New Years Celebration Blog Hop

"Welcome to 2012"

The Viva Las Vegastamp! Design Team

is having a celebration

and we are taking you 

along...

We are doing an amazing blog hop...

here are the rules:

1)  Must leave a comment on all the blogs

2)  Must become a follower of all the blogs

You are entered

for what - you may ask...

Each blog on this team will give a $15 

on-line shopping spree to our store
(with free shipping).  

and 

ONE lucky person will get $25
(with free shipping) to our

on-line store.

Now here is our list of blogs.  Go see how we

celebrate the NEW YEAR

Monthly Challenge

It's time for our 

Monthly Challenge

ARE YOU PLAYING????

here is how it works...

This Months Theme

"CELEBRATION"

1)  Post a card or project on our facebook page using the theme for that month http://www.facebook.com/vlvstamps

2)  The first Sunday of each month we post a winner

Winner Receives:

There Project or Card featured on our Blog and a $25 shopping Spree to our on- Line Store. 

Hope you stop back by tomorrow and join our Team with a "Celebration" Blog HOP...

Peace...Love...and Naked Men!

Wow it's the end of December!!! It's Susan (again) with my end of the month project. Today's project also features a fun product called Creative Paperclay® now available for sale over at Viva Las Vegastamps! 

This project is using four stamps from Viva Las Vegastamps! This piece begins with Angel Blowing Horn #6303. I also used "I Wish For A World" #1541, Patriotic Shirt Man #18119 and Leafy Border #6292.

 

I started with a sheet of paper that was previously business cards that has been painted over with gesso and other acrylic paint. I make these when I have paint leftover that I've mixed up for a project so it doesn't go to waste. The business cards were on this gunmetal parchment, which on the backside is lovely, but for this I used the painted side. It is a nice base and has a nice texture from the gesso. I stamped the Angel, the leafy border and my naked man with Stewart Superior Memories Regal Burgundy Pigment ink and embossed using VLVS Ultra High Gloss embossing powder. Before stamping the man, I rubbed the area with Stewart Superior "New Canvas" Palette hybrid ink {this is white}. I used the ink pad directly to paper in a circular motion and blended out the edges with a paper towel. This made a nice highlighted area for my guy. After stamping, I added some color with watercolor pencils and waterbrush. I added some coloring with CaranD'Ache watercolor crayons, but left them as pastel state {I didn't blend with water}. I finished off by stamping sentiment in Stewart Superior Memories Black Dye ink and mounting on burgundy cardstock.

For the corner embellishments I used the Creative Paperclay® in a small embossing folder. I rubbed the embossing folder with clear ink before pressing clay into it to help ease release. I gently pulled it out and accelerated the drying process by placing in a pan in the toaster oven on one medium toast cycle. Then I cut it apart, sanded edges then inked with chalk inks.

Detail of the Half-naked man colored with watercolor pencils.

Detail of Corner Embellishment made with Creative Paperclay® in embossing folder.

Today is December 30th which means there's only two days left to enter the monthly VLVS Theme Challenge. Submit your "CHRISTMAS" theme creations using Viva Las Vegastamps! for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate at the VLVS online store. CLICK HERE for info on submissions. Also check out the Viva Las Vegastamps! store - there is something for every occasion and more! Please drop by on Sunday for a special New Year's Celebration with the Viva Las Vegastamps! Design Team Bloghop with a chance to win by commenting on every stop on the hop.

Thanks so much for visiting & if you would like to see more of my creations please visit my blog, sbartist : painting in the dark HERE. Happy NEW YEAR!!! : )

A couple of kiddos and some clouds..

The VLVS! DT has the pleasure of working with some Creative Paperclay® this month (Available @ VLVS! HERE) and I chose to turn mine into clouds! But first.. I had to start out with a VLVS! Stamp..

I picked this stamp:

Boy & Girl with Bike 2 3/4 x 4 1/2 - $12.50

It's so sweet and gentle! Then I grabbed my Memento Tuxedo black ink, my VLVS! Ultra High Gloss Embossing Powder.. and some gorgeous BoBunny patterned paper. I'm also a huge fan of recycling.. so I pulled out some packaging cardboard to my card base and some corrugated cardboard to make my stamp stand out. I stamped the image, doused in powder and heated. Then I cut to size all my pieces.. did a little distressing.. both with scissors and vintage photo distress ink. I got out my Miracle tape and began setting things in place!

I shaped my Creative PaperClay® and let dry.. then I went over it with Picket Fence distress stain.. sponged it with vintage photo distress ink and ran the stamp pad along the edges!! Last.. I adorned my card with a piece of vintage lace, some cream colored pearls, a butterfly wing and a tim holtz charm and my handmade clouds!

 a closeup of the clouds:

 and the stamp:

As a final step to make things "flow" I went arond some extra edges with distress stain in picket fence. Love the effect :D

-DeeDee

It's Fruitcake Time!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! For my last post of 2011, I wanted to make a card that I have had planned out in my head for quite a while. I know it's the day after Christmas, but it's funny, so here it is. I am sure everyone will get a late card or two in the mail this week and I am sure that if you had a fruitcake in your house yesterday, then more than likely, it's still there today. Anyway, back to my project. I am known for my unconventional sense of humor, and this card supports that. People will know who made this as soon as they see it.

I used the following four Viva Las Vegastamps! to make this card:

Handsome Man

Man With Bottle

Santa Hat (reversed)

Fruitcake Time! sentiment

First I stamped all of my stamps on white card stock using a black Memories dye ink pad from Stewart Superior. I wanted the Santa hat to go in the opposite direction, so I stamped it on the smooth backside of another unmounted rubber stamp, and then pressed that image onto the paper to get my reversed image. Then, I colored all my images and cut them out. I embossed the green background sheet with a holly embossing folder. I used a punch for some additonal holly leaves and berries. For the lights, I used a spool of embellishment lights arranged the way I wanted them, and put a drop of glue under each bulb. I let that dry for a few minutes, and then put a drop of glue under the strings to hold them where I wanted them.

I assembled the rest of the card as you see in the finished picture. I put the Man with Bottle behind a holly leaf so he would not be floating in space. I put the Handsome Man on pop dots to bring him to the front of the scene and to show that the guy with the bottle of tanning oil (it's my card, so that is what I have decided it is) is in the background. Of course, the sentiment means it's Christmastime, but I like to think that the man is happy for a lot of reasons.

Visit my blog on the Create & Craft site to see my other fun projects. Happy New Year!

Have a Wienderful Christmastime Birthday!!!

Hello my darlings!

I hope you are all well, and looking forward to a wonderful Christmas!

I have a close friend who's son's birthday is December 20th.

Yes, he was *almost* a Christmas baby!

But, this kiddo often is overlooked with his birthday being so close to Christmas.

We were talking about it last week, and I made this birthday card for him.

This card uses my FAVORITE Viva Las Vegas Stamp, Dog Ears Flying.

He reminds me so very much of my sweet Sammy!!

This is a super simple card but is so sweet!

Supplies:

Card base

Stamp

Patterned papers- these are from Jillibean Soup and some other random pieces

Back ground stamp

Black Ink pad- I used Ranger's Archival

Kalidacolor ink pad

Scrap of glitter paper (this scrap is from Doodlebug)

Liquid Applique

Heat tool

Scissors

Miracle tape

Embossing folder 

Spellbinder's dies

Embossing folder

Markers or whatever you like to color with

Bakers twine and/or ribbon

First, I'd like to share a tip!

You know all those scraps of pretty patterned paper we keep?

Here's an easy, fun way to use them!

 Cover some card stock with adhesive. I use Miracle Tape.

Cut your scraps into strips...Someone else said to cut them all the same width, I don't do that.

I just trim 'em so they are straight.

Once the card stock is covered, trim it up.

Die cut into shapes. 

I LOVE making mats for cards this way!!

Now, onto the card!

Cover your card base with paper (this is Jillibean Soup).

Die cut your scrap-covered card stock.

Die cut a piece of card stock to layer onto the first die cut. Emboss!

Die cut another piece of card stock. Stamp wiener on it with black ink. 

Stamp back ground stamp all over and layer onto die cut layers.

Center this all onto the card front.

Stamp wiener with black ink on a scrap of card stock. Color and cut out.

Adhere colored wiener over wiener on die cut. The reason I do this is to get
 the shading and stuff under the dog...I think it looks better this way!

Cut a scrap of glitter paper into a triangle to make a party hat. Place on wiener's head.

Put some liquid appliqué at the tip of the hat. Heat to dry and puff up.

Cut a couple of squares or rectangles from scrap paper.

Add ribbon or bakers twine to make presents, and place them beside the wiener.

I made a few more of these to have on hand.

This card used ALL scraps except for the card base!

Even the card stock that I adhered the scraps to, was scrap card stock!

YEAH!!

 And I thought I'd leave you with a couple of Christmas sights from my house.

Merry Christmas, everyone!!

 One of my favorite ornaments, a Cow that sings "We Wish You a Merry Christmas"

A resin ring I made for a friend, and I used one of my itty bitty tags for her!

Here's your wiener!!!

All stamps on this ATC are from Viva Las Vegas

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Day 5 and Day 6 - Christmas Tag

Our Amazing Design Team did a 12 tags of Christmas Blog Hop from Dec 1st - 12th.  If you miss it, here is a collage of Day 5 and Day 6. 

This was Day 5 of the Hop

This was day 6 of the Hop

Well if you missed this hop - this amazing Team is doing another Blog hop on

Jan 1st, 2012

So please stop by here on that date 

and

ring in the year with us....

Come back tomorrow and see another project...

Merry Christmas

Terri Sproul

Viva Las Vegastamps! Christmas Ornament!

The design team challenge this month is to use Viva Las Vegastamps! and Creative Paperclay®.  Last post I did a project creating ornaments by directly stamping on Creative Paperclay®.  

Ornament direct stamping

 using VLVS! Santa Holly

click HERE to get instructions.

This time I am combining the two by making an object with Creative Paperclay® and stamping on paper.

 Supplies I used:

Viva Las Vegastamps! Holly Stamp

Creative Paperclay®

Copics - red and green

Stickles - red and green

Tulle

Small Tartlet Pan

Silver tinsel pipe cleaners

Memories In - Black

Snowflake charm

Crop-o-dile to punch holes 

Press clay in to mold and let dry overnight.

Remove molded clay. 

Stamp VLVS! Holly on white paper, fussy cut, color with COPICS and embellish with Stickles.

Punch holes with Crop-o-dile for pipe cleaner hanger and snow flake charm on the bottom. Trim tartlet pan with silver tinsel pipe cleaner,  gather small amount of tulle and glue in pan. Add snowflake charm, molded head and Viva Las Vegastamps! Holly.

The ornament is ready for your tree, as a package trim or a set would make a great gift!.

GREAT NEWS!!!!!!

SAVE 20%

on the

Viva Las Vegastamps! Website

PLUS

FREE SHIPPING!

Through Monday,

December 26!

View Cart

and enter

Holidays

as your Coupon Code

and Apply it.

Note: Applies to already reduced items

in Bargain Basement, Blue Plate Special

and Dollar Deals but does NOT apply to:

Wood & Gift Certificates.

For complete details with pictures,

read our Newsletter HERE!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! 
From Lyneen 
And the Viva Las Vegastamps! 
Design Team

Join us for a FANTASTIC 

New Years Day Blog Hop 

with tons of

Blog Candy!!!!

Circus Themed Card using Creative Paperclay

A couple years back, I took a pottery class through the Lifelong Learning program offered by my city's Parks and Recreation department. We learned to throw pots, work with clay slabs and even did some molding. Back then I used some small face molds to make embellishments for a clay bowl. When it came time to play with Creative Paperclay I remembered the molds and thought it would be fun to cast paperclay.

The Creative Paperclay was really easy to work with and molded quite well. I was happily surprised by how much detail you can get. Once the castings were dry, I used an emery board to smooth the edges so they were ready to paint.

Viva Las Vegastamps! has several circus themed stamps and for some odd reason, when I look at them, I'm drawn to the Unicycle Lady 2 3/4 x 3 1/2 #14619.
I thought she would look great in brightly colored costume that sparkled. So, I stamped the image with dye ink, colored it in with Copic markers and then used a glue pen to add glitter. After I fussy cut the image, I knew I had the focal point of a card.

The sentiment, Perhaps You Were Just 1 1/2 x 2 1/4 #7834 from Viva Las Vegastamps!, seemed like a good companion to the unicycle lady. The molded faces could become part of a crowd, watching her perform. I found a vintage crowd photograph, printed it in sepia tones, and painted the faces a similar shade using an acrylic wash.

I love texture and wanted the bottom of the card to look like the dirt floors I had seen in circus rings. I had saved some sawdust from a previous project (I save everything! LOL) and applied it using 1" wide Miracle Tape and it gave me just the looked I was hoping for.

With all the components complete, I assembled the card. I used pop-dots to lift up the circus ring wall from the crowd, so they would appear to be sitting behind the wall. I used pop-dots again for the unicycle lady so she would be in front of the wall. It took a double layer of pop-dots where he body was above the crowd (versus the wall).

I hope you enjoy this card and it doesn't give you any nightmares about your past at the circus!

You can see my other projects on my blog on the Create & Craft website.

Happy crafting!
Joe Rotella

Winner and Day 4

As promised I am posting the amazing tags our Design Team made during the 12 tags of Christmas.  We had some amazing blog candy too.  We all hope you played with us.. 

This is all the tags from our Day 4.  

Now it's time to tell you who won this amazing step of stamps 

Leslie Rahye

please contact Terri Sproul to claim your prize

terri@ultimatescrapbookretreat.com

Now for more exciting news...

WE had so much fun doing this hop - WE are doing it again on New Years Day

We hope you join us on Jan 1, 2012 for another amazing hop with our Design Team

There will be LOTS of Blog Candy.. 

Merry Christmas

Terri Sproul  

Day 3 of our 12 tags of Christmas Hop

Here is a recap of Day 3 Tags our team made during our 12 tags of Christmas Blog Hop.  I will be post the winner on Sunday along with another set of tags.  We hope your enjoy our blog hop and your join us for the next one.  We are doing a Jan 1st - New Years Blog Hop with the whole team and LOTS of blog Candy.  We are starting the New Year out right - by thanking all of our customer and followers to an amazing blog Hop with amazing prizes - did you see the "s" - yes we are giving LOTS of prize away on Jan 1st 2012.  WE hope your join us...

Again another amazing set of tags.  Thanks again and stop back by on Sunday to see who won the blog candy...  I am so excited...

Terri Sproul

Inside, Looking Out at Who's Naughty and Who's Nice

The blog hop was so fun, I used Santa with his List from plate 1363 again!  The card is a 3 fold card and I cut a window so that Santa can peek out! 

A simple tag was cut from Creative Paperclay® and a hole punched with an awl so that I could attach it to the card.  I used part of the word "Santa's Coming" from plate 1363 as well. 

The inside is a similar motif to the outside.  I cut a stretched scallop and after I colored Santa, I cut him and adhered him on top of the scallop with Miracle Tape.  "Have a Blessed Christmas" is also from plate 1363. 

Extras are holiday stickers.  This plate is a very versatile plate filled with wonderful images to mix and match to create a plethora of cards, tags, and vinette's for Christmas.

VLVS Images:

Christmas Plate 1363

Next weekend is Christmas - I wanted to do this card to send everyone a greeting  to say have a Blessed Christmas! 

VLVS is having a 20% off Christmas Sale and FREE SHIPPING.  Ongoing until December 26th!!!  Just key in "Holidays" in the coupon spot at checkout.  Santa has been good to us all this year...so pick up some fabulous images to add to your VLVS collection.

See you January 1st for the New Year's Blog Hop!  Double blog candy for all!!!

Take care, Lea

Day 2 of the 12 Tags of Christmas

I want to take some time to THANK everyone who came to our 12 Tags of Christmas Blog Hop.  We had an amazing turn out.  Special "THANK YOU" to all of you.  

Our Design team is truly amazing...  I put out a challenge for them to make 12 tags out of one plate of stamps and they did me proud.  I will be posting the collection of tag the team make - when they are not posting you a brand new project - They do that on Mondays, Wednesday, Friday and a few Saturdays.

Anyways, here is Day 2 of the tags the team made using plate #1363.  

This is the set of stamp our team used and was our blog candy. 

I hope you play along with our hop

Next TEAM hop will be Jan 1st

There will be amazing blog candy for that Hop.  hope your join us!  

Are these just amazing or what... 

Thanks for stopping by

Terri Sproul

Just around the corner..

is Christmas! and I'm having fun doing "creative" Christmas cards this year... 

I picked up some of the Library Pockets from VLVS! and got to work distressing with a walnut stain distress ink. I then cut a tag from some dictionary paper and distressed with peeled paint distress ink.

I love the cream color that manila comes.. so I seriously stock up on manila folders and use them as a regular stamping surface.. I grabbed a folder and this beautiful new stamp from VLVS!:

Jolly Ol' St. Nick 3 1/4 x 3 - $11.75

I stamped him in Memento Tuxedo and embossed with VLVS!'s Ultra High Gloss EP. 

I then did a little embellishing (I love to deconstruct decorative picks and use bits n bobs as embellishmetns) some extra inking.. ribbon snipping and tying.. and of course adhering everything down with VLVS! Miralce Tape...

and...

VIOLA!

thanks so much for checking out my VLVS! project again this week!! -DeeDee