"Wet" card by Maria Potapovich (mellpellmell)

Hi, it's Maria Potapovich (mellpellmell) here for you today))

As you probably already noticed, lately I've been more and more starting to like the most simple projects. 

I was always beckoned this lightness result - zero cost, and the effect in a million! heheh))

Today I want to share with you my card, which I did, only using stamps, ink, paper and glue dots. Oh, I forgot about another material - GooseBumps (TEXTURE spray, GooseBumps Original) -  I warned you that I was in love with it?

Let's see...

These mushrooms (1, 2, 3) and Sunflowers are simply adorable, aren't they? ;)

The Winged Girl Under Umbrella 2 x 3 3/4 turned into a girl in a red swimsuit with a red umbrella)))

And, of course, the inscription - Keep Calm/Puddles 1 1/4 x 1 1/4 - especially for summer weather this year in my city!

I added a little "water" ... and card is ready!

Let's run through the puddles!

Time2Stamp {Chunky ATCs + stamping tip}

Hey folks :) I'm not sure if you're aware but every couple of months the VLVS! fans and myself (DeeDee here!) participate in an art swap of some sort. Right now Chunky ATCs are due to be arriving on my desk all week long. You can join our facebook group where all swap info and signups are posted.

Today I'd like to share with you my own Chunky ATC + a video tip on using old fragile / vintage / delicate papers without being in fear of them tearing, breaking or downright disintegrating. lol.

My little Immortal Seeking doll has Bat Wings in archival black. They've been stamped on an old book page, and to reinforce the image so that my wings aren't so delicate I've prepared them accordingly. Please watch the following Time2Stamp video for that info:

I've also used the new Penny Farthing in archival ink.

And the Clockface on the back as a bold statement about time slipping by and seeking the immortal path. The first two stamps were stamped on different kinds of paper, but the clockface has been stamped directly to wood. So grungy and great.

Other supplies : Amazing Crafting Products, UmWowStudio, Ranger Ink Distress Ink and Paint, Michaels Drawer Pulls, coffee, vintage card catalog card, netting, staples, Dymo Label Maker.

Join me on my own blog for more shots and details on the creation process.

Circus Mail Art Part One

Hello it's me Tera again here with a super fun 2 part Circus Mail Art series. 

I love this awesome plate of rubber, It is super awesome with the new USPS Vintage Circus postage.

Stamps used: 

Admit One Ticket 1 1/4 x 2 1/2, Striped Border Arrow 1 1/4 x 2 3/4, Strong Man 3/4 x 2 1/2, Zoltar Machine 2 1/4 x 4, Circus Lady 1 1/4 x 3 1/2, Bearded Lady 2 1/4 x 2 1/2, Shoes Hanging From Wire 1 1/2 x 5, Circus Strongman 3 3/4 x 3 1/4, Spinning Swing Ride 3 1/4 x 4 1/2, Under The Big Top 1 1/4 x 3, Bulls Eye Target Solid 1 x 1, Be True 3/4 x 1 1/2, Bulls Eye Target Open 1 1/4 x 1 1/4, The Greatest Show 3/4 x 1 3/4

I started by stamping out my envelopes and a set of "masks" to mask off the areas i don't want covered by sprays. (Below you can see I used scarp paper to create my masks)

Look how awesome these envelopes look even with out color! 

Below you can see the parts I masked off

Next I sprayed the envelopes with a homemade ink spray then removed the masks and allowed to dry

To finish of my pieces I added my postage stamps and tried to match the colors in them by using my distress markers and a water brush for a fun vintage feel. 

I hope you all enjoy these and have fun creating some of your own! 

The end is near

Hello all, Nataliya is here :)
When I saw these stamps, I just fell in love! And I immediately knew that these wonderful rats shall dwell in my WALLS notebook. And this is what came of it:

Don't look to the right bottom corner!
:)
I love this notebook for the opportunities that it gives... enough to take stamps and ink!

My VLVS!

Banksy Rat Protester 1 1/4 x 2 1/4
Banksy Helicopter Rat 1 1/4 x 1
Banksy Safe Cracking Rats 1 x 2 1/4
Chevron Banner 1 1/4 x 3
The End is Near 1 1/2 x 1 1/4

Eat Me 3/4 x 1 1/4

Bullet Hole 1 1/4 x 1 1/2

Sm;)e 3/4 x 1 1/2

Have a smiling day ;)

June Winner!

Welcome to the VLVS! Blog -- today we're picking a winner for our June Challenge.

June's challenge winner is our very own... HERMINE KOSTER!!

DT members ARE Allowed to enter the monthly competition, and it's her lucky month! Hermine we'll be sending you some rubber asap!

Look at this stunning card using Let's Get Lost, Bulls Eye Target Solid, Bulls Eye Target Open, and Three Women In Tubes.

Be sure to stop by and see all the wonderful projects linked up for June!

And don't forget to enter this month's challenge.

Project Life my way and Viva Las VegaStamps!

I have been thinking about starting project life for some time now but never thought I wanted to stop doing my regular scrapbooking.  What would I do with all my supplies? Would I like it? Was it creative enough? I had alot of questions and then in May I decided to bite the bullet and jump right in and give it a try.

Now I'm not talking about doing the actual "Project Life" with their supplies and everything.  I'm not even going to do mine by the week like most people are doing.  I'm doing project life my way, which I think is going to work good for me!  I may even continue doing regular scrapping plus do some project life pages, I'm a rebel like that.

Here is what I did:

1.  I went out and bought some pocket pages (the ones I got were by We R Memory Keepers) and I also got the We R Memory Keepers 3 x 4 paper punch so I could start using my own papers because I have a ridiculously large stash of papers, like it's obscene... and I also got a few pages by Kaiser Craft that had some awesome 3 x 4 cards on it as well as some sticker packs.  I already use 3 ring binders so I didn't have to purchase a new one.

The first thing that sucked was that the We R Memory Keepers 3 x 4 punch would not unlock.  Yep, the first step is to unlock the damn thing which it would not do. I took it back to the store the next day and the other two ladies who worked at the store could not unlock it either.  They also pulled the other 3 off the shelf and tried unlocking them and nope, it was a no go.  So I got my money back and decided from here on in, until they make an easier punch, I will just cut them myself and if I want rounded corners I have a super easy mini corner rounder.  I would love to know if anyone else has this punch and how it's working for them because I really, really wanted it to work!!

2.  I also got a plastic storage tub from Walmart so that I could fill it up with precut cards, making my life easier.  The tub I got fits the little 3 x 4 cards on the one side and the larger 4 x 6 cards on the other so I was quite happy with this!  It also came with a lid so if you are worried about dust you can seal it up.

 After losing hours of my life online searching Pinterest and other sites for project life ideas and tips I was now ready to make my title page!! 

The first thing I did was to place my plastic pocket page on my scrap table and stare at it.  Then I decided what I would do first is to find the cards I wanted to use and then add my pictures to it.  The next step was to place my stamps and any embellishments I wanted to use on the cards so I could see how it would look before making anything permanent.

Once I was happy with how things looked I then stamped and glued and here is my finished title page for project life my way!

Here are some closeups

I used a white sharpie to color in the hexagon squares!

 

I used 6 fabulous stamps for this page and they were the set of two hands pointing (I used only the one hand), 

the chevron banner, 

the six hexagon background, 

the row of stars, 

the man and woman with hearts stamp

 and last but not least the victorian flourish.

 I hope you enjoyed seeing my title page and I am really looking forward doing more of this project life style scrapping!!

Weekend napzzzzzzz....

Hello and Happy Friday.  Tina here today with my first official Design Team project for VLVS.  I am SO excited to be here with y'all for the next 6 months and can't wait.

My first project is a Mixed Media layout.  I had wanted to use this stamp, 'Tangle' on a project, but only wanted a portion of the stamp for my project.  No worries; you can either ink up a portion of the stamp for using, or cut out the portion desired.  

After stamping the image 2 times, I painted it using watercolors and doodle pens.  I then cut out the stamped portion I wanted.  I also cut the 2^nd image into 2 pieces and placed them along the edge of my layout.  I added a brad and extra large sequin to the center of each image and used them as an embellishment on my page. 

Using this technique, I can create a customized embellishment that coordinates with the color scheme on the background.  It’s a great way to extend your stamps to create an endless supply of embellishments.

I really love the versatilty of stamping.  You can create so many amazing projects using stamps!  I hope you enjoyed my layout today!

Have a great day!

Tina

recycled plant markers

Hi Hermine here, my first post in the new term. I saw these plant markers when I bought some plants and immediately saw some potential and make a present more personal if you alter them, so I did.

step 1: carefully remove the tag from the plastic stick so you don't tear the hole. Give the circle a layer of gesso (if you use it to give a plant as a present leave the back with the info as is, but if you use it as a tag for a present give the back a layer of gesso as well). Let is dry.
step 2: start with the lighest colour Memento Luxe, so yellow for the elepant, green for the boy and pink for the fox, then use some darker colours on one side, oranges and reds for the elephant, blues/teals for the boy and purple for the fox.
step 3: Stamp with Memento Luxe Black on the yellow marker Good friends are cheaper then therapy 18885, on the green marker Bansky achieve greatness 19395 and on the pink marker Blowing Dandelion and extra seed 19045
step 3: stamp on a piece of paper: sitting elephant  19157, whimsical boy in hat 19359 and Cute fox in coat 19158 with Stazon Black, colour with Lyra and a water brush and cut out.
step 4: glue the image on the marker, put it back on the plastic stick.


So very easy but so awesome, doesn't a present as shown in the last photo look extra special this way ;o)




Hope it gave you some inspiration.
Warmly Hermine







Used materials:
Sitting Elephant 19157
Whimsical boy in hat 19359
Cute fox in coat 19158
Good friends are cheaper then therapy 18885
Banksy achieve greatness 19395
Blowing dandelion with extra seed 19045
Stazon black
Imagine crafts/Tsukineko: Memento Luxe

Dream..

Hi Everyone!

 Karen here with you today with my very first post for the new design team term! I'm so happy to be back and sharing some inspiration with you all again.  So I'll jump right in and share with you the tag that I created using the awesome new  July inspiration  challenge board

 

 

This board is just so me! , neutral colours, a bit of  dreamy, vintage grungy splotchy goodness.. and the colour green! 

 

Here is what this awesome board has inspired me to create..

 

 

I started off with some  Nature Walk from 7 Dots Studio  for my tag base, I couldn't decide which side of the  paper  to use, so I ended up using both.  I've used the Sunflowers stamp with my distress markers to add the base layer, along with the line of chevrons.

 

 

 I then inked up the  tall mushroom, along with this mushroom and the girl with wings and stamped them on some Kromecote paper, and added in some colour using a few more distress markers.

 

 

I then layered them on top of my tag base, using some foam mounting tape to give some elements a little extra height, and finished off by adding the word Dream, using some alphas from UmWow Studio

 

 

 

 

 

 I hope this is leaving you a little inspired, and wanting to join in the fun of this month's challenge! We'd love to have you join us!

 

Happy Creating

Karen xxx

 

 

 

 

July Challenge

July has arrived and so has a new challenge!

We had a lot of FABULOUS green/yellow/blue entries for our June Challenge, so stop by and check them out.

This month's challenge is a bit more vintage with a great natural theme.

Please feel free to enter cards, tags, layouts, altered bits, art journal pages and more! You may draw inspiration from ANY part of our mood board; gardens, gnomes, flowers, dreaming, mushrooms, vintage, green, purple, splatters, thought/speech bubbles, splotches, chevrons, neutral.. you name it!

Don't forget the rules:
-Create a new project based on our inspiration board
-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 tomorrow for some inspiration from Karen Knight.

An InLinkz Link-up