Spooky tag by Cathy N

 Good morning to you all, Today I have a Halloween tag for you all. 

To start off this is not the color I was going for. I wanted a purple color. 

As you can see, I have a distress stain dauber in dusty concord. (purple) Granted they are a few years old, but I never would think I would get a different color out of the stain. I said let's just go with it I made a tag and a panel background with it. I decided to go with the tag.

I stamped the Grunge writing background in black distress ink randomly on the background of the tag.  Next, I stamped Vampire boy and the wings from Alis Volat Proprits colored and cut out.

After I did that, I added some Halloween bits to finish the tag. 

                                                                 Stamps Used:

                                                             15165 Vampire boy

                                                            17545 Grunge writing background

                                                            19991 Alis Volat Proprits

Drips and Distress Tag

Hello Again!

Today I want to share a fun tag I created using Viva Las Vegastamps to play along with the 

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. The theme was "Tag it"

Join the Challenge HERE

 This also goes with the Mixed Media mood boards challenge(on Facebook)

My inspiration for this tag came from Dee Dee Catron (you really need to check out her YouTube) 

The video that inspired this background can be found HERE. I pretty much followed her technique with my own twist (and w/o the amazing transfer she did... **swoon**) 

Stamps Used: 
Deathhead Moth
Cross Marks Background
Scribble Circle
Row of distressed lines 3
(Or get the whole yummy art journaly plate HERE)

Other Products:
Distress collage medium, distress crayons, gesso, Wendy Vecchi crackle paste, yellow paint, Prima rusting pastes, Tim Holtz remnant rubs, micha pieces, string, Tim Holtz tiny attatcher, StaZon Ink, distress stains

You can see my step by step pictures below, but I HIGHLY encourage you check out that video, It totally inspired me!! 

What I started with...

After Collage

Rust medium added

Stamping and more layers...

Finished :D

(detail shots below)

Thank you for visiting!! 

stay inky!!

Fly

I am so ready for some warm spring weather!!!

Michele here today and I have noticed that all of my projects lately are inspired by SPRING.

Today I have a little home decor piece featuring the Deathhead Moth image.

I also have a short tutorial on mirror image stamping.  I wanted to have the image on both sides of my piece!

I stamped the moth on a piece of watercolor paper.

Sprinkled some Ultra High Gloss Embossing Powder on it and heat embossed.

Next I used a clear silicone stamp with the image down.

You need the flat side up so you can stamp on it.

Stamp the moth on the flat silicone.

Stamp on the watercolor paper and emboss.

Next I cut both of the image out...

So they could be glued together back to back.

The ideolgy pins are perfect to hold the moth.

The base is an Ideolgy finial stained with Distress stain.  I used wodden beads to spell fly and wired them on the finial.

Some pretty pearl beads are added to the pin.

Come on SPRING!!  Let's FLY!

Until next time...get inky!

Be BOLD

Happy November!!!
Michele here today to share a quick tag I made with some of the stamps from the latest release at Viva Las VegaStamps!.  This is a little calm before the holiday storm, something clean and simple, a technique I personally struggle with!

I used the Magic Maker Paint Brush by Cat Kerr and Fortune Favors the Bold on this tag.

Colored with Distress Markers and the BOLD color is created with Distress Stain.

My favorite Chevron ribbon tops off the tag with a BOLD pattern.  A little thread behind the paint brush handle for a little texture...

Of course the perfect sentiment with a little doodling...

Well??  How did I do with the clean and simple??  I just never know when to stop!!!  I'll keep trying though!!
Until next time...get inky!!

Spooky Decor

Holy moly!  It's October already and Halloween is creeping up FAST!!!
Michele here today sharing some creepy crawly ornaments to spook up your home.

Viva Las VegaStamps!: Spider Web, Spider, Spider on Web Line, Striped Spider and Fly.

Other items:  Archival Ink, Distress Stain, Distress Spray and wood ornaments.

Bright colors and creepy spiders...

And a fly caught in the web.

Make sure you check out our October inspiration challenge!!  Link up for a chance to win!

Until next time...get INKY!!

he was...

Are your May flowers blooming??  We FINALLY are having some lovely weather here in the midwest and I am looking forward to our flowers blooming!!!
Michele here today and I am sharing a tag created in a style that is typically not my own but I do love it!!  I used stamps from one of the newest plates just released last month.

VLVS!:  Whimsical Lettered Man, Whimsical Leaf, Whimsical Border, An Artist, She Was..., high gloss embossing powder.
Other items:  Vintage dictionary page, kraft tag, Distress Spray, Distress Stain, Distress Ink, covered wire, archival ink.

Colorful, whimsical and fun.

and masculine which sometimes is a tough one too.

Join us on Facebook for chatter and sharing!  And don't forget out May inpiration challenge.

Until next time... :)

Happy Holly Greetings... 12 Tags of 2013 for December Viva Las VegaStamps! Style!

Welcome to Viva Las Vegastamps! Susan here today to with my take on T!m Holtz' December installment of the 12 tags of 2013. YES - I did complete the tag for November... you can click here to sneek a peek. OK - I'll start out by saying I took liberties with creating this month's tag. I created my own dimensional plastic using stuff I have in my crafty stash. I had a bit of fun with this and the result is STUNNING!

Using a section of a recycled #6 take out container, a scrap of vellum cardstock and a section of miracle sheet - I fashioned my own faux frosted plastic by adhering the two together. If you have made your own DIY shrink plastic using a recycled #6 plastic container - you know that the plastic will warp and bend when heated. If you heat it a lot - it will shrivel up into a shrinky dink.

I stamped Holly Large #18930 repeatedly onto the vellum cardstock side using Timber Brown StazOn and then fussy cut out all of my pieces.

I started out this month's tag painting the base tag background by dragging tag through smattering of Old Paper, Antique Linen, Antique Bronze and Picket Fence Distress Stains. I distressed the edges with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink. 

Then I began adding my stamped images (Holly Small #18929; Holly Leaf 3760; Leafy Border #6292; and Ornate Corner Left #18928) creating a border using Timber Brown StazOn Ink. I wanted to keep with the vintage feel so the dark brown ink really compliments the background and will make my colorful holly "POP". I added pattern to the background using an ink blending tool with the Harlequin Mask from UmWowStudio; first using Frayed Burlap Distress Ink. Then I shifted stencil over to hit reverse areas with Iced Spruce Distress Ink. It was a little bright now, so I toned the background down by brayering on a layer of Picket Fence Distress Stain. I finished off with some splatter dots of Picket Fence Distress Stain - the splatter is subtle, yet gives the snowy effect.

Now it's time to color my holly leafs. They all got a quick douse of color with Peeled Paint, Brick Red and Vintage Photo Distress Stains. When dry, I added more detail and color with various Distress Inks and an ink blending tool.

I know it's hard to see here in the photo - but these are my heated and curled dimensional holly leaves. Holding with heatsafe tweezers, I gently heated and shaped each leaf to my liking. In a couple areas I heated the leaves a little too much and the plastic began to shrink a little, but it just added to the charm of the shaped leaves. It's clear and on the backside - so it's not really noticeable.

Now for final assembly! I added some Diamond Glaze to add some "POP" to the holly berries and to accent details on holly leaves (here and there). I layered the sections of holly to my liking and added a piece of black 3-D pop dots to anchor leaves down as they lay. I finished off with adding some pink sticky back crystals and pearls for berries that I colored red with a permanent marker (and they match perfectly). 

Happy Holly Greetings!

This tag is complete... all tied off with a shimmery gold/red satin ribbon. I may go back and add the white splatter for snow overall - but for now I'm pretty happy the way that it is.

• • • • • • • • • • • • •

Viva Las VegaStamps used: "Holly Greetings" #6043; Holly Large #18930; Holly Small #18929; Holly Leaf 3760; Leafy Border #6292; and Ornate Corner Left #18928. Supplies used: Vellum Cardstock; Recycled #6 plastic take out container; Timber Brown Staz-On Ink; various Ranger Distress Distress Stains; various Ranger Distress Inks; Versafine Black Ink; Miracle Sheets, Harlequin Mask from UmWowStudio; Diamond Glaze Dimensional adhesive; Red permanent marker; sticky back pearls and gems; black 3-D pop dots; and ribbon from stash.

Thanks so much for dropping by. Have you entered the monthly challenge??? Its a brand new month with a new inspiration board. Just make a creation using the inspiration and your stash of VLVS! stamps... you could win more RUBBER! CLICK HERE for challenge details. Also, 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

A Wintery Tag + {SALE}

Did you know -- the first Sunday of every month we do a free demo at a local place called The Crafting Place? It's located on Russel -- and we always do some sort of new mixed media technique and some stamping! For November we delved into some wintery snowflake goodness.

The technique we explored this month was all about using Clear Embossing Powder (Like VLVS'S Ultra High Gloss) to emboss images (In this case the Small, Medium and Large snowflakes) into the background of our tag, creating a resist.  We then built up layers of Distress Stain in broken china and brushed pewter with a bit of water to create a wintery sky. Splatter a little stain and Glimmer Mist then.. Iron off those embossing powdered snowflakes to reveal the halo styled resisted goodness!

You can see the beautiful effect that the ironing does for the background. You could leave it embossed, but when you iron it off it creates a flat surface ready for more layers and relieves the stress of a broken image due to the mounded embossing powder.
We also used the brand new Xmas Silhouette Collage stamp in Archival Black by Ranger and finished the tag off with some washi tape by Gauche Alchemy, a hand drawn border using Sakura Of America's Archival Micron Pen and some May Arts Ribbon.



ALSO>>>>>

We've got one FANTABULOUS Sale going on in honor of Veteran's Day!