Greeting cards - Why fit in?

 Hello everyone,

I wouldn't say that I'm making cards often, but from time to time you just need a few greeting cards, right? So today is actually the first time I'm sharing a card design on the blog. 

My cards are standard A2 sized cards (4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inch). I die cutted some pieces of watercolor paper to go on top of them.

The focal point I chose is the elephant on bike stamp which is quite large. It is also available in a smaller size that would perfectly fit onto an ATC. I'll link you both of them below, just in case you like the image as much as I do. ;-)
I stamped it on both my cards and colored it with some ZIG watercolor markers which was a really enjoyable process. 

Next I stamped the image on some masking paper, cut that out and masked my colored and dried images. Now I added some background stamping with circles on the one card and squares on the other. I used Oxide ink (speckled egg) for this.

I also stamped the quote on some watercolor paper, trimmed it and inked the edges. But I didn't like it a lot, it was just looking lost. So I cut two rectangles that were a little larger than my quote and inked it up with some of the same Oxide ink I used for my background stamping.

I glued everything together and voilà!

Stamps used:
Elephant On Bike (2027)
not used, just a smaller version of the elephant: Teeny Tiny On Bike (9636)
Overlapping Squares by Corrie Herriman (19996)
Overlapping Circles by Corrie Herriman (19995)
Why Fit In (20082)


Other material:
- card bases (regular 300 gsm cardstock cut and folded)
- Canson watercolor paper 300 gsm
- MFT die (Stitched mod rectangle stax)
- masking paper
- Versaclair ink (nocturne)
- Distress oxide ink (speckled Egg)
- ZIG real brush watercolor pens

Hope you enjoyed my cards. See you soon!

 

May Winner

Thank you so much for all the awesome stamped entries for the May challenge! It's so exciting to see how each person interprets the mood board.

This month's winner is from the blog Swamp Gas Drivel:

So fun and bright using Look Ma No Hands, Whimsical Elephant, and Man With Pointed Nose.

Please grab the following button dear winner!

And email me @ deedee430@gmail.com with your shipping address to collect a grab bag of rubber.

There were so many great entries you really ought to see them. Click Here to see them all, and a few are highlighted below: 

By Alie using Some People Feel, Bird in Hat

by Gerda using Steampunk Elephant

by Georgia Heald using Whimsical Elephant and Jagged Chain Link Fence

Don't forget to enter this month's challenge!

Grungy elephant art

Warning! This project is grungy.  Perfection need not apply.  It took about 45 minutes of actual crafting time (not counting letting ink sprays dry overnight) and most of that was taken up drawing the patterns. All that beautiful color took about 10 minutes!

Viva Las VegaStamps! used: Elephant And Mountain 2 x 4 1/4 and Elephant On Bike 2 3/4 x 5 

Dylusions Creative Blank Journal

Dylusions Ink Sprays-Lemon Zest, Pure Sunshine, Squeezed Orange, Melted Chocolate

 CraftersWorkshop 6x6 Stencils- Mini Cubist and Mini Harlequin

StazOn Inkpad-Jet black

Pentel White Gel pen

Pilot FriXion Color-Pencil-Like Gel Pen-Sky Blue, Rose Pink, Gray

Micron Pigma Pen .05-Black, Sepia

Roll of Paper Towels

Water Mister

Heat gun (optional)

Wet Coffee Cup (optional)

The Dylusions journal has a mix of white and manila cardstock pages and I wanted to test both so I did a two-page spread where the left side was the white paper and the right was the manila (the results were about the same on both sides).

The ink sprays:

1. I sprayed both pages with the ink, using these techniques: 

• inks were sprayed lightest to darkest 
• the distance from which I sprayed was varied
• the length of time of time I sprayed was varied--I did short, barely there bursts of color and long saturated close ups of color.

--all common sense techniques, but you do get different effects by doing them.

2. The paper towel (the whole roll) was swiped across the page to soak up excess. I keep the paper towels to use in other projects because they are so pretty.

3. I let it dry overnight:. The pages were thoroughly drenched, so I wanted to make sure they were completely dry.

The Stencils:

4. I laid my stencils down randomly on the page and used one or more of these techniques each time:

• Misted with water, rolled paper towels over stencil to pick up color.
• Sprayed through stencil with ink spray; flipped stencil over and rubbed off color somewhere else on page

I didn't worry about using the entire stencil.  It's cooler if you just get bits of them.

I happened to be drinking coffee and the bottom of my cup had a little condensation on it--I stamped it on the page to get a few coffee ring shapes!

5. I let the pages dry for a few hours, but I could have used a heat gun.

I'd seen the outline of the elephant, and that determined what I wanted to stamp and draw.

The Pens and stamps:

6. I drew the elephant's eye and colored it with the Microns.  This is the only place where I used the sepia Micron.

7. I outlined the elephant's shape.

8. I stamped the Elephant images-- the interior cover of the sketchbook flexed when I stamped the Elephant & Mountain, and the elephant's head was lost!  I just scribbled a tree, so now the image is an elephant standing behind a tree and mountain! It don't matter when you're having fun!

9. I added zentangle-ispired patterns in some places and just picked out shapes that the ink and water had made in others.  My choices throughout were driven by the shapes of the color.
11. Color-Pencil-Like Gel pens were used to color the stamped images, and to add a bit of pink and gray here and there around the page where I thought an area needed to be brightened or dulled down.
12. The white gel pen was used to add highlights and make the stamped images pop.

I borrowed heavily from Dyan Reavely's ink spray and stenciling techniques for this project.  You can find many of her video tutorials online.

Check out the VLVS! Store for all your stamping needs and the  VLVS! Blog for new projects and news every day. Follow VLVS! as the VLVS! Forum - VLVS! FB - VLVS! Pinterest - VLVS! Twitter.

Be Happy!

Good morning everyone!

DeeDee here today sharing with you a tag I made at last week's Saturday Craft Fair. 

Saturday Craft Fair is a time on each Saturday where crafty folks gather and stream live to do projects with you! I'll be there every last Saturday of the month from 11 am to 12 pm. And I'll ALWAYS be using VLVS!  :) Our very own Susan streams every week and lots of other great crafters, too!

Here is the tag I made:

I used the following stamps:
Flying Bird Trio 4.25x1 - $4.50

Elephant on bike 2.75x5 - $13.00

Party Hat 1.25x1.5 - 6.25

The paper is by Teresa Collins, The ribbon May Arts, the brad Basic Grey. The washi tape is from Gauche Alchemy, the mist is Tattered Angels, the layered chipboard is UmWowStudio. I used a black pen to draw the lines on the outside, a dymo label maker for the Be Happy and distress makers to color the hat. All stamps are stamped in black archival ink.

You can watch a full video here (beware.. it's a recorded session almost an hour long with converstaion) here. 

(give it time to load :) )

Journey to a far away land

Morning everyone!! DeeDee here for my bi weekly contribution.. I've taken a lot of the time over the last six months to show you (or what I think is showing you) various uses for stamping with rubber... well today I've sort of done a farewell to previous team as the VLVS! DT's 1st term is ending and the 2nd term will be starting soon with almost all new contributors! I straight forwardly stamped my image in a distress ink and embossed with the Ultra High Gloss embossing powder by VLVS!

So.. Farewell to the previous team... may your journeys take you beyond your wildest dreams!

Here is my card:

I used this stamp HERE and here is a close up of it:

It's 2" x 4.25" and is $10.50

Other products used: distress stain in walnut and tattered rose, a kraft base, MME paper, grungeboard, a label maker, rayon seam binding and diamond glaze.

See you all in a couple of weeks!! Goodbye once again to our leaving team and HELLO to the new group!!! -DeeDee