Boys just want to have fun!

Hello everyone,

I have a set of Artist Trading Cards to share with you. My inital plan was to create an art journal page, but when I finished the background I found that it was not really looking good for me. But I didn't want to throw it away, so I just cut it to pieces and it worked well then.

These ATCs were quite simple to make. I started building my background on a larger sheet of paper with the two bull's eye stamps and three different colored embossing powders. I heat embossed one color after the other. Then I added a layer of Distress Oxide sprays and also some Dylusions spray. You can't see much of the Oxides at the end, but it left a nice visual texture. This was the point where I decided to cut it apart. The pieces are slightly smaller than ATC size, just because I like to add some backing to them.

I picked some paper dolls as focal images, one for each ATC, and then created a little cluster for each of them. I stamped the row on numbers on tome old book paper and attached the strips and some thread to the cards with some staples. Next, I added a cut out Writing Chevron to each of the card.

The three quotes that I chose are stamped on the same paper that I used for the back. This helps to make everything appear more consistent.

So, here are some more photos:

Stamps used:
Bulls Eye Target Solid (19196)
Bulls Eye Target Open (19193)
Rows of Numbers (20170)
Writing Chevron (19824)
I Found This Humerus (19767)
Boys Just Want (19766)
Wake Me Up When I'm Famous (19765)

Other material:
- Canson watercolor paper
- blue cardstock
- Lindy's Gang Embossing Powders (midnight teal, sassy sapphire, morning glory azure)
- Distress Oxide sprays (black soot, dried marigold, antique linen)
- Dylusions ink spray (after midnight)
- old book paper
- thread
- stapler
- Tim Holtz paper dolls


Keep on stamping!

Fortune favors the bold

Hello everyone,

I have a cool art journal page to share along with a little tutorial.

I created my spread in an old book - the same one that I used for my last project here on the blog. I prepped it by glueing a few pages together but didn't used gesso this time. Instead I chose three Distress Oxide Sprays and sprayed them over the whole spread directly. I dried between each color to avoid them fading into each other. 

Then I added some stamping. In the first layer I stamped the Twilight Zone Spiral with water instead of ink. It reacts with the sprays underneath, but not too much so you get a very subtle effect here. I also used the same stamp with Oxide Ink in Iced Spruce, so it matches with one of the colors from my background. And as I just felt like my page needed a little more contrasting element, I added the Waybill Invoice Background stamp with black ink.

To create my little scene, I stamped and watercolored the girl and the mouse. Then did a little fussy cutting and colored the edges with a black marker to make them blend better into the background.

I wanted some kind of table for the adorable mouse to run over and save its cheese, so I took a piece of design paper with that laths pattern, trimmed it to size (in fact I ripped it over the edge of a ruler to make the edge a little grungy) and blended some Oxide Inks over the edges. 

When I started to put everything together I found that my background was missing something, so I added a few stamped Chevrons and some white splatters and that helped a lot. 

I glued the girl and the "table" directly to the page and used foam tape behind the mouse. To make everything look a little more connected, I added a little shadow under my two protagonists.
For my quote I stamped both text stamps on the same design paper that I used earlier and also glued them in place. Behind the #FOODIE snippet I added some black thread as it was kinda floating in the middle of nowhere.

These are the stamps I used:
#Foodie (20010)
Surprise Girl (5544)
Waybill / invoice background (19416)
Writing Chevron (19824)
Twilight Zone Swirl (20506)
Fortune favors the bold (19949)
Mouse running with cheese (12653)

Other materials:
- Old book (or other journal) 
- Versafine Clair Ink (Nocturne)
- Distress Oxide Spray (Dried Marigold, Faded Jeans, Iced Spruce)
- Distress Oxide Inks (Iced Spruce, Ground Espresso, Black Soot)
- Watercolor
- White acrylic paint
- Design Paper with wood pattern
- Canson Watercolor Paper
- Black thread


That's it for my project. See you soon!

Bright ideas

Hello crafty friends!

I hope you are all doing well. Today I want to share and inky tag...
(this is one of the larger 3 x 6.25 in manila tags)

Stamps Used:

scribble circle

writing chevron

Large light bulb

row of numbers

Other Products: 

Distress oxide ink- Fossilized Amber, Salty Ocean

manila tag (6.25 x 3)

Archival ink- Jet black

white Gelly roll pen

black ink pen

glass craft mat

I started by adding blue (salty ocean distress oxide) and yellow (fossilized amber distress oxide) ink on my glass work mat, then blotting it up with my tag. 

(you can set this aside to dry or use a heat tool)

I originally planned to go with an Alice in wonder land theme

(but like many bright ideas, my brain changed its mind and said no... lets try something else. )

(I'm sharing this so you can see we all have these moments where things just don't come together like we plan)

So you can see I next stamped my scribble circle and my /// in black archival ink. 

When my brain changed gears, I chose to add more blue edging around my tag with a blending tool. Next I added more details my stamping the chevron and adding details with a white Gelly roll pen. 

Ok, to finish my piece off I used a separate piece of card stock and stamped my light bulb. 

(I used distress ink to color the card stock before stamping on it)

I used pop dots to adhere my light and to give it depth. 

I hope you have all enjoyed this fun "bright ideas" tag! 

Flower Garden Journal Page by Fiona

Hello my creative VLVS! peeps. Fiona here with you today to share an art journal page i have made using the fabo Viva Las Vegastamps!!!

My background is all gel printed. I printed directly into my art journal. A little bit challenging but definitely worth the effort!

 I stamped once it was dry with basic black ink so the images would stand out against the busy gel printed background.

 I just love the "Doodle Flower" stamp and so I emulated it by painting in some extra flowers to make a very colourful garden on my page.

Viva Las Vegastamps! used include:

Doodle Flower

Doodle Frame

Writing Chevron

Lots of colour in this one .... A feast for your eyes. Thanks for popping by. I'll see you all again very soon xx

Find your tribe, love them hard! - by Cheetarah

Hi VLVS! friends! It's Cheetarah here and I've made this fun and Funky note card to share with you. I've used some delish neon inks (Fiona made me catch that bug - LOL!) and some fun VLVS! mixed media stamps. A full list is down below.


How I made this: I took a piece of cardboard, heavy gel medium and scraped it through a stencil (The crafter's workshop obelong) then covered it with a coat of black gesso. Then got an ink palette and poured in a couple of drops of neon ink (from J. Herbin calligraphy neon set) and used my fingers to add the color onto the card, creating the color hue you see on it.

This is how it looked when dried.  When it was drying, I went to work with the focal image, colors and cut that out as well as the arrows and the text. I used some washi tape to ground the "tribe" and added some texture by scribbling in the cut out pieces and stamping in the background.




It was really fun making this card as I got to work with colors I usually do not work with (neons) and I got more use of my calligraphy inks this way as well.

Stamps used:
Find your tribe by Cat Kerr 
Whimsical People
Row of chevrons
Stitching
Writing Chevron

Others:
Heavy Gel Medium
Black Gesso
TCW obelong stencil
J. Herbin neon calligraphy inks
Stazon ink pads
uniball signo blue pen
washi tape

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Altered Folder

Hello all you awesome stampers out there. Shanna here today with an altered folder. I have some tracking sheets (water, meals, and habit tracker) I want to keep in one spot and not all over my office. So I recycled an old office folder to hold them.

So first off I covered it with gesso. 

Then I used some acrylic paint with a brayer and spread it across the folder. 

While the folder dried I used a mother color on some book paper then stamped with black in The Clockface stamp and cut it out. 

Next I stamped the Writing Chevron stamp with some acrylic paint as well. 

I used matte medium to adhere the clock face to the folder and gave a shadow outline to it with a  black gelato. 

I stamped out the gunny numbers on white paper with black in and then cut them out. 

I stamped more on the folder using these stamps and acrylic paint and then let it all dry. 

So what do you think. A fun way to add some color to your office storage? I love this folder and think I may have a couple more too make. I think I even may add some stitching to this one. 

Stamps Used:

19468 - Clockface

19824 - Writing Chevron

19827 - Doodle Dots

19193 - Bulls Eye Target Open

19452 - Grunge 1 

19459 - Grunge 8

19460 - Grunge 9

19457 - Grunge 6

Other Items:

Staz On Jet Black

Prima Impasto Acrylic Paints 

Matte Gel Medium

Black Gelato

Brayer

Thank you so much for stopping by today!

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Cutie Pie - by Fiona Paltridge

Hello VLVS! peeps, Fiona here with you today.

Now don't fall over but ...... I made a layout! YES! I know ... it's been a while.

I have been playing around with my new HUGE 12x12 Gel Plate making some background papers and this one appeared! I loved it so much I had to make a layout with it almost straight away.

 I layered the chevron stamp as a feature for the layout. I needed something to focus the eye on because the background was so busy.

Mind you, it probably didn't help that I added to it with my favourite writing circle stamp in gold ink. But it looks awesome ..... well I think it does.

 I also had a blast adding the Fleur de Lis stamp as part of the background. I've had this one for a while now but haven't been sure what to use it on. This was the perfect project!

Viva Las Vegastamps:

Fleur De Lis

Writing Circles Background

Writing Chevron