Find Your Bliss...

Welcome to Viva Las Vegastamps! Susan here today to share a new art journal page using Viva Las VegaStamps! with Sakura of America Cray-Pas® Expressionist® Oil Pastels and Gelly Roll® Stardust® Glitter Pens.

When I visited the VLVS! store back in April, I returned with Two POUNDS of Rubber and more! One of the stamps in my new grab bag was this "Carosel Horse" #3787. I knew that this would be beautiful embossed and hand-colored using the lovely glittery ice cream colors of the Gelly Roll® Stardust® Glitter Pens.

 

I have been a fan of oil pastels since I was in junior high school. Oil pastels give you the texture and feel of paint, but without breaking out all the wet, messy stuff. I was playing around with them to see if I could get a soft blended effect like I've seen by others using PanPastels. As much as I would love a new set of art supplies to use... I really think I could get the effect with supplies on hand. With a little experimenting... I got a nice blended background - very similar to that of PanPastels.

I first tried coloring the cray-pas on freezer paper, then smudging and picking up color with a make-up sponge. It worked in theory, but had a very streaky look and the makeup sponge didn't really hold up to all the rubbing {it was falling apart}. I have this huge box of camp stuff in my kitchen for my Monday afternoon Art Camp, where I spotted a bag of small dense foam blocks I got for stamping with paint on totebags. These turned out to be perfect for smudging and blending the pastels. It worked by applying pastels to paper and blending out - but I got the best blending by applying the pastel right to the block and then rubbing out on paper in a circular fashion. This particular art journal I'm using has drawing paper in it, and it's not super smooth - but I really like the subtle texture from the blending.

Since the Carosel Horse is so bold, I wanted to add a little pattern to my background... yes there's MORE! So I grabbed my 1/8" Miracle Tape, and applied randomly to create a large mosaic pattern. I burnished the tape down with a bone folder before removing backing to ensure good adhesion on top of the pastels. I peeled off the backing then covered the exposed tape with Ultra High Gloss Embossing Powder.

 

I heat set the embossing powder and this added the

perfect amount of "oomph" to my blended background. Voila!

I stamped the Carosel Horse onto a manila tag with black Versafine ink and embossed with Ultra High Gloss Embossing Powder. Then I hand-colored the horse with the Gelly Roll® Stardust® Glitter Pens. To make a pole, I added some gold ribbon/trim with Helmar Fabric Adhesive. I fussy cut the horse and applied using 3-D foam dots. I finished this journal page off with a quote punched out with my mini "Smash" label maker.

This has such a painted feel
and I've certainly "Found My Bliss"!

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Supplies used: STAMPS - "Carosel Horse" #3787. Other supplies: journal with white drawing paper pages; #8 manila tag; Versafine Black ink; 1/8" Miracle Tape; Ultra High Gloss Embossing Powder; Sakura of America Cray-Pas® Expressionist® Oil Pastels; Sakura of America Gelly Roll® Stardust® Glitter Pens; 3-D foam dots; Helmar Fabric Adhesive; mini "Smash" label maker; and gold ribbon/trim.

Thanks so much for dropping by. We have a BRAND NEW Viva Las VegaStamps! Design Team - so you definitely want to subscribe to the blog feed and to the Viva Las VegaStamps! newsletter to be IN THE KNOW of everything going on at the Viva Las Vegastamps! store. There's so much amazing inky inspiration to see!

If you would like to see more of my creations please visit my blog, sbartist : painting in the dark HERE. I'll be back soon with another stamping adventure!  Sb