Exhaustipated! Art Journal page by Cheetarah

Hi VLVS! friends! It's Cheetarah here to share a creation with you today. It's almost december and all the year end holidays are coming up and for me it's always such a tough month. The business of the festivities, hustle and bustle to buy presents (buyer's stress) does not mix well with my Seasonal Affective Disorder, so I just feel sooo tired just thinking about all these busy days ahead, it sometimes just brings me down.

Anyhow, I didn't had a word for this feeling until the brilliant people at VLVS! came up with this awesome word stamp "Exhaustipated: too tired to give a shit." and OH MY what a relief it was to create this art journal page about what I am feeling! So cathartic and meditative! Let me share how I made it.


I started off with a failed index card, painted some gesso over it and added modeling paste though a circular script stamp from the crafter's workshop.


Then applied some color from Liquitex basics in magenta, yellow and mint with a cosmetic sponge, making sure I had a nice blend of the various colors coming through.


Highlighted the texture by lightly dry-brushing some liquitex golden acrylic over it.


Added more texture with these lush VLVS! mixed media stamps and Staz-On inks.


To finish it off I splattered liquitex INKS, wrote with a black posca pen in between the circle script, added a strip of gelli printed paper to ground the lady and sentiment on. Lastly created some shadows and border with a higgins black marker and matting it before I adhered it to my pocket journal.

Stamps used:
Exhaustipated 
Cross Mark background
Rows of numbers
Fed up Vintage Lady
Row of scribble circles

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

January Challenge Inspiration by DeeDee

Hiiii friends! DeeDee Catron here today to share some inspiration for the new monthly challenge! I'm also really excited to show you our first Time 2 Stamp video for 2017.. the design team is working hard on bringing more video tutorials for you to kick back and watch :) So subscribe to our YouTube channel to stay up to date!

We are also introducing a new design team tomorrow... so be back here for that, too!

Now.. this months challenge is as:

Fun right? And my take:

Here's the video followed by closeup shots and supplies:

VLVS! Used:
Deathhead Moth
Find Your Tribe
Waybill/Invoice Background

Others:
UmWowStudio Poppy Pod Skellie
Sizzix / Tim Holtz : #8 Tag Die
Canson Watercolor Paper
Liquited Gesso
Golden Gel Medium
Ranger Ink / Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Vintage Photo & Ground Espresso
Ranger Ink / Tim Holtz Archival Ink in Black Soot
DMC Floss
water, needle, scrap cardstock, paper piercer, heat gun, palette knife, canvas strings, paint brush

It's 5 o'Clock Somewhere... With a TWIST!

Welcome to Viva Las Vegastamps! Susan here with a tutorial perfect for celebrating happy hour. It's been quite a week and I can certainly use one of these after tax day.

For my creation today, I'm using just one image - "Martoony #9179". By stamping on deli paper, I'm going to seamlessly layer this onto another monoprint on deli paper to get a painterly feel without all the fussy cutting. I stamped the image onto deli paper using black StazOn ink.

While that is drying, I quickly paint a sheet of white cardstock with DecoArt® Americana ® Neons Thermal Green acrylic paint using a recycled gift card to spread the paint over the sheet. WHOA that is bright! I will use this as my base layer.

I place my stamped image over my monoprint and plan placement. I want to add a little color to my martini before tacking down.

   

Using a small paintbrush, I fill in the liquid with some of the neon green diluted with a bit of water; and tint the glass with diluted Mermaid Lagoon Distress Paint. 

   

I tear out my image from the larger section of deli paper and now I'm ready to assemble. Using a matte gel medium, I spread a layer onto the base green painted cardstock and press my monoprint into it. I use my makeshift scraper to smooth down and add a layer of gel medium to the top. 

I repeat the process with the martini glass. I used a small paintbrush to apply gel medium to the back of my image, pressed it down, then used the scraper to flatten down. I love the seamless look and my three layers are now one. Now I'm ready to do my favorite part... hand color!

   

I used my Sakura of America Gelly Roll® Stardust® Pens to add color to the glass and lime twist - this makes them pop! Using the Versamarker {this is a pen filled with Versamark ink} I strategically placed the clear fluid to apply a small amount of Violet Pearl WOW Embossing Powder to give that liquidy shimmer.

"Time for Happy Hour with Van Gogh"

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From Viva Las VegaStamps:

"Martoony #9179"

StazOn Jet Black Ink

Other Supplies: Deli paper; monoprinted deli paper using Liquitex Soft Body Acrylic paints {Cadmium Orange Hue and Cerulean Blue} on a Gelli Arts® Gel Printing Plate; white cardstock; DecoArt® Americana ® Neons Thermal Green acrylic paint; Mermaid Lagoon Ranger Distress Paint; Versamarker; Violet Pearl WOW Embossing Powder; Sakura of America Gelly Roll® Stardust® Pens; paintbrush; recycled gift card; and Liquitex Matte Gel Medium.

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Thanks so much for dropping by! It's a brand new month - check out the April inspiration board... just makes you want to get inky. Join us and play along with the April inspiration challenge {CLICK HERE for details}. Just make a creation using the inspiration above and your stash of VLVS! stamps... you could win more RUBBER!

Have you seen the four new plates of stamps that are on pre-sale??? CLICK HERE to feast your eyes! Take some time to browse around the blog here and the amazing creations from the entire VLVS! Team... 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. Hope you have a fabulous day!!  Sb