Everything, everything.

Hello again! For today’s post, which is also my last post (for now), I wanted to use this great “Running Lady” stamp that reminds me of Marilyn Monroe. I stamped her on white cardstock, and then colored her with Copic markers. After that, I went over her with a Versamark pen, and then covered her with Viva Las Vegastamps! own Ultra High Gloss Embossing powder. I didn’t cover the shadow, only the lady. Then I used a couple of colors of Distress Ink to color the cardstock as you see in the picture.

I hope you have enjoyed all of my projects. You can see them all at anytime by clicking here. Take care and please be sure to come back to the Viva Las Vegastamps! blog where new projects will be posted every Monday, Wednesday & Friday. There's an all new design team starting in April and it will nice to see what new ideas they come up with! Good luck everyone.

Cats Dancing in the Moonlight

For this weeks post, I wanted to use this stamp of four Victorian looking cats dancing in a circle. As soon as I saw it in the Viva Las Vegastamps! online store, I thought of this idea right away. The stamp is called Cat Dance and can be found by clicking here. For the moon, I used a circle that I punched from pearlescent cardstock. For the Moon’s face, I used the Handsome Man stamp by masking the side of his face with tape before inking and then peeling off the tape before stamping.

For the sentiment, I made up my own and printed it directly onto my cardstock. I used a piece of pattern paper from The Robin’s Nest to make it look like they were in the woods at night. I assembled as you see in the picture, and I put the cats on pop dots to make them stand out as the highlight of the card.

Please stop by the Viva Las Vegastamps! blog often to see what rest of the team is up to. There will be an all new team in April, so be sure to visit often! Also, feel free to stop by my blog by to see my other Viva Las Vegastamps! projects by clicking here.

Happily Divorced!

Hello everyone! While travelling last year, I saw this funny sentiment on something at a souvenir shop. Since Viva Las Vegastamps! has hundreds of stamps featuring women’s faces and funny expressions, I really wanted to use it for one of my blog posts. I asked Wayne, the owner of Viva Las Vegastamps! to put these words on a stamp, and he did! So here it is, with one of my favorite face stamps. You can find the sentiment by clicking here, and you can find the Lady with Pearls by clicking here.

To make this card, I stamped the Lady With Pearls stamp on smooth white cardstock and colored with Copic markers. The stamp does show her with a pearl necklace, but I added some small sticky pearls from Want To Scrap to bling it up a little. I cut her out and adhered her to a piece of background paper, and stamped the sentiment directly on the background paper below her.

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to return often to see what’s new, and feel free to leave a comment because we love to hear from you and find your words encouraging. If you want to see more of my Viva Las Vegastamps! projects, visit my blog by clicking here.

You're no longer the man I met on the internet!

Hello again! Since Valentine’s Day is almost here, I thought I would make a fun card for all the people who are not looking forward to it. I am sure that most people can relate or know someone in the situation where their dream date turned out to be a dud in person, or not so great once you really got to know them. Anyway, because so many people are finding love on the internet by chatting on social networking websites like Facebook or sites like Match.com, I thought that this stamp was especially funny, and I just had to use it in a project this month!

Click here to see this stamp in the Viva Las Vegastamps! online store.

I made this card using a black A2 sized card. For the background, I chose a pattern that made me think of a comic book. I thought this pattern looked like the colored pixels you see when you look very closely at a picture in a magazine or newspaper. I colored my stamped image with Copic markers and then I assembled the card as you see in the photo. I put the matted stamped image on pop dots to be sure that it would stand out against the busy, but appropriate, background paper.

Be sure to keep coming back to the Viva Las Vegastamps! blog for more great ideas for their fun stamps. If you want to see my other Viva Las Vegastamps! projects, feel free to visit my blog at Create & Craft. Happy Valentine’s Day everyone. Thanks for stopping by!

Pug Birthday Card!

One of my best friends loves Pugs. She has two of them and their names are Frankie & Piglet. She had a birthday recently, so I wanted to use this cute Pug In Party Hat stamp from Viva Las Vegastamps! to make her birthday card. To start off, I stamped the image on white cardstock and colored with Copic markers. My friend’s favorite color is purple, so I used a purple card for the base and I colored some Spellbinders shapes with purple chalk for my background. I added some Sakura Crystal Lacquer to the eyes and nose to make them look wet as well as dimensional. On the inside of the card, I stamped a simple and fun Happy Birthday! My friend loved the card by the way! She is so into Pugs that every year she organizes the “Pug Picnic”. Anyone can come as long as they have a Pug and bring it with them. She even knows all the Pug’s names! I gave this stamp to her and suggested she use it next year for her Pug Picnic invitations. She loved the idea!

For anyone who missed our blog hop, here’s another project where I was able to use this same versatile stamp for a New Year’s card. I had a lot of fun with this card since I am a cat person, and I enjoyed making the little dog annoying!

Feel free to comment below and be sure to come back to see new cards & projects posted every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Thanks for stopping by!

What Was I Thinking?

Valentine's Day is coming soon! I am sure that most of us, at least one time in our lives, could relate to this card. Some people will go buy a nice mushy card, but in the back of their mind they'll be thinking "I need that card that Joe Morgan made!" Anyway, it's just for fun, because Valentine's Day isn't all about hearts and flowers for everyone. Sarcastic people like me would prefer that we skip it and have Halloween twice a year instead. So on to my card!

I used two Viva Las Vegastamps! for this project:
Hugging Lovers
Looking Back Over the Years

For my background, I used a conversation heart embossing folder to dry emboss pink paper. I stamped the sentiment on white and used a decorative punch to punch it out. I stamped the Hugging Lovers stamp on white and colored it with Copic markers and then fussy cut it out. I assembled the card as shown with some green and pink ribbon behind the sentiment and I also inked the edges.

I hope you enjoy my card and at least got a good laugh from it! Viva Las Vegastamps! has a ton of sentiment stamps for everything. I get ideas just by reading them!

For more of my project ideas, visit my blog on Create & Craft.

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!

My Favorite Fruitcake Recipe!

For my Viva Las Vegastamps! design team post this time, I wanted to use this funny fruitcake recipe stamp that I have admired for a while now. I used Spellbinders dies for the mat, recipe card, and cake platter that my fruitcake is on. I used a Sizzix embossing folder to add the dot texture to my mat and then used Colored Sakura Crystal Lacquer to highlight some of the dots so that they would accent the pieces of fruit in the fruitcake.

Now here is the fun part! This month, we got to try out a product called Creative Paperclay. I used the paperclay to make my fruitcake and I was surprised at how much like regular clay it is. I expected it to be more like paper pulp, but it was very easy to use, like real clay. Here is how I made the fruitcake:

First, I drew a circle on a piece of waxed paper. Then I put red, green, yellow and orange rhinestones all over my circle. After that, I started putting small pieces of clay over the stones and I pressed the clay down until I could feel the stones. Once I covered all of the stones, I rubbed them to get the clay off the tops of them. Then I trimmed off the excess clay, while also trimming the waxed paper at the same time with a craft knife. I shaped and evened it out to my liking and then put it away to dry over night. The next day, the edges had curled up a little, but it was still a little wet. I gently pressed it flat and smoothed out any tiny cracks with a wet paintbrush. The next day, I painted it with some watered down brown acrylic paint to give it that "bake until golden brown" look. Normally I wouldn't recommend using the waxed paper, but in this project, it gave the bling something to stick to, and also added strength since my project was very thin. Other embellishments you could make this way, could be things like pizza, cookies or a wreath. You can see other projects for Creative Paperclay on their blog by clicking here.

Feel free to stop by the Create & Craft blog to see all of my Viva Las Vegastamps! posts in one place as well as projects from the rest of our team. Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to come back every Monday, Wednesday & Friday to see the newest posts!

I Like Cats Too!

First of all, I have to say that no cats were harmed in the making of this card! Secondly, I love cats and would never eat them!

I was looking through all the stamps that I got in my pound of rubber from Viva Las Vegastamps! and spotted this sentiment about exchanging cat recipes. I thought to myself that I would never use such a thing! But then, I saw this wonderful chef stamp, and my evil wheels started turning! For the little cat heads, I used a stamp of two cats playing leap frog and just used their heads.

After putting the stamps together in my head, I wasn't sure if I would like a card using cats in such a manner, so then I started looking for other ideas, and I found this cute stamp of a dog with a chef hat! So then it didn't seem so bad. I think the Chef leans toward weird, but then the dog balances that out by leaning toward cute since that is the type of behavior we can expect from dogs. At least in cartoons anyway.



For both cards, I stamped my images on white cardstock, and colored with Copic markers. I used pattern paper for my backgrounds and inked my edges and then glued my pieces in place.

Please feel free to stop by my blog to say hello and see my other Viva Las Vegastamps! projects! Thanks for stopping by!

Beware the Pumpkin Eater!

The Pumpkin Eater card by Joe Morgan

Halloween, my favorite holiday, is almost here! For this week's post, I made a cute card using three different pumpkin stamps. To start out, I stamped the three stamps on white cardstock, and colored them with Copic markers. I cut out all three of them. One of them includes a graveyard scene in the background, but I cut that off so that I would just have the pumpkin by itself.

For the sentiment, I wrote my own, and then printed it directly on a 6”x12” piece of the light brown cardstock. The font is called Centaur, and I thought it looked like a good storybook font. Be sure to click on the pictures to enlarge them for easier reading. For the tree, I cut some dark brown cardstock with a Tim Holtz Sizzix die. I cut out a silhouette of a man to use for Peter Peter the Pumpkin Eater.

When assembling, I glued down the moon and then the tree. I glued down one man silhouette and then placed black pop dots on top of him and then put an identical silhouette on top for a 3D effect. For the pumpkins, I glued down the center one, and then used pop dots for the two on the outside to add dimension.

Here are the three stamps I used for this project:
Pumpkin in Cemetery #6264
Jack O’Lantern #5896
Pumpkin Sneering #6490

For an added Halloween bonus, I am posting a second card that I made for Viva Las Vegastamps! ad in Rubber Stamp Madness magazine.

Frankenstein Collage Card by Joe Morgan

For this card, I used Frankenstein stamp #5842, some colored paper and acrylic paint dabbers from Ranger. To start out, I cut eight colored squares of paper about 2.5”x2.5” I adhered four of them to the front of a 5”x5” card.

I stamped on the four remaining squares using paint dabbers instead of ink on my stamp. I stamped blue paint on the greenish white square, black paint on the purple square, purple paint on the blue square and green paint on the yellow square. You can do it any way you like. I then cut out my monsters and adhered them to the squares on the card in the order I liked best. You’ll want to wash your stamps ASAP when using paint. I doesn’t hurt them, but the longer it sets, the harder it is to clean.

Be sure to visit the Viva Las Vegastamps! blog to see what the rest of the design team have created for Halloween! There are lots of great ideas this month!

I hope you have enjoyed my cards as much as I enjoyed making them! Feel free to check out my blog at Create & Craft for more fun ideas! Thanks for stopping by!

Ouija Board Halloween Card

Ouija Board Finished Card (5" x 7")

Welcome! I’m happy to be posting the first project of my second term on the Viva Las Vegastamps! Design Team.

Glitter Sepia Trees on Linen from The Robin's Nest

This month, the folks at The Robin’s Nest provided us with a selection of their papers to use in our projects. As I flipped through the pile, I saw my favorite – Glitter Sepia Trees on Linen. I love the color, tones, shadows and glitter. I knew I had to use it on my project.

I always think of spooky things being conjured up when someone uses a Ouija board and Viva Las Vegastamps! has the perfect stamp of a Ouija board! It measures 3.25” tall x 4.25” wide. Combine that with ghosts from The Robin’s Nest’s Glitter Ghost Camo cardstock and you have a successful séance.

Glitter Ghost Camo cardstock from The Robin's Nest

I wanted the sentiment to look like the Ouija board and found out that the most common font used on Ouija boards is Captain Howdy. You can download it for free from Urban Fonts. In case it sounds familiar, “Captain Howdy” was the name of the spirit the little girl talked to on her Ouija board in The Exorcist, so it’s the perfect font to use for Halloween.

With the paper, stamp and font set, I was ready to create my ghoulish 5” x 7” card. Here are the steps I followed.

1. Print “Happy Halloween” in Captain Howdy font along a curve on acetate. Cut out.




2. Cut a background mat from Glitter Sepia Trees on Linen (4.75” x 6.75”). Ink the edges.




3. Cut out some ghosts from the Glitter Ghost Camo cardstock.




4. Stamp the Ouija board on Sizzix Little Sizzles™ Hombre Texture Pad paper. The brown looks just like the aged wood you see in vintage Ouija boards. Cut out. Ink the edges.




5. Stamp the Ouija board again on Sizzix Little Sizzles™ Hombre Texture Pad paper. Cut out the planchette (small heart-shaped piece of wood). Punch a hole at the end and attach a small piece of acetate to the back to cover the hole. This will make it look like the real playing piece, which has a small glass window that reveals the letter under it on the Ouija board. Ink the edges.




6. Assemble the card.




7. Adhere the planchette to the Ouija board with a pop dot.
   Adhere the background paper to the card base.
   Adhere some ghosts to the background paper (so they are coming out from behind the Ouija board).
   Adhere the Ouija board with pop dots.
   Adhere some ghosts so they are on top of the Ouija board. Use pop dots to support the parts that aren’t attached to the Ouija board.

Check out my other projects on my Create & Craft blog and Happy Halloween!
Joe Morgan

One By One - My first blog post!

Hello everyone! I’m Joe Morgan and this is my first blog post as a Viva Las Vegastamps! Design Team member. I have a strange sense of humor, as you will see in some of my postings. For this project I decided to make a card using three stamps from Viva Las Vegastamps!

To start out, I stamped the crazy lady and the gnome on white cardstock with black Memento ink and colored them with Copic markers and then cut them out. I cut the window frame by hand with a razor and then inked it with a cat’s eye pad. I cut the thought bubbles with my electronic cutting machine. I used blue Distress Ink to color the piece that goes outside the window. After that, I just assembled the pieces as you see here in the finished card. The crazy lady and the large thought bubble are adhered with pop-dots for extra dimension.

Here are the item numbers for the stamps I used, and they can all be found at the Viva Las Vegastamps! Online Store.

Gnome in Mushrooms 17244
Hear No Evil Lady 4271
One by One, The Gnomes 17230

I hope you like what I have shared today, please remember to keep checking back for more ideas. Feel free to visit my blog on the Create & Craft site and say hello by clicking here!

Thanks for stopping by!
Joe

Meet our New Design Team member...

I have the pleasure of introducing a new member to our Design Team here at Viva Las Vegastamps! Cheryl Lindsay has left our team and we will miss her amazing projects and wish her all the best.
Please welcome Joe Morgan to our team - he will fit right in with the team we have - his work is very creative. Please welcome him - you will see his first project on June 13th. Please stop back by then and welcome him. But remember our team posts a new project on this blog on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays! Also Our Design team is having a Blog Hop with Blog Candy on June 29th... DON'T MISS THIS!


Here is Joe Morgan's Bio and Link to his Blog.



Joe Morgan has always been fond of crafting. His favorite holiday is
Halloween and, perhaps instinctively, his black cat is named Elphaba (after the
wicked witch in Wicked). Joe enjoys stamping, embossing, card making,
learning new techniques and some scrapbooking, along with paper crafting home décor
items – like garden lanterns with paper silhouettes and an antique finish.
After living all across the US, Joe has settled in Columbus, OH with his partner.
Joe is on the design team for Create & Craft, where he enjoys developing
new class ideas and teaching occasional classes at stores or exhibitions.

Thanks for stopping by - remember to visit our on-line store for all your stamping needs.

Terri Sproul
Team Leader