Viva Las VegaStamps!

Monday, July 23, 2012

Meet the beautiful "Face in Fir"

My very favorite stamp...and new to the Vivalasvegastamp! collection. I had to have

her the minute she came out...to me she is beautiful beyond words.

I stamped her on Vivalasvegastamp's! new paper: Kromcote. It has both a glossy

side and a matt side with both side taking ink really well. It is carried in 3 sizes and is very resonable($1.00-$3.00 per package of 10.) She was stamped with Tuxedo black

Momento ink, also from VLVS.

To show off this beautiful stamp I used a Tim Holtz

configuration box. I dry brushed this box with

white acrylic paint to give it a Shabby Chic look.

"Face in Fir" item number 17963

From here I colored her with copic pens. On the glossy side (it needs to dry for a

longer time than usual), but will dry completely. (funny factoid: they make

a squeeky sound when using them on glossy paper)

I used copic G14 for the fir needles

BG18 for her eyes and for her eye shadow and

E04 for her lips.

This image was stamped with a very Wet ink pad

to gave this a more dramatic image!

The baby photo came up on my desk Calendar

and I knew they were meant for each other.

I then stamped few more Lady in Fir stamps on to a

piece of Kromecote paper, In order to cut out branches

with very fine point scissors,

to put over the original to give it dimension

using glue dots.

Pine Branch item number 3325

I stamped extra Pine branches to put in my shadow box.

Christmas card from the Festive Friday Christmas card blog hop.

Attention Carly May, contact me for some good news!

Loving my Viva Las Vegas-CHRISTMAStamps! in July!!!

Happy Monday and it's Christmas in July Viva Las Vegastamps!!! Susan here to share a project using Viva Las Vegastamps! and a technique using distress inks on Kromecote glossy cardstock. If you have been following what I've been up to on my blog, I have been making Christmas cards ALL YEAR and I was so excited to receive this stamp!

For the feature I am using my new favorite wood mounted Viva Las Vegastamps! Reindeer on Ball Fir #8884. It is GORGEOUS!!!

For the background I am using Face in Fir #17963 stamp.

Today I am going to use these two stamps and a watercolor spritz technique using Ranger Distress Inks stamped onto Kromecote glossy cardstock. First thing I've done is make a mask of my reindeer stamp by stamping onto a removable sticky back label paper and cut out desired shape.

**A NOTE** Be careful when handling Kromecoat. Your fingerprints will act as a resist to ink on this glossy surface.

I stamped deer image onto a piece of Kromecote using stone grey Staz-On ink then applied the mask over part of image I want to protect from background overstamping.

I applied Evergreen Bough, Mowed Lawn and Pine Needles

Distress Inks directly to Face in Fir #17963 stamp.

I blotted the ink away from the eyes and lips with a paper towel - I didn't want this section to show up when stamped. Then I spritzed stamp with even mist of water to blend colors. When stamped, this will give a watercolor effect.

I applied water spritzed stamp and blotted away excess liquid.

After watercolor spritz stamp technique has completely

dried, I gently remove the mask.

Using ink blending tool, I blended out the center of the image using the same green distress inks applied to stamp. This is a real quick and easy technique and the result is amazing!

I finished up the image by adding some gold touches using my Ranger Distress Markers applied using a water brush. I also added a little bling with my gelled hologram pen. I trimmed the image and double matted with a navy blue and teal cardstock - this made the blended greens "POP".

Presenting "Festive Holiday Deer" Card

Thanks so much for dropping by today! Pop on over to the Viva Las Vegastamps! store - loads of new stamps have just been added - Halloween, Christmas and many more! If you would like to see more of my creations please visit my blog, sbartist : painting in the dark HERE. I'll be back with another stamping adventure on August 6th. Hope you have an inky day! Sb

Friday, July 20, 2012

Sea salt!

Today I played with some Kromecote cardstock. Kromecote is really fun to play with. It's clay-based cardstock. It make the ink with you use really pop! Its glossy one one side and matte on another. And it stamps great!

Today I'm going to show you a background I first learned many many years ago, When I took a Suze Weinburg class 12 years ago.The salt background technique. Know i know a lot of you already know about this technique. But I wanted to try it with the Kromecote.

I used 2 different types of dye ink pads (a rainbow pad by Kolidacolor (Bouquet) and a Distress ink pad (black soot) I will be playing with my summer distress ink pads soon! I also used 2 different types of salt. A rock salt and a salt used for pretzels. You can also use kosher salt and table salt.

I first took a piece of the kromecote and cut it to a 2 1/2 strip. Next I used my brayer and rolled some Black Soot Distress ink on it. I took a small water bottle and sprayed some water on it. I already got a cool effect with that from the distress ink. But I wanted to see what else it did with the salt. I sprinkled some rock salt on top of that. and let it sit while I was working on the other piece.

I then took one of the pieces of the Kromecote and brayed some of the Bouquet Kalidacolor on it. Sprayed some water on that and sprinkled some of the pretzel salt on it and let that sit.

Now you let it dry. But don't let it sit too long. It is salt after all, and it will eat at your paper.just enough til you see the color on the salt. then you shake off access.

Now i have backgrounds, now what to do with them. Here is what I did with the Black soot one after I cut it to a 3 1/2 size for an atc

When I was all dried I stamped the Water drop background stamp with clear ink pad and embossed with Ultra High Gloss embossing powder. I then stamped the rabbit in hat on white cardstock with a back vivid ink pad, I colored the bow tie and hearts with a red vivid marker. and the stars with yellow bic marker. I stamped the Do you Believe in Magic stamp on the same white cardstock and same ink pad. (I see i forgot to color a star LOL) I did fussy cut the sentiment. I attached the words with Miracle tape

This card was rather quick once I picked the stamp I wanted to use. I stamped the Large striped butterfly on the kromekote with a purple vivid ink pad. I found a paper that somewhat goes with the colors. I chose the paper from the Breath collection by Prima. I cut it down to size so it leaves a small border around the kraft cardstock card base. I distressed the edges of the paper with the Tim Holtz distress tool. I trimmed down the butterfly a bit and distressed the edges. I edge all the edges with the same purple Vivid ink pad. I attached everything with Miracle tape.

Items used:

Kromekote cardstock

Miracle tape

Ultra high gloss embossing powder

dye ink pads-rainbow pads or solid colors

salt-rock, table salt, kosher, etc

Purple vivid ink pad

Tim Holtz Distress tool

1 sheet of Prima Breath paper

Kraft card stock card base

Stamps Used:

Water drop background

Rabbit in hat

Do you believe in magic

Large Butterfly striped

Introducing Guest Designer.. GABI!!

Each month we'll have a new feature here on the blog.. A GUEST DESIGNER!! Each GDer will have two designated days per month to share projects that they've created using our stamps.

Please help me warmly welcome our first guest designer.. Gabi.

Gabi's Blog

Here is what Gabi had to say about herself:
"I am 46 years old, married with a friendly, loveable husband and my grown daughter lives in Berlin. I live in the west of Germany on the Dutch border. Since my childhood I often had tinkered, painted, sewed and knitted. Since 2007 I work with rubber stamps. I saw some stamped works on the Internet and then I was so amazed and thrilled that I necessarily wanted to make this art form. This has become an addiction!
In various forums we share our experiences and projects, participate in workshops and give us tips.
I'm working mainly ATCs, cards, tags and collages. Especially I like the mixed-media style and vintage-style, but also funny and bizarre motives. I like to experiment with different colors (acrylics, watercolors, chalk and pastel colors), materials and tools. So I like to make very different backgrounds for my works.
Sometimes I connect my stamped art is not only paper but also stitched works."

And here is some of the fabulous work Gabi has put together using our stamps:

This beautiful card features our Accordion Player and Fan - 2.5" x 3" - $10.00

And for this card she used our Rabbit on Bicycle - 1.25" x a.5" - $6.25 and our Gears Make The World - 1" x 1.25" - $5.50

Thanks so much Gabi!! Check back this time next week for other just as fabulous works by her :)

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Here fishy fishy fishy!

Last month when Viva Las Vegastamps! had their Link up! blog hop I made ATC's using photo paper and alcohol inks and Ulta High Gloss embossing powder. Well I made some examples for the step by step for the blog and Video on how I did them. and the examples have been sitting around doing nothing, but collect dust. LOL I deiced to do something with them.And these are the results. To see how I did them, go to my youtube video here.

Items used:

photo paper

Alcohol inks

Clear Embossing bad

Ultra High Gloss Embossing powder

white card stock

Black Memento in k pad

Miracle tape

Glossy Accents

Stamps used:

Fat Fish in Heels

Thin Fish in Skirt

I'm not Weird...I'm limited edition

If you have crazy friends, you have everything

Take a bow

A fish out of water

Pin it to Win it!

Make sure to use our hashtag so I can find your pin easily! #vivalasvegastamps

It's that easy! Pin it, spread it around, get the word out about our brand new plates and you could win one of them for free, and that includes shipping!!

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Puzzled about holiday gifts?

I am certain I am not the only crazy crafter out there that gets to July and thinks "Oh, it's time to start holiday crafting!" During the month of July in my own crafty world I spend much of the month dedicated to holiday crafting--challenges, streams, scrapbooking, gifts and decorations. A few years back I began making 80-90% of my holiday gifts handmade only. My family and friends appreciate the time I spend on them and I adore spending the time giving of myself and my creativity to those I love.
So today I share with you these fun puzzles that I have made with a puzzle diecut, antique book paper, watercolors and my current favorite holiday stamps. I hope you enjoy them!

for this project you will need

book paper

Diecut Puzzle

watercolors

watercolor pen

craypas

Thank you for looking! ~leslierahye

NEW PLATES!!!

Here they are! SIX new plates sent to the engraver today!!

Get them at the discounted pre-order price!

Plate1428 - A mix of vintage and grungy goodness

Plate1429 - A Halloween Plate

Plate1430 - A calendar based plate - use it for December Daily, collages, dates, anything you can think of! Comes with numbers 1-31, a full font and a few collage style stamps (will only be available unmounted as a whole plate)