Monthly Challenge Winners

Today we have a couple of winners to announce!

The first is from our February Challenge :

Our voted winner is.... dun dun dunnn..

ANNE ZANDT! 

She's used our Whimsical Poodle & Whimsical Lady Walking.

Our randomly chosen winner from February is Majo! 

And from our March Challenge : 

Our voted winner is : 

ROZ!

The stamps used include Design Open Circles & Writing Circles Background.

Our randomly chosen winner is Tindaloo.

Everyone should email me (deedee430@gmail.com) with your shipping addresses, and Anne & Roz please feel free to display the following badge on your blogs : 

Family Portrait by Fiona Paltridge

Hello my sweet VLVS friends! Fiona here with you today to introduce you to the "Whimsical Family" from Las Vegas!

Boy I love having fun with these characters! They all tell a story and I wanted to share that in my depiction of "A Family Portrait". 

So first up we have Uncle Owl. His actual name is Alphonso (Asio otus) Benedict Ko'ko (other wise know as the Long Eared Owl) and he comes from a long line of aristocratic owls from Pakistan. He has a degree in Baking Technology Management from the London Southbank University which he puts to great use at family functions such as birthdays and Easter. Uncle Owl is famous for his lavish 4 tier cakes.

Behind Uncle Owl, in the deep dark background of the photo is Michael the keeper of accounts. He's not really an accountant. He forged his degree and now successfully runs an accounting firm that actually serves as a front for an illegal booking club just on the outskirts of the inner city.

Standing next to Uncle Owl is his great nephew (Pete is Owls youngest sisters, first daughters third son) Peterbald. Knicknamed Pete, is the quietest member of the family and most definitely the most politest. It's not Christmas time, this photo wasn't even taken at Christmas time, in fact it was taken last week but Pete, is a lover of all things Merry and Bright and celebrates the festive season all year round. The oddity of Pete's obsession with Christmas is never discussed in fact it is routinely dismissed as not occurring at all. The only time any issues arise from Pete's obsession is at the end of every meal when he insists the family light the desert on fire .... other than that it's not a problem. Unless your Uncle Owl and you've just spent 7 hours building a 4 tier cake.

The girls of the family are, firstly, Ellie who stands in the centre of the family portrait. She is the tallest one in the family but also the youngest. Her excessive height is not helped by the fact that she insisted on wearing her favourite pair of Alexander McQueen Blue Alien shoes from the 2010 Spring/Summer release that she purchased on Ebay for only $32 and the fact that she compliments them with her head piece that she wears as part of her membership to the Iran Politics Club which devotes it's time to embracing and worshiping Persian Mythological Goddesses. Ellie prefers to be known as Zam-Armatay and believes she is the divine personification of the earth. She also is an avid scrapbooker and the family always love receiving the hand made cards she creates on their birthdays and other special occasions.

The final member of the family is Ophelia Palomara Alessandra Lux, other wise know as O.P.A.L. Opal was born a red head, the first ever for the family in over 250 years. Members say it is a genetic throw back from her great great great Aunty Josefina Izora Lashonda Lux (J.I.L.L.) but Opal's father  Broderick Isidro Leonidas Lux ( B.I.L.L.) has had his doubts. Regardless of these allegations, Opal remains the heir to the Lux fortune and hopes to one day open her own yoga school with her boyfriend Mike.

Viva Las Vegastamps used:

Whimsical Collage

Whimsical Owl in Clothes

Whimsical Lady Walking

Whimsical Christmas Creature

I hope you have enjoyed my little bit of story telling. I certainly enjoyed writing it. Catch you all next time xx

Why Hello

Hello ! Nikki here sharing a simple card I made using this adorable whimsical dog image : 

Don't you just love his thoughtful expression.

The dog is stamped directly onto the background with black versamark and embossed with clear embossing powder, then colored with water color pencils and white paint pen.

But its the background I wanted to talk about today. Anyone who uses acrylic paint or other mediums with a brayer, what do you do with the sheet you roll the excess paint off onto ? When you look at the sheet as a whole it might look as mess, but if you cut it down to card size, it appears quite different. You can see here some scrap papers I had used / background opportunities I had created:

I cut one of the sheets to a card front size, then stamped and colored the dog. The messy/painty paper takes on quite the different look as a background to my focal image. 

 I wanted to ground the image onto the card, but not add anything too imposing.  I masked off the colored dog as shown below and stamped a scenic image over it in grey, I used the water mill scene :

Finally I stamped the 'Why Hello' sentiment and matted the card front onto plain white card stock and onto a black card base.

I think everyone probably has scraps of paper with ink or paint on them, try them as backgrounds before throwing them out :)

Stamps used :

Whimsical dog 19774 

Why Hello 19547

Water Mill Scene 19535

Nikki x

Banksy Takes Over The Postal Service!

Hello Again, and welcome back for another Fabulous 

MAIL ART MONDAY with me Tera!!! 

Today Banksy is here to take the over the mail with the latest mail art craze... Pocket Letters!!
If you are like me.. then you love the idea of fun art that you can scare with friends and can also be easily kept in a binder to enjoy for years! 

I love that these fit perfectly into a standard business envelope and that you can tuck special surprises into each of the "pockets"... 

 some of my favorite things to add are Washi samples, Tea, Stickers, decorative paper clips, and of course... don't forget the letter!!! 

To create this pocket letter I cut my black cardstock into 9 ATC sized pieces (2.5"x3.5") to use as my base. Then I cut a piece of decorative scrapbook paper to 2.25" x 3.25" so that I would have a small black boarder when they were layered. I glued one base to each colored piece. 

I picked my theme (Banksy) and then began by stamping out each of the black base images on my cards . Next I decided I wanted gold as my accent color, so I added hints of gold to each card to bring everything together.

(Don't think of them as a layout just do 1 card at a time.. It won't feel over whelming that way....You can always move them around to find a layout when you finish them all.)

After all of the cards where assembled in the pockets I punched out some gold confetti to add to my pockets for a few shakers. (with gold washi tape to hold it in of course)... If you choose to do this and you want to fill the backs of each pocket add your surprises in the back before adding confetti and taping... it will be easier

Stamps Used:

Banksy Gas Mask Flower Girl 2 x 3 1/4

Banksy Achieve Greatness 1 1/2 x 2 1/4

Banksy Greatness Spray Painter 1 3/4 x 3 1/4

Banksy Rat Walking Chain 2 3/4 x 2

Banksy Rain Under Umbrella Girl 2 3/4 x 4 1/2

Banksy Unhappy Boy 3 x 2 1/2

Banksy Shopping Carts 2 3/4 x 2

Banksy Girl Floating With Balloons 1 1/2 x 3 1/2

Banksy Swing Girl 2 3/4 x 2 3/4

Striped Leggings 2 x 3 1/2

Insert Your Life Story 1 x 1 1/2

Where is my Mind? 1 x 1 1/2

Happy Mail Enclosed 3/4 x 1 3/4

Wonderland 3/4 x 2 3/4

She was a Wildflower 3/4 x 2 1/4

Stitching Lines 1 x 6

Sawtooth Stitching lines 3/4 x 5 1/2

Stitching 3/4 x 2 1/2     (yes 3 different stitching stamps! One can never have too many!! lol)

Smear/Smudge 3/4 x 4 1/4

Writing Triangles 1 1/4 x 3 1.4

Mesh Texture 2 3/4 x 3

Grunge Circles 1 1/2 x 3 1/4

Artist Trading Cards by Jenn Engle

Hello Again! Today I have a very simple ATC to share with you. This card came together very quickly, as the background is a mop-up card from a previous project and the leaves were already colorized when I went on an acetate stamping binge! Haha. I'm telling you, the Viva Las VegaStamps! are made for acetate stamping. 

 

I stamped "Whimsical Leaf" several times with black Staz-On ink on acetate. Then, I colorized them with a variety of green alcohol inks, alcohol markers (like copics), and distress paint.

I just had to use the "Her Wings Were Made" sentiment because the leaves are definitely a bold pattern!

The background card is made from Distress Stain Sprays and I stamped over that with a few of my favorite VLVS Background Stamps, "Writing Circles Background" and "Mesh Texture".

SUPPLIES USED:
Distress Spray Stain in Cracked Pistachio, Mermaid Lagoon, and Blueprint Sketch
Archival Ink in "Watering Can"
"Writing Circles Background"
 "Mesh Texture"
"Her Wings Were Made"
"Whimsical Leaf"
Heidi Swapp Ink in Teal & Navy
Tim Holtz Distress Tool
Distress Ink in "Peacock Feathers"
Fabri-Tac Adhesive

Thanks so much for looking!
~Jenn

Butterfly Wings

Spring is here!!  Yay! Is anyone else as happy about that as I am???
Michele here with a spring inspired card.

I started with the Daisy for my background, they are watercolored with Aquarelle pencils.  I even cut a few out and popped them up.

Next I stamped the Butterfly Spotted in archival ink and heat embossed with black embossing powder.  This butterfly was one of my very first VLVS! stamps and it is still a favorite, I find my self going to it often!

The She Spread Her Wings sentiment was just PERFECTO!

Until next time...get inky!!

Oh and if you are so inclined make sure you join our Facebook group...LOTS of inky inspiration there too!!

Radioactive Trio of ATC Cards

Happy Wednesday!

Tina here today with my first Viva Las Vegastamps project post! For my first project, I thought I'd create one of my favorite types of projects, a trio of ATC cards.  I love creating in three's and ATC cards are the perfect match.

When creating a trio of ATC cards, I love to repeat certain elements and design features for a cohesive look.  To create the cohesive theme, I used the following stamps:

Crackle Background  

Whimsical Face with Horns

For the background of each card, I randomly applied gesso, then heat embossed with white embossing powder.  For a splash of color, I sprayed several shades of spray mist, letting me mix and mingle.  Instant background!

For my face element, I stamped the image on white glossy cardstock, then sprayed with a white shimmer spray, just for an added element.

  Now that I've created a common theme, I embellish each card with similiar, yet different elements.  I may either use the same element in different colors, or different elements in similiar colors.  I chose the later for this trio.

 I used red molded resin casts, gold metallic pieces, and white painted chipboard.  Even though the individual pieces are different, there is still a cohesive look due to the background and face elements.

  
 As an added design element, I stamped words for the faces and added them to 2 of the cards.  

Word Stamps used:

Radioactive

Biohazard

 And just like that, you have a trio of ATC works of Art!

 I hope you enjoyed my trio of cards!  Here's to a wonderful Wednesday and beautiful week!

Fancy a cuppa

Hello everyone,

For today's Challenge Inspiration I have made a tag. This was a little different for me, as there are no bright colours on this !

I started with a #8 tag which I cut from a sheet of Tim Holtz pattern paper pad called 'French Industrial'. It was stamped with a coffee ring stamp and Archival ink. ( A complete list of the stamps I used it at the bottom of this post). 

Next I cut a circle from some corrugated cardboard card stock and painted some gesso over it to lighten it a little. I then took my Archival ink pad and dragged it over the edges. 

Next I glued the circle onto the tag and then used my sewing machine to stitch around the edges. I then rubbed the edges with the Archival ink also. 

The lady was stamped on white card stock and coloured with Copic markers. She was cut out and adhered onto the circle. Lastly the sentiment was stamped and the leather cord added through the hole. 

Here is the inspiration board this tag is based on:

The words to go with this : caffeine, coffee, tea, warm drinks, hyper, cups, fancy, stain, brown, vintage, cardboard, tan, brown, black.

Here are the stamps I have used:

19797 Fancy a cuppa

19568 Double coffee rings

18499 Coffee cups lady

I hope I have given you some inspiration to play along !! You might win a grab bag of lovely pink rubber.....

mail art monday

Hi Hermine here on mail art monday. This time I used a bubble wrap envelope to alter.

 

step 1: Take different colours Memento Luxe, put them directly on a craftsheet, spray a little water and put your envelope in it. If you press a little harder you'll end up with an imprint of the bubble warp inside, which gives it some extra depth (don't press to hard or else the bubbles will pop)

step 2: Stamp with Stazon Black the images: start with the windmill 19791 and mask it, then Winter Woods Scene 19793, Stars 19291. Then hand draw the rectanlge for the address and mask of. Then stamp  Fallen Tree 19722 and Leafless Trees in field 19719. Colour the images slightly with some colouring pencils.

step 3: Stamp with blue the Harlequin Diamond background 18920 on the flap, do the same with pink and the Spotty Background 1461. Then stamp with Stazon Black the staples 19578, 19576 and 19577.

And now you are ready and set to send out you artwork in a fancy way.

Warmly Hermine

Used materials:

 Windmill 19791

Winter Woods Scene 19793

Stars 19291

Fallen Tree 19722

Leafless Trees in field 19719

Harlequin Diamond Background 18920

Spotty Background 1461

staples 19578, 19576 and 19577

April Challenge - COFFEE FIENDS

Welcome to our April Challenge! 

As the country is working its way through the last bit of blustery weather I thought we could be inspired by our favorite drink... COFFEE!

We'd like to inspire you with words like caffeine, coffee, tea, tea time, warm drinks, hyper, hype, cups, recycle, fancy, stain, spill, coffee rings, drips, drops, splatters, vintage, cardboard, corrugated, tan, brown, black, dark, roasted, light, vapor, and last of all.. date time with friends.

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