Guest Designer : Irit Shalom

Today we have a special guest on the blog - Irit Shalom! She's been an avid fan of VLVS! for quite some time, and I'm excited to have her work featured on the blog. You won't be disappointed! She's a master stamp layerer and you're going to drool over her piece today.

My name is Irit and I am from sunny Isreal. In my "real life" I am a dentist, but for the last 5 years I do it as a part time job, because I need some extra time for my scrapping and crafting addiction and I have a lot of fun doing something else after 25 years of dentistry. I have been married for 31 years to a retired high police officer, who is the full time family cook these days. 

I am a mom to 4 grown ups: 2 sons and twin daughters. The empty nest is probably the main reason for my obsession for crafting - finally I have some time for myself. My oldest son is an army officer, married and a father of my 2 adorable grandchildren. My second son is "a world traveler" - for the last 7 years after his army service he is out of Israel for at least 9 months a year - lives and works in Spain. My twins are college graduates,just got their first real jobs and one of them is getting married in a few months.

For many years it was a polymer clay and jewelry making artist, but after I saw a scrapbook layout for the first time in my life (only 6 years ago during my visit to USA), I finally understood that I am in love with paper. Today I mostly scrap, stamp and do altered art. I have been a design team member for about 20 manufacturers in the past. Right now I design for mainly stamp and tool companies around the globe. I was published in print in Israel, USA, UK and Australia and web published in every possible on-line magazine around the world. Last, but not least- my other addiction is..... Folk dancing. So if I am not in my crafting room - I am probably dancing. I am totally thrilled to be a VLVS guest designer and hope to do my best.

From Irit: First of all I want to say huge Thanks for this chance to be VLVS guest designer for August. I got a lot of fantastic stamps to use for my projects and as I have much more at home it was very easy to make a big project and to have any stamp you need to make it.

This altered 5 paged project was made as an "inspiration lifting" art piece. But then I lifted it from myself, so it's totally right. I made a similar project like 18 months ago for the recent, just out of the print, issue of Rubber Stamp Madness and I made 4 "Houses of Everything" for the big article using RSM house template. I think that we all have a lot of different houses in our life that we fill with things we love or dream of. For the original project I picked houses of Dream, Imagination, Adventure and Knowledge.

This new project, made for VLVS Guest post was made in the similar way, but after all it's totally different. I made 4 different house shapes, free hand cut; I used only VLVS stamps, quite a lot of them; I made totally different house this time and I called them "Houses of Anything". I also picked 3 of 4 houses that are totally different from the original work: house of Memories, Hope, and Art and added the Adventure.

All of the pages were made in a similar way: resist emboss technique with white and black embossing powders over clear embossing ink. More stamping was made with black permanent ink. Some of the shapes were stamped with image masks; some were stamped one over another to make these themed collages. All roofs were separately stamped and name of the house was added with letter stickers. Over some pages I
added stamped and hand cut images for the 3d textured look. Each page was colored with inks or water colors and I added just a few chipboards and stickers to make it more interesting. And if anyone, who knows my work, wonders why this piece is so "flat" and not over embellished as my usual work, the answer is simple: I was asked to make a project with VLVS stamps. They should be a star of this piece and
not lots of embellishments and my glue gun.Thanks for reading this long post and see you again in two weeks with a totally different VLVS project.

VLVS Stamps Used:
Clockface, Flock of geese, Weathered tree, Banksy girl floating with balloons, Businessman silhouette, Butterfly specimens, Alien circle, Brick background, Film strip, Map of the world, Number strip, Solid color wheel, Washi grid background, Washi lines background, Stained glass mosaic background, Charred wood background, Cracked background, Dictionary page, Handholding circle, Sunken anchor, Explore, Nautical collage, Discover,  Destination unknown, Let's get lost, Torn paper, Color wheel lines, You color my world, Pocket watch, Watch movement, Flying watch, Swirl, Bellows camera, Clock, Writing Arrow, Dandelion silhouette


Other products:
White cardstock: American Crafts, Inks: Clearsnap, Ranger, Paints: Faber Castell DMC Gelatos, Chipboards, wood: Wycinanka, Metal: Meg's Garden, Bling, stickers: Flourish with a Bling, Letters: Pink Paislee, American Crafts, other, Other: ribbons