Birthday Card ► Majo

Good morning, dear crafty friends.

Today I'd like to show you a birthday card I made for a close friend. 

I stuck to her favorite colors and decided since it's her 60th birthday, it should be something special. I know she adores butterflies, so of course I used one on the card.

I started by applying gesso with a stencil.

I added Distress Spray Stain in different colors, making sure to dry each layer in between. I wiped the paint off the raised parts.

After I stamped my sentiment, I added more stamping on the background for some texture. 

I cut the butterfly with a Sizzix Movers & Shapers die and applied the same colors Distress Spray Stain. After distressing the edges I adhered it with glue dots. In order to let the butterfly have some antennas, I used a butterfly stamp, which I then covered with the die cut. 

 Here are some close ups of the background ....

I adhered the panel to a black card base with miracle tape.

I have used the following stamps:

19585

9473

10599

19827

Miracle Tape

I also used:

Distress Spray Stain

Movers & Shapers - Butterfly

Stencil

Gesso 

Thanks so much for joining me here today, you all have a wonderful time and Happy Crafting ♥

Post Shark Week Mail Art Monday

Hello Crafty Friends!

I hope you all have a wonderful Monday to kick off your week.  Today is one of my favorite days... Mail Art Monday!!!  

Today I want to share an A2 sized envelope.  With it being beach season I wanted to do something that made me think of the ocean.  Plus, with shark week having just passed, I knew this would be too fun!

Stamps Used: 

Scuba Diver

Sea Scene

Big Eyed Fish

I started by stamping my main images in memento black ink.
(Remember to leave room for your postage stamp and address)

Next I colored all my base images with various markers, then add my base distress ink layer for the background. 

(Tumbled glass and weathered wood)

To finish everything off I added some visual interest with a Tim Holtz layering stencil, and a shark postage stamp. 

Thank you for visiting today! I hope you inspired to create some fun mail art too!!

Gone fishin'

Hello everyone,

and welcome to my post for today where I'd like to share a mini art journal spread.

I made this by brayering acrylic paint over the pages. I then used a mini gel printing plate to add the tone on tone flowers. Next I added some stamping and more flowers, this time with white paint . The flowers are a stencil btw. 

I then stamped the girl on the page; I had to colour the birds in with a black marker because it didn't stamp very well. That is the rist of working directly in your journal. Much easier to work on loose pages so you can use a stamping tool.

 I also stamped her on a piece of white paper and cut her and the bird cage and boat out. I adhered this over the stamped image on the page. I added a little colour with pencils. 

The sentiment was stamped as a background stamp but also separate on white paper to use as a titel for the page. I also aded some white splatters and a line around the page. 

I have used the following stamps :

19804 - Gone fishin'

19748 - evidence label

19567 - Writing circle background

19571 - Writing triangles

19939 - Banksy child fishing in paper boat

Thank you for stopping by today ! 

August Monthly Challenge

It's ETHOS time!

have you seen these incredible new rubber stamps we're offering from the mind and carvings of Tina Walker???

Check out ETHOS rubber stamps here.

and be inspired to enter our monthly challenge!

Be inspired by the Ethos stamps by Tina, plus VIVID jewel tones like dark teals and purples, earthy oranges & greens, other florals & natural aspects, polka dots, grunge and more.

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

Ethose ATC Trio

Hello Groupies!!!
Here we are at the end of July...JULY, can you believe it??!  Where does the time go?
Michele here wrapping up another fabulous month of INSPIRATION.

I created a trio of ATC's with the some of the Ethos stamps by Tina Walker.

I was coveting a piece of kraft cardstock that I gelli printed with Dina Wakely paints; elephant, fushia, blackberry and sky.  It was one of the only gelli prints I have done that I actually liked!!

Well...I cut it up into a couple of ATC's!

Stamps used:  Ethos Owl, Ethos Seeing Eye, Ethos House, Ethos Woman, Ethos Sunrise, Love Repeat, Organized Chaos, That Look of Otherness.
All are stamped in archival ink.

Doodling and coloring with Posca Paint Pens.

You might notice some masking of the images and even some fussy cutting.

I am having so much fun with these stamps!!

Until next time...get inky!!

Love and Bugs

Hello Crafty Friends!

Today I want to share a grungy style love card.
This card was fun and easy to create. 



Stamps Used:
Deathhead Moth
Double Coffee Rings

I started by stamping my background image in distress ink (aged mahogany).  I then added tea dye, rusty hinge, and brushed corduroy distress ink on top. 

I stitched this layer to my black base. To add depth, I added the corrugated cardboard, and a scrap of burlap.

I chose the love sticker, because I wanted something bold.  I wanted this to pop and stand out.

 

I also stamped the coffee ring stamp on the background. 

To finish everything off I added my death head moth, and some random black and white splatters. 

I hope you all enjoy this simple card as much as I enjoyed making it. Thank you for visiting the blog today! 
I hope you have a great week!!!

Colorful Art Journal Page by Elina

Hi!
Elina with you here today, sharing my latest art journal page. Hope you like it:

Whenever I do mono printing or stencilling with acrylic paints, I like to use empty art journal book pages for cleaning my brushes, stencils and brayers. It's an easy way to utilize the leftover paint, but more importantly I feel that it's often easier to start working on a new art journaling project when the starting point is not a completely white page. Sometimes the patterns and colors on a 'tool cleaning page' get a bit crazy, but there's always the possibility to add white gesso or other new colors on top.
Such messy and busy page was my starting point for my latest art journal page, too:

I started with adding white gesso on the middle part of both pages. Once the paint was dry I stamped patterns on it, using same colors than I already had on the spread:

For my main elements I chose three cute Leslie Wood images. Oh, how I love them! I stamped the cute 'Creepy Creatures' on heavy white paper, colored with my Promarkers, and cut out.
Fuzzy cutting the finest details like hair or antennas was too difficult, so I re-stamped the images on the page, and glued the fuzzy-cut images on top.

 

Before gluing down the 'Creepy Creatures' I added some stamped, colored, and fuzzy cut images on the bottom part of the spread. For colors I again chose similar hues than I already had on the background.

Then some finishing touches with a white gel pen and my page was ready. And I love it!

Here's a list of the VLVS! stamps I used for my project (click on the links for more product info):
Creepy Striped Creature by Leslie Wood
Creepy Fairy Walking Dog by Leslie Wood
Forest Critter by Leslie Wood
Writing Circles Background
Rows of Numbers
Staple X
Six Staples
ABCDEFG
Six Hexagon Background
Bamboo Stalk
Whimsical Triangle Banner
Smear/Smudge
Handmade with Art
Her wings were made

Wishing you a wonderful, colorful day!

Whimsical Lady Tag ► Majo

Good morning, my dear crafty friends.

Today I'd like to show you a tag with one of my favorite stamps .... no, not the butterfly wings (I know I use them almost always) but with the Whimsical Lady, I just love her!

 Let's get started without any further ado ...

I started with a tag, a stencil and *Broken China* Distress Ink.

 I added Distress Spray Paint in three different colours. Make sure you let each layer dry in between, otherwise you will not get the "spotty" effect!

 I stamped the flower and also a sentiment with
*Broken China* Distress Ink for more interest on the background.

To highlight the petals just a tad, I lightly used bleach with a tiny brush.

  

The pretty lady and the wings were fuzzy cut, coloured and added to the tag with pop dots.

I stamped the sentiment, which I think fit her attitude perfect, and adhered it with pop dots.

A chiffon bow finished my Whimsical Lady Tag. 

These are the stamps I used:

 19828

19832

 19777

3745

 

I hope you enjoyed my little tutorial, see you next time.

Happy Crafting ♥ 

Travelers Notebook Pages | Sue Plumb

Hi everyone!

Sue Plumb here to share my latest design team project with you. Here in Australia, my children have just finished their winter school holidays; and as much as I loved spending extra time with them, it did make it more difficult to find time to create than usual. It also meant that every time I did create, my mini crafters were right there sharing my space. The solution was to work on a smaller scale, so I switched to working in a travelers notebook.

The beauty of working in the notebook meant I was able to create these pages with far less supplies than I would usually use for a traditional scrapbook layout. (It's also a great way to use up some of those phone photos that aren't the best quality, as they are printed in a smaller size.)

Here are a couple of pages I created documenting some daily moments...

The process for creating the pages was simple. I started by deciding where my photos were going to be placed and then just sat them on the page without sticking them down. I then tore some pieces of washi tape and added them to the page to provide some structure to work from, and also a splash of colour. Next, I chose a stamp as my focal image that supported the theme of my photos and began constructing the page. 

For the bike riding page I chose the Whimsical Wheeley Dog as my main stamped image, and She Spread Her Wings as the title. I added the Let Fear Be quote at the bottom of the page; and the I Do All My Own Stunts quote at the top of the page; then used the Row of Chevrons stamp to draw attention to the title and main photo.  

I used Miracle Tape to fix my photos my photos in place before adding my handwritten journalling with a felt pen. Watercolour pencils were used to add colour to the page, which were blended out with a water brush. To finish off, I used the Doodle Dots stamp and green ink to add some extra interest, and tie in further with the green spotted washi tape I had used. I also stamped the date.

For my second page, which was about our outing to see "Hotel Transylvania" at the movies, I followed the same process as for the previous page - first deciding where my photos would go, then adding the washi tape before moving onto the stamps. 

To tie in with one of the characters from the movie, I chose the Mummy stamp as my main focal image. I also stamped the Freaks stamp several times for the title of my page. I then looked for other stamps that supported my theme, choosing the Blood Dripping and Escape stamps to use in the top part of my page. To draw attention to the main focal image, I used the Row of Chevrons stamp.

For the bottom portion of my page, which was about our trip to McDonalds after the movie, I used the Oh My! and Biohazard stamps. (Not sure McDonalds would appreciate the humour in that one! haha)

I then followed the same process to finish as for the previous page - fixing my photos in place with Miracle Tape; adding my journalling; using watercolour pencils to add colour; then stamping the date and adding extra interest with the Doodle Dots stamp.

Thanks for stopping by today so I could share this with you.

Have you tried working in a travelers notebook before? If not, I would highly recommend giving it a go! There are no limits to what you can create - you can use it for documenting memories like I have here; for making lists; or even like a mini art journal. The scale is perfect for stamping, and I know they will be fun to look back through in future.

I hope I have inspired you to get inky too!

Stamps used: 

- Whimsical Wheeley Dog

- She Spread Her Wings

- Let Fear Be

- I Do All My Own Stunts

- Row of Chevrons

- Doodle Dots

- Mummy

- Freaks

- Blood Dripping

- Escape

- Oh My!

- Biohazard

Other materials:

- White cardstock

- Miracle Tape

- Washi tapes

- Staz On ink

- Ranger Archival ink

- Faber-Castell watercolour pencils

- Date stamp

- Felt pen