coloured with pencils. I did this because I used a different ink to stamp her, to get a nice black image. I then cut both images out and adhered them to the card. I drew in the lead for the dog. 

The last thing was the sentiment which I stamped and cut into pieces and adhered.

I used the following stamps:

4678 - Balloon dog

19015 - Dictionary page

20399 - Banksy girl with heart

20389 - Have a nice day

19684 - She was a freaky little thing

Other materials:

a gelli printed piece of paper

Archival ink - Vermillion

Versafine - Clair - Nocturne

Coloured pencils

Copic markers

Thank you for stopping by today !

Attitude...

Hello Crafty Friends

Happy Mail Art Monday!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend!

Today I am happy to share some super fun mail art!

Stamps Used:

Apparently I have an Attitude

Typeset Scallop

Lady with Scissors

(I just love this lady!!!)

I started with and A2 Envelope, and began by stamping my lady with scissors and my typeset scallop in memento ink. 

Next, I masked everything off and created an address box.  I used distress ink in carved pumpkin, to color my background.  I used a Tim Holtz layering stencil (THMS078) to add depth. 

I used various Blick Markers to color everything after removing the masks.

To finish the envelope off, I stamped my sentiment and added a marching postage stamp. 

I hope you all get a chuckle from this envelope!

Art Journal Page by Jenn Engle "Wings"

Hey everyone! I have an art journal page to share with you today. This one has a lot of layers, a lot of steps and a lot of my fave VLVS stamps.
To see exactly how I made it, be sure to check out the process video at the end of this post.

STAMPS USED:

Clockface
Arrow with Stars by Cat Kerr

Let's Get Lost

Wire Bird Cage

Open Up Your Heart Bird by Cat Kerr

Large Star Chart Map

STAMPS USED:

Clockface

Arrow with Stars by Cat Kerr

Let's Get Lost

Wire Bird Cage

Open Up Your Heart Bird by Cat Kerr

Large Star Chart Map

Other Supplies Used:

Distress Paint

Distress Spray Stain

Dylusions Spray

Tim Holtz Dies

Silks Acrylic Glaze

Art Stones in Medium and Small

Clear Droplets

Embossing Powder

Acetate

7 Dots Studio Word Stickers

Jewelry Wire

India Ink

Thanks for Watching!

~Jenn

Circus Show - a series by guest Mercy

Greeting VLVS fans!  I’m here today to share with you these super simple and fun to make ATCs that I did.  After watching a documentary on Circuses on Netflix and seeing the trailer for a new dance flick coming out, I was all about doing some performance based ATCs.  I threw in the Mermaid as there was a famous side show that featured “a real mermaid.”  Of course that one was hideous, but I made due with the pretty stamp I had from Viva Las VegaStamps.

Supplies:

Magician Levitating Woman  SKU 18185

Winged Girl Under Umbrella SKU 19116

Mermaid  SKU 17748

Circus Acrobats SKU 17088

Nouveau Torch Lady SKU 17047
Lady Posing SKU 18615

White Cardstock cut into 2.5” X 3.5” ATC cards

Black Pigment ink (in this case I used Color Box)

Black Embossing Powder

Heat Gun

Alcohol Ink Pens [Can substitute any sort of colored pens, paints or pencils you have.]

Distress Ink

Spray Inks with glitter/shimmer

Baby Wipes

Instructions:

After cutting out my ATC cards (2.5” X 3.5”) out of my white cardstock I have hoarded away, I pulled the stamps I wanted to use and stamped one on each blank ATC card with pigment ink.  Most of these were centered.  After stamping was done, black embossing powder was used then heat set.

Once they are embossed, color with your markers of your choice. In this case, alcohol inks were used, but really any sort of pen or pencil will work with varying affects. Whatever you do, however, just keep the coloring super simple and quick. You don’t want to waste a bunch of time coloring, when you will be layering ink over and around these stamped images anyway.

Once they are colored, get out the base ink and one or two of the baby wipes. Lightly spray the distress ink on a craft mat or into the baby wipe and dab the ink around the images. Try to layer on the ink and leave white areas as you gently tap the paper surface with the colored wipe. Once you randomly add that, allow to dry before taking your glimmer sprays and apply those to your cards. What I ended up doing with these was leaving a lot of extra white surface and blending sometimes four different colors. I have on hand these Fireworks sprays and was just playing around the with color combinations.

These were super fun to do and the glimmer sprays on top really make these images pop.