Art journal cover - Soul of a mermaid

 Hi everyone,

Recently, I was invited to a letter journal round robin - actually the first time I'm participating in something like that. Today I'm sharing my cover for this letter journal. 

If you're not familiar with this form of art journal swaps, I'll give you a short explanation: Everyone who participates creates a journal that fits into a standard envelope. The journals are sent around in a circle, the recipient creates a spread in it and sends it to the next person and so on. Once the journal returns to the owner, it is filled with lots of pretty pages by the other artists.

I created a quick blue background base with acrylic paints applied with a baby wipe. On top, I added some stenciling with the same colors, just introducing a light grey shade as a new one. I dried the paints very well and then doodled around one of the stencil patterns with a fine black pen to accent the design. Also, I added some spatters with watered down acrylic paint.

Next I added some background stamping with the dictionary page as well as the invoice/waybill stamp, both stamped with teal and only partly to create just a subtle background element.

Because of the aqua tone of the cover I thought of the mermaid stamp and chose it as a focal image for the front. I stamped the mermaids onto watercolor paper, colored them with ZIG markers, cut them out and inked the edges with a black marker. As they screamed for something to be placed onto, I combined that with the title. I die cut the words into some black cardstock, tore the edges with the help of a ruler and placed a nice shimmery paper from my scrap collection under it.

I glued the elements down and stamped the mermaid and sailor quote on the back. After making the the fold, I inked the edges (as well as the fold) with a blending tool.

 

Stamps used:
Dictionary Page (19015) 
Waybill/Invoice Background (19416)
Mermaid Trio (18187)
Soul Of A Mermaid Mouth Of A Sailor (20639)

Other material:
- Canson watercolor paper
- black cardstock
- shimmer or glitter paper
- acrylic paints (Lukas: arctic, turquoise, prussian blue, light grey || Liquidex: bright aqua green)
- Archival Ink (paradise teal, seafarer)
- Versafine Claire Ink (nocturne)
- ZIG real brush markers
- stencils (Lemon Creation: broken circle || A.B. studio: arches || Dina Wakley: fractured circles)
- alphabet dies (Tim Holtz: gift card bag with alpha)
- black fineliner


See you soon!

Circus Show - a series by guest Mercy

Greeting VLVS fans!  I’m here today to share with you these super simple and fun to make ATCs that I did.  After watching a documentary on Circuses on Netflix and seeing the trailer for a new dance flick coming out, I was all about doing some performance based ATCs.  I threw in the Mermaid as there was a famous side show that featured “a real mermaid.”  Of course that one was hideous, but I made due with the pretty stamp I had from Viva Las VegaStamps.

Supplies:

Magician Levitating Woman  SKU 18185

Winged Girl Under Umbrella SKU 19116

Mermaid  SKU 17748

Circus Acrobats SKU 17088

Nouveau Torch Lady SKU 17047
Lady Posing SKU 18615

White Cardstock cut into 2.5” X 3.5” ATC cards

Black Pigment ink (in this case I used Color Box)

Black Embossing Powder

Heat Gun

Alcohol Ink Pens [Can substitute any sort of colored pens, paints or pencils you have.]

Distress Ink

Spray Inks with glitter/shimmer

Baby Wipes

Instructions:

After cutting out my ATC cards (2.5” X 3.5”) out of my white cardstock I have hoarded away, I pulled the stamps I wanted to use and stamped one on each blank ATC card with pigment ink.  Most of these were centered.  After stamping was done, black embossing powder was used then heat set.

Once they are embossed, color with your markers of your choice. In this case, alcohol inks were used, but really any sort of pen or pencil will work with varying affects. Whatever you do, however, just keep the coloring super simple and quick. You don’t want to waste a bunch of time coloring, when you will be layering ink over and around these stamped images anyway.

Once they are colored, get out the base ink and one or two of the baby wipes. Lightly spray the distress ink on a craft mat or into the baby wipe and dab the ink around the images. Try to layer on the ink and leave white areas as you gently tap the paper surface with the colored wipe. Once you randomly add that, allow to dry before taking your glimmer sprays and apply those to your cards. What I ended up doing with these was leaving a lot of extra white surface and blending sometimes four different colors. I have on hand these Fireworks sprays and was just playing around the with color combinations.

These were super fun to do and the glimmer sprays on top really make these images pop.

Mermaids and Monthly Inspiration...

Hello Crafty Friends!!!

I hope you are all as excited as I am about another monthly inspiration.  I love this month's inspiration board (of course what's not to love about mermaids?!)

I used the inspiration and I also added a little Valentine twist...

STAMPS USED:
XO
You are Beautiful
Bettie Mermaid
Miracle tape (not stamp but vlvs)

OTHER PRODUCTS:
White cardstock base
Black cardstock
Pink cardstock
Distress ink- worn lipstick, festive berries
Memento ink- tuxedo black
Markers/Pens-zig clean color, blick alcohol-based markers, gelly roller pens, and wink of Stella
Glitter (various pinks)
Foam tape (I created my own with fun foam)
Distress Collage medium (as a wet glue for my mermaid... cant have glitter getting stuck)

I love shaker cards, but rarely ever make them.  I am super excited with how this one came out.  This one is going to be a Valentine card for someone special (Don't want to spoil the surprise by saying whom for).

I started with a white A2 card base, a black matte, and a pink card stock base. The top layer of the card was created with more black card stock, and some clear acetate from some packaging I had lying around.

On my pink card stock i started by stamping the XO stamp in "worn lipstick" and "festive berries" distress ink.  I also stamped "you are beautiful" in black memento ink on the pink card base.

On a separate piece of card stock I stamped my Bettie mermaid in black memento ink.  I colored my image with various markers (zig clean color, blick alcohol-based markers, gelli roller pens, and wink of Stella).

(before top shaker layer added)


(Close up of glitter goodness inside the card!)



(different angle so you can see all that glitter in the shaker!!!)

I hope you enjoy this card as much as I do. :)
Don't forget to join in the challenge!!
(There are prizes to be won!)

Under the SEA >>> Monthly Challenge

The 1st always brings loads of monthly challenges in the industry -- we can't be left out ;) This month we're looking for any & all projects related to.. THE SEA.

Dig deep for things with sand, coral, water, the sea, mermaids, fish & other underwater creatures! The wonderful thing about the sea is that it is full of ALL colors! You can draw inspiration from the board with teals, tans, black & white, gray, and pops of pink and green.. OR whichever color combo makes you happiest :)

Meet us back here shortly for inspiration & our last challenge's winner!

Don't forget the rules:

-Create a new project based on our inspiration board (it has to be posted this month, but you can certainly link up to other challenges as well!)

-Use at least one (but certainly more if you want) Viva Las VegaStamps! rubber stamps

(We are now allowing competitors stamps to be on your work, but please make VLVS! the focus of the project, thank you.)

-Post it to your blog with a link back to us

-Upload to our linky using your direct blog post link (You may also upload via facebook, flickr or other gallery)

You could win a Project Spotlight post on our blog + some new rubber of course.

And visit us back here for inspiration!

An InLinkz Link-up

August Challenge!

It's time for a NEW Challenge!

Can you believe this challenge? um. YUM?! there is SO much goodness happening here.. we're featuring Michele Kosciolek's new TASSEL stamps! Plus anything sea or ocean related like shells, starfish, coral, sand, water and more. Don't forget to include some scenery and a lovely mermaid or two! Color choices are totally up to you, we've used pinks, purples, oranges, a dab of yellow, beautiful blues and teals & a delicious warm gray. TONS to choose from!

Don't forget the rules:

-Create a new project based on our inspiration board (it has to be posted this month, but you can certainly link up to other challenges as well!)

-Use at least one (but certainly more if you want) Viva Las VegaStamps! rubber stamps

(We are now allowing competitors stamps to be on your work, but please make VLVS! the focus of the project, thank you.)

-Post it to your blog with a link back to us

-Upload to our linky using your direct blog post link (You may also upload via facebook, flickr or other gallery)

You could win a Project Spotlight post on our blog + some new rubber of course.

And visit us back here for inspiration!

An InLinkz Link-up

Mermaid Dreamer Mail Art

Hello Everyone!!!

It's me Tera, here with a surprise guest post...

(I'm taking a little time off from my design teams for a bit to re-spark my creativity)

Once again, I want to share some super fun Mail Art envelope using some of the new releases.  For this, I was inspired by this months challenge "Summer"

(Warning Photo Heavy)

Stamps Used:
Plate 1495
(you know you are going to want them all of you are anything like me!)
Row of Scribble Circles
Typeset Scallop
Row of Numbers
Punchinella/Sequin Waste
The Moon
Fancy Mermaid
She was a Dreamer

Start by stamping out your mermaid on the envelope (A2) and on scrap paper for your mask.

Next, Using Momento ink "London Fog" I stamped the moon over the masked mermaid.

Using Memento Black ink I added my base for the mermaid to rest on.

To build the background I stamped the x's as my stars, and inked with Distress Oxide ink "Broken China"

Now to add some contrast, I sponged on 2 of the green inks from my kaleidacolor inks.

Time for the reveal... I love seeing things come together after the mask is removed. 

I also forgot to take a picture before I stamped my 2 pieces in Distress ink "Blueprint sketch" to help frame everything.  I also added a but more color around the edges. 

I also added the numbers along the right side in black Momento ink.

Here you can see where I have started the base colors on my mermaid...

I also stamped my sentiment "she was a dreamer" and outlined it with white gel pen to help it pop off of the page. 

(The left if the finished mermaid. You can see some of the added glitter details from the Wink of Stella pen.  On the right side you can see more of the color building.)

Well, there you have it! I love how this envelope came together. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do!!

Under the sea with Viva Las VegaStamps!

I had alot of fun making this trio of ATC's using an "under the sea" theme.  Anyone who knows me knows my love of mermaids so of course I had to make a couple using my favorite sea creature, the gorgeous mermaid! Here is the first ATC using the fabulous mermaid stamp as well as the waybill invoice, the jagged chain link fence and row of stars.

 If you look closely you will see that I used black embossing powder for the jagged chain link fence and gold embossing powder for the row of stars.  I also glued some brightly colored beads onto the card as well.

Here is my next ATC and this was my first time using the fun scuba lady

 and if you look closely here you can see that I also used the elegant flower stamp along with some red and green embossing powder.  I wanted to make it look like there were ocean plants so this stamp was perfect for that! I also used some clear acrylic buttons to look like oxygen bubbles.

Here is my last ATC using the mermaid lying down

I hope you enjoyed the journey to the bottom of the sea and until next time,

Glenda

Shell Shaped Card Featuring a Glitter on Acetate Mermaid!

Glitter! Most every crafter I know likes to add a little bling to their projects once in a while, and glitter is an easy way to do it. This little fact may surprise you; glitter was invented by an American cattle farmer named Ruschman during the 1930s! Although some sources say he invented the product after World War II. His company, Meadowbrook Inventions, is still the world’s largest supplier of glitter.

Did you know that Sakura 3D Crystal Lacquer is a fantastic adhesive? In my experience, it will hold just about any two materials together, including glitter and acetate. For this card, I started by stampingMermaid With Drink 2¼ x 2½ (#14565 from Viva Las Vegastamps!) on a piece of acetate with StazOn ink by Tsukineko. Be careful to stamp straight up and down when stamping on acetate. It’s slippery and it’s easy to get a blurry impression. Once it’s dried, fussy cut out the mermaid.

Work on the backside (the dull side) of the acetate and apply a thin layer of 3D Crystal Lacquer Clear to the image in sections, based on color. The fine applicator tip makes it easy to get in to the smallest of areas. Try to stay right on the lines of the stamped image, but don’t worry if you go over a little. Work one color at a time; apply the lacquer for that area, sprinkle with glitter, flip and quickly tap off the excess. If necessary, nudge the glitter back inside the stamped lines. When you’re finished with one color, move on to the next, repeating the process. Be sure to start with the darkest colors and work your way to the lightest colors. When you’re done, let the piece dry overnight.

Cut a card base in the shape of a clam shell to make a shaped card. Mine is about 5” wide and 5” tall so it will fit in a square envelope.

I cut a liner for the card using the same shell shape (inset about ¼”) in lavender (to match my Mermaid’s hair!). Use 3D Crystal Lacquer to apply some fine lines of adhesive and sprinkle with sand. Tap off the excess sand and let it dry. A pink pearl finished it off. Adhere this piece to the inside of your card.

For the front, I created marbled paper using shaving cream and dye ink refills in shades of blue and green. You can read how to do this on eHow.com. The technique is lots of fun and the results are absolutely amazing! The shaving cream can even give your paper a nice scent!

Cut the marbled paper the same size/shape as you cut the liner and embellish it. To create an ocean floor, coral and seaweed, I applied sand, micro beads, assorted beads and vintage glitter using 3D Crystal Lacquer as an adhesive. A pearl starfish brad and a shell brad from the Eyelet Outlet completed the look. I loved all the different textures I got using so many different materials. Adhere this to the front of the card. And then use pop-dots to adhere the Mermaid to the card.

The sentiment “I used to have an hourglass figure…but the sand shifted” (#510 from Viva Las Vegastamps!) seemed to fit this card perfectly. I stamped it on a scrap of the marbled paper using brown dye ink, cut it out in the shape of a speech bubble and attached it to the card front with pop-dots.

I hope you’ll try adding some sparkle to your projects using 3D Crystal Lacquer and glitter on acetate. The results can be dazzling!

For more project ideas, visit my blog on the Create & Craft website. Happy crafting!

Joe Rotella