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!

Dreamer's disease

Hello everyone,

anyone else here who is as addicted to old books as I am? I love to include vintage paper to my projects or even journal into old books directly. The spread that I want to share with you today is made in one of those books.

Before working in an old book, you should make a few preparations. I always seperate a few pages to get some space for my layers so the book can be closed without getting too bulky. And I glue two or three sheets together, depending on the texture and thickness of the paper. This helps to make the surface sturdier. I also prefer to prime my pages with gesso as I'm often working with fluid mediums like inks or watercolor.

I chose the girl in the paper boat as my focal image, just because it's one of my all time favorite stamps. I created layers with gesso, texture paste and Distress Oxide Sprays. To keep that vintage look of the spread I tried not to add too much color. Some background stamping made everything come together.

To finish it off, my page just needed a quote and "you've got the dreamers disease" was the perfect one. I stamped it onto a piece of old book paper (one of the sheets that I seperated from the book), and sewed it onto a piece of cloth that I dyed with Oxide Ink spray. I always like those sewing or stitching accents in my projects. If you don't have a sewing machine you can always add them by hand.

Here you'll find the stamps I used for my project:
Banksy Child Fishing In Paper Boat (19939)
You've got the Dreamers (20354)
Postcatd - ATC size (19931)
Row of numbers (20170)

Other materials:
- Old book + additional page
- Gesso
- Texture paste
- Versafine Ink (Onyx Black)
- Archival Ink (Coffee, Garden Patina)
- Oxide Sprays (Cracked Pistachio, Wilted Violet, Walnut Stain)
- Stencil TCW554S from The Crafter's Workshop
- Sewing machine and piece of old cloth


I hope that my spread inspired you. See you soon!

Dreamers of dreams art journal page with Josefine

Hello everyone, I'm so exited to be joining the Viva Las VegaStamps! design team with my first project. For my first post, I picked some of my favorite stamps to create an art journal page.

I started by spraying some ink onto the art journal page and while the ink was wet, I added a few Infusions (water soluble powders) on top.

Next up, I stamped the Stitching Lines, Doodle Dots, and Row of Chevron all over the inked up background. To ensure they are not standing out too much, I used yellow and orange Archival Ink.

Then I added the Squiggly Star to the bottom right. Here, I used a brown Archival Ink. I wanted it to be seen, but not stand out too much.

While the page was drying a bit more, I stamped the Tarot XIX The Sun onto a separate piece of white card stock and colored it using the same colors that I used for the background.

Once the page was dry, I added a few colored paper scraps in a contrasting color. These are great as the base for the Tarot Card and a resin 3D star.

As a final touch, I added a sentiment to the top and a few white marks all across the page.

Her is also a video where you can watch the entire process.

Stamps I used:

Tarot XIX The Sun SKU 20156

Squiggly Star SKU 19822

Stitching Lines SKU 19642

Doodle Dots SKU 19827

Row of Chevrons SKU 19829

I hope you like my first project for the Viva Las VegaStamps! design team :)

Have a great weekend!

Josefine

Valley of the Blind - Art Journal spread by Cheetarah

Hi VLVS! fans, hope you all are doing great! It's Cheetarah here and I have a art journal spread to share with you made in my pocket watercolor journal. The stamps I used are listed at the end of the post. 

In my Hanemuhle pocket watercolor journal I stamped the whimsical Cyclops and Banksy line of punks with memento Tuxedo black on the pages. It didn't matter that the imprint wasn't as solid black because I am going to use watercolors over it. 

I really love the design of this cyclops, the eye is so wonderfully pronounced. Started with the face and just slowly built up layers as you do with watercolors. 

When I was satisfied with the look of the face I made a mask by stamping the image on post it paper and stuck it to the colored image before I went to do the background. 

Made sun rays by using a stencil and yellow, orange and gold watercolors. I extended the rays to the other page and darkened the 'punks' by using an indigo color mixed with a little bit of magenta to make it a little purple. 

To finish the page I stamped big and small numbers plus some dandelion seeds in orange to pull the pages together. The wrote the quote "In the valley of the blind, the One-Eyed person is King" with a Tombow fudenosuke lettering pen. 

Stamps used: 

Whimsical Cyclops 

Banksey Line of Punks 

Numbers set 

Row of Numbers 

Blowing dandelion and extra seed 

Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Art Journal: Perspective of Time by Cheetarah

Hi VLVStampers! Hope you all are having a wonderful day so far. It's Cheetarah here on the blog today and I have a little art journal spread to share with you made with lush VLVS! The focal point is a wonderful whimsical Scribble Girl designed by Tina Walker which is a new release! Check out the full plate HERE. Let me tell you how I made it and as usual, list of stamps are at the bottom of the post. 

I stared off in my pocket junk journal by adding gesso over some glued down ephemera (dictionary/book pages) and then scraping color with a used gift card until I was satisfied with the blend. I used midnight blue, fuchsia and a sea green acrylic paint for this. To add some more texture I took out my StencilGirl Stencils with some wonky geometrical shapes and lightly dabbed some paint through them. 

Next step I added more texture by stamping some yummy VLVS! texture stamps with Staz-On inks over the painted layer. The sentiment Past Present Future is also from a StencilGirl Stencil. I first used the sea green paint then traced it with a Fudeball pen. Now the base layer is done and went to work with the focal point. 

Tip if you want to use watercolors over acrylic paint layers: I bought this product a while back, watercolor ground by Daniel Smith Artists materials and really wanted to test it out as I love coloring images with watercolors. I applied a bit on the right page dried it with a heat tool to set then I stamped my focal image on it with archival ink. Then heat set it. My image was ready to be color in! Showing you some process shots of the coloring below:

The ground took the watercolors (Jane Davenport brand) very nicely and I was patient with adding the colors in layer and give it enough time to blend and dry until I was satisfied with the over all look of the the woman. Also the ground knocked down the background in brightness and to bring the pages together I stamped the previously used texture stamps over this layer. 

Stamped the word 'perspective' in the middle and splattered some rose gold paint & added a black border and called it done. 

Stamps used: 

Big Eyed Scribble Girl - Tina Walker  

Numbers set 

Row of numbers 

Row of Chevrons

Bubblewrap Texture 

Perspective 

Materials used:

Gesso

Dina Wakley paints

Daniel Smith watercolor ground

StencilGirl Stencils

Jane Davenport watercolors

Stazon & archival ink pads

Heat tool

black Distress crayon  

Hope this inspired you to take your your VLVS! and have a play with them!

Until next time! 

Have a lovely day.

Art Journal Spread by Preeti D.

Hi friends :)

Hope you are doing well.

Preeti Datta (Dutt Preety) here from the VLVS! Design Team.  

For today's post, I've created an Art Journal Spread titled Wanderlust.  

I've used some gorgeous VLVS! Rubber Stamps here. 

First, I applied heavy white gesso to the pages, to prepare them for mixed media work.

Then, stamped the background using VLVS! Stamps and Versamark sticky ink. Next, heat embossed all the stamped images with metallic embossing powder. 

 Added color to the background using Sprays & Starburst squirts. Sprayed with water to create movement.

Did additional stamping using archival ink & VLVS! Rubber Stamps.

 Next, stamped the sentiment and focal image using VLVS! rubber stamps onto white cardstock using versamark watermark ink & heat embossed them in black. Then fussy cut the images & distressed their edges. 

 Adhered a couple of die cuts behind the sentiment and focal element. 

 In the end, distressed the edges of the pages using distress inks and created white & black splatter using watered down gesso. 

VLVS! Supplies:

Row of Chevrons : SKU #19829

Rows of Numbers : SKU #20170

Row of Distressed Lines : SKU #20171

Punchinella/Sequin Waste Border : SKU #20161

Overlapping Circles by Corrie Herriman : SKU #19995

Wanderlust : SKU #19170

Beethoven : SKU #19771

Other Supplies:

Lindy's Gang Embossing Powders, Starburst Squirts & Spray

Scrapman Dies

Versamark Watermark Inkpad 

Finnabair's Heavy White Gesso, Heavy Black Gesso, Soft Matte Gel

Ranger's Archival Inkpad- Potting Soil

Tim Holtz Distress Inkpads- Vintage Photo & Black Soot

Thanks a lot for your precious time :)
Stay Blessed!
Preeti

Destination unknown

Hello everyone,

For today's inspiration post I have made an art journal with a video ! Yay ! I finally dug out my Lindy's Stamping sprays again, I hadn't used them in ages ! And I absolutely love the result !

If you'd like to see how I made this then please hop over to the VivaLasVegaStamps! YouTube channel ! 

I have used the following stamps:

19567 - Writing Background

19569 - Mesh Texture

19565 - Measuring tape section

19415 - Butterfly Specimen

19001 - Large bird Flying Left

19019 - Destination unknown

and 

Miracle tape 1/2"

Other materials :

Prima Marketing Finnabair Modeling paste & Matte Medium 

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Collage paper - botanical 

Tim Hotlz layering stencil 

Archival Inks Saffron, Tiger Lily and Jet Black 

StaZon Ink - Dove Gray

Lindy's Stampgang Star Burst Sprays - Yellow rose of Texas and Marigold Yellow Orange

Amsterdam Acrylics - Gesso 

Amsterdam Acrylics - White Titanium paint

White paint pen Molotow

I hope you enjoyed my post !