Air Mail !

Hi, Nikki here and today I wanted to share some mail art I created with a home made envelope.

I have an envelope maker and often use this instead of store bought plain white envelopes. Its so fun to use old magazines, since the background has already been started. I added a couple of stamps to the envelope and some sponging and doodling : 

The Spinning Swing Ride stamped on the left, isnt it great, and perfect for some 'Air Mail' LOL.

I also used Admit one ticket, which I stamped and fussy cut and added on. I did some background stamping with bulls eye target stamps and added a label for the address. 

Stamps used : Spinning Swing Ride 19203

Admit one ticket 19190

Bulls Eye Target solid 19196

Bulls Eye Target open 19193

This is my last creation for the Viva Las VegaStamps! DT, but I will be sticking around in the Facebook group facilitating the trades, if you would like to come and join us :) 

Hugs, Nikki x

Swim Fast

Morning, Nikki here with a couple of cards I made, featuring one of the original stamps I bought from Viva Las VegaStamps! a number of years ago.... Diver from Board : 

Isn't the diver great. I stamped him in memento black ink and colored him with copics and fussy cut him. I added some white gel pen highlights.

I wanted to create a splashy watery background for him, and this is how I accomplished that :

I used water color powders, sprinkling them onto my water color card stock : 

Then I spritzed it with water :

and used a straw to blow the water around. 

I love the richness and unpredictable effect you get, a perfect backdrop for my diver.

The words are typed on my typewriter. The card front is matted onto a blue card base.

I made two similar cards, although adapted one image so he's wearing a swim cap : 

Such a vast range of images in the Viva Las VegaStamps store, I really like this one, Diver from Board, 3879.

You are Beautiful

Nikki here today sharing a postcard I made featuring the beautiful Whimsical Ladies Face with Tears : 

Firstly I used a blue painted piece of card to make my background. I added red, yellow and white acrylic paint and a brayer and my fingers. Then I stamped her and clear embossed her. I used color pencils to make the face area lighter, and added color to her lips, white acrylic to the highlight in her eye : 

The scrap paper that I used to clean my brayer was then used to make the flowers, since obviously the colors are already the same : 

I used a die by Tim Holtz Alterations to cut the flowers, then I layers them and lightly sponged the edges in blue :

I added color co-ordinating brads and layered the flowers and glued them in place around the face : 

A close up of her face : 

Final step was to add some black and white splatters and the wording, which is embossed in white : 

Stamps used :

Whimsical Face with Tears 19773

You are Beautiful 19832

Hope you found some inspiration here :) Nikki x

Be Prepared Mail Art

Hi, Nikki here with a make for Mail Art Monday :)

Mostly the cards I make are 5.5" x 4.25", so I have used an envelope for that size card. I think in this case the envelope may well outshine the content :

The focal image is Whimsical Gas Mask Guy. I stamped him onto tissue paper and embossed the image. I then painted the back of the tissue paper, to emphasise his jacket and match the color scheme.

The envelope has a Gelli® print background, acrylic paint and stencils. I wanted to get a really vibrant and contrasting color scheme. I used the Writing Chevron stamp to bring my border color into the body of the envelope. There is space for the address in the centre and the stamp top right.

The letters I cut from magazines and glued into place. 

To me this guy, donning his gas mask looks like he is ready for all eventualities !

Mail art is lots of fun to make, more inspiration here every Monday. So be sure to check back :)

Stamps Used :

Whimsical Gas Mask Guy 

Writing Chevron 

We're all in the same boat

Hi, Nikki here today with a fun 4" x 6" postcard.

 I really like this image, Four Ladies in Boat, just look at the expression on their faces, aren't they great :

I guess the meaning of the wording is open to interpretation, deep and meaningful or just humorous .. what do you think ?

For this postcard, I used water soluble powders for the background, I love how the colors swirl and mix when you spritz it with water. I dabbed off the excess water from the sides.

Then I added some of the powder to my craft mat and sprayed it with water. Using this as a sort of stamp pad, to add some cloud like images on my background. I used Smear/smudge stamp to do that :

Then time to stamp my focal image. I stamped it onto the background, and then again onto plain white card stock, which I colored with alcohol markers and fussy cut :

Finally I glued my image over the top of the other, edged the postcard in black and mounted it onto black cardboard. The words were typed on my typewriter.

These ladies are adorable, here's a close up. You can just make out the crystal effects I added to their glasses to make them a little more reflective :)

I hope you found a little inspiration here :) Nikki x

Seek Paradise

Hi, Nikki here, and today I am celebrating all things elephant.
Look at this gorgeous and serene animal, Sitting Elephant  :

 

The background is kraft cardstock. I added a thin layer of  Golden acrylic ground for pastels onto my craft mat and placed the card stock ontop of it and pulled it up. When its dry it gives a really rough textures, even more so because of how I added the medium. I added a little colour with prisma pencils to the background. I stamped my focal image, Sitting Elephant in black stazon, and coloured him with inktense pencils, gel pen, sharpie paint pen and Faber Castell Artist pitt pens. I drew the stem from his hat and added the punched out flower. I coloured around the elephant with prisma colour pencils. To add a little more interest to the background I stamped Fantasy Bird in the background in pink ink and clear embossed it.

There's so much texture in this, here's a close up : 

The final thing was to add the sentiment, Seek Paradise and the bakers twine and heart embellishment.

Thanks for stopping by, Nikki x

I've still got it !

Hi, Nikki here today sharing some fun Artist Trading Card's (ATC's) I made. 

The star of the show is Senior Lady doing split :

Isn't she fun. Seriously, can you imagine being able to do the splits in later life. Kudos to her. 

You can see in the background that I have also used a stamp from the most current release, Squiggly star collage.

The background is made up of torn music paper, acrylic paint and black and white ink.

A close up :

I actually made a series of these ATC's, here they are : 

Thanks for stopping by, Nikki x

A Versatile background

Hi Nikki here today, with a few items I have made with the same background, and using the same plate, 1400. This plate is the newest addition to my family and I wanted to try out a few of the stamps. I love green and orange together and this color scheme is apparent on each of the makes here, with the green background and orange rhinestones. 

My makes, an ATC, a tag and a card :

I started this whole process with an inked water colored background. I used water soluble powders, but you could use any water based product. I colorised the whole sheet of water color paper with greens and yellows. Its so pretty isn't it :

I then began stamping and using various portions of the colored background, cutting them down to size. Making a master board like this is a great way to quickly utilise a background you really like, rather than making smaller individual backgrounds :

More info about my three makes : 

The tag uses the funky gal Spikes on head #18507 as the focal point. She is stamped onto the tag directly, and then again onto plain white card stock, colored with copics and  the main head shape fussy cut and glued over top of the stamped image on the tag.  Close up of that :

In the tag background I have also used Measuring Tape #19565 and Mesh Texture # 19569. The words are The Truth is out there #19548

My second make is a card featuring the gorgeous 4" x 4" Sun background #18366, which I paired up with the sentiment Hello Sweetie #19148 :

And finally an ATC, using Steampunk Owl #18508, Writing Triangles # 19571 and Texture background #19570. The additional items in this ATC are words typed on my typewriter and die cut branch and cogs. Also I added a layer of diamond glaze/crystal effects to the owls eyes, I like that glassy eyed look :)

Until next time, Ciao Nikki x

Adventure now or tea first ?

Nikki here, sharing some inspiration for this months Coffee Fiends challenge ... But I am a tea drinker, I don't really drink coffee ! Did I just hear you gasp ? LOL. But fear not .. I still get my caffeine fix :)

The inspiration for the April challenge includes : 

caffeine, coffee, tea, tea time, warm drinks, hyper, hype, cups, recycle, fancy, stain, spill, coffee rings, drips, drops, splatters, vintage, cardboard, corrugated,tan, brown, black, dark, roasted, light, vapor, and last of all.. date time with friends.

Here is my make : 

As my focal point I used this dapper gentleman, Man with teacup 18484. Isn't he great?

I stamped and colored him with alcohol markers and fussy cut him. The rather delicate pink bone china tea cup is embossed with clear embossing powder. I also used the tail from the Fantasy Bird 17852 to make the vapor/steam from his cuppa. Its stamped onto velum, embossed and fussy cut.

The background is sponged with tea dye distress ink and the corrugated cardboard is actually a recycled Starbucks cup sleeve :) I sponged it lightly with distress ink and added black and white splatters of acrylic paint. I also made the tea bag tag, instead of using ribbon.

This is such a fun quote from Peter Pan, and fitted perfectly with this gentleman I think. He looks like hes asking just this sort of question, or perhaps making a sarcastic remark ? LOL

Here is a close up :

If you feel inspired to come and join us, and check out the challenge HERE. 

Until next time .....  Nikki x

Why Hello

Hello ! Nikki here sharing a simple card I made using this adorable whimsical dog image : 

Don't you just love his thoughtful expression.

The dog is stamped directly onto the background with black versamark and embossed with clear embossing powder, then colored with water color pencils and white paint pen.

But its the background I wanted to talk about today. Anyone who uses acrylic paint or other mediums with a brayer, what do you do with the sheet you roll the excess paint off onto ? When you look at the sheet as a whole it might look as mess, but if you cut it down to card size, it appears quite different. You can see here some scrap papers I had used / background opportunities I had created:

I cut one of the sheets to a card front size, then stamped and colored the dog. The messy/painty paper takes on quite the different look as a background to my focal image. 

 I wanted to ground the image onto the card, but not add anything too imposing.  I masked off the colored dog as shown below and stamped a scenic image over it in grey, I used the water mill scene :

Finally I stamped the 'Why Hello' sentiment and matted the card front onto plain white card stock and onto a black card base.

I think everyone probably has scraps of paper with ink or paint on them, try them as backgrounds before throwing them out :)

Stamps used :

Whimsical dog 19774 

Why Hello 19547

Water Mill Scene 19535

Nikki x

Reminiscing ...

Hi everyone, I wanted to share with you a standard 4.25" x 5.5" card I made using a stamp you may not have seen before, or at least not for a while : this adorable angel pigs stamp, which contains two pigs. Seriously how adorable are they :)

 I think the pigs are looking very thoughtful, sitting up there in the clouds with their angel status ....  reminiscing perhaps about the past, about the days of rolling, frolicking and cavorting in the mud. Here is a close up of one of the piggies, so you can see how I reached my conclusion : 

The background is stenciled and I used water soluble powders to color it. The clouds are hand cut and I used a cloud die. I lightly sponged the edges in gray and layered them. The pigs are stamped in black ink and colored with alcohol markers. I fussy cut them and cut off the wings. Then I stamped the pigs again in grey ink, fussy cut and glittered them. I attached and glued everything together.

I thought this might be a great card for sending to someone to let them know you are thinking of them, they are certainly unique and memorable images :) Angel Pigs 4794

Nikki x

Eat My Dust

How exciting, Nikki here with my very first post ... I have been a fan of Viva Las VegaStamps! for a number of years, and am delighted to share my first make on the Design Team.

I have made a 4"x6" postcard featuring one of the newest additions to my VLVS addiction, erm ... I mean collection ! LOL. 

I enjoyed coloring Lady on Scooter, with copics and metallic pencil, isn't she great. I sure hope I am still scootering at her age!

The wording 'Eat my Dust' is to demonstrate just how fast she is actually going ...  

Can you see the determination on her face :

For the background I wanted to do something in stark contrast to her somewhat conservative demeanor so I went for a northern lights mystical sort of background, with lots of space dust :)

I used mixed media card stock and painted it with black gesso, then sponged on white actylic paint. When that was dry I sponged over the white with alizarin crimson and ultramarine blue. Adding color on top of white always makes it appear more obvious and vibrant. I splatted water down white acrylic for my stars :

 Now to really highlight this gorgeous gal. I used my 4" round gelli® plate with green acrylic and a stencil, then I stamped this onto my background and rolled off some of the excess paint on the roller to make the ground and added a little green into the sky :

This green whimsical moon-like sphere was perfect to highlight the focal image. I adhered my image to the postcard with miracle tape. Finally I added the wording 'East my dust' with letter stickers.

Stamps used :

Lady on Scooter

Thanks for stopping by, I look forward to sharing my makes with you over the next few months :)

Nikki x