Greeting cards with a little surprise by Josefine Fouarge

Hi everyone, there is a snarky theme over in the Viva Las VegaStamps! Facebook group and I couldn't resist. So, I made a few greeting cards with a twist - and I'll show you that at the end of the blog ;)

I recently had a surgery (no worries, nothing major) that kept me tied to the bed and I didn't have much energy for a couple of days. But I still wanted to craft and get a bit messy. So, I thought about a few techniques that require breaks in between anyway, to spread the energy over a couple of days.

I started by heat embossing my focal point onto a piece of watercolor paper using clear embossing powder.

Then I added just a bit of spray paint on top and let that sit over night. The next day, I also added a few extra splatters that also had to dry for a bit.

All together, I stamped three different images, heat embossed all three of them and then added a variety of sprays.

For the fourth card, I played with the clear embossing a bit by adding different colors of embossing powder on top. I kept the clear embossing powder all heated up and then sprinkled the other colors on top, melting them into the clear powder.

I then cut out the shape, stamped the Scribble Circle onto a new piece of card stock and adhered the woman on top.

At the end, I picked a few pieces of colored card stock and adhered all of it together. The main piece is 4x4 1/4; the colored card stock is 4 1/8 x 5 3/8 and the card base 4 1/4 x 5 1/2.

For the inside of the cards, I picked a variety of sentiments that hopefully create a smile on the recipients face.

Check out all the cards in close up:

All the stamps I used:

Scribble Circle

Ethos Woman

Ethos Owl

Ethos Sunrise

Art is Anything

I am a Ray

Tired of Trying

She was a Dreamer

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed my greeting cards with a little surprise inside :)

See you soon!

Art Journal Page by Elisa Ablett

Hi VLV Stamps fans,

Elisa here from the design team with my latest inspiration for you, 

a bright and cheeky art journal page 😂

As soon as I saw the Large Sandwich board ( boy) stamp, I just knew I had to create a little something with him. For those of us with kids in our lives, sometimes our lovely children can be 'little rays of @#$ sunshine lol' so I wanted to commemorate in my art journal the few times perhaps when my boys caused me to suffer from - mum anxiety and stress -  with their moods. 

Let's take a closer look at how it came together....

I starting with stamping my Brick Background and then added my water colour background sky and brick colouring. I then stamped Large Sandwich Board boy on a seperate piece of cardstock using my trusty versafine black ink pad and coloured with watercolours and markers. I put him aside to dry and concentrated on completing my background adding the rays of sunshine using a Prima stencil and coloured texture paste from Colour Blast and Little Birdy.

Lastly, I used a clear acrylic block to position my next stamp I am a ray... so that it stamped in the right position in the middle of the Sandwich Board. I then fussy cut the boy out and used 3D mounting tape to add dimension. I wanted him to be outlined by the rays of sunshine so I positioned him over the middle. 

I also added a scribbled border and scribbled handwriting to add a bit of focus to the page. 

Thanks for stopping by the blog today, while I am chasing my kids around and refereeing their fights you may like to leave me a comment or two below ... just to let me know I am not the only one suffering from a few 'mum needs some time alone' moments 😏😏

Stamps used:

- I am a Ray

- Brick Background

-Large Sandwich Board

Other materials used:

Art by Marlene Art Journal

Prima Ray Stencil

Colour Blast Colour Paste

Little Birdy Texture Paste

Versafine Ink

Prima Watercolours

Decoart paint

Dictionary Paper

Black Marker

White Posca Paint Pen

Ray of Sunshine | Sue Plumb

Hi everyone!

Sue Plumb here with my latest design team project with you. Today I have a 12x12" mixed media scrapbook page I created to share, featuring a stamp-filled background and a photo of my daughter at her sunshiney best! haha

To create my page, I started with some white cardstock (I use Bazzill Card Shoppe cardstock in 'Marshmallow' - I find this best for applying wet media.) I added a wash of grey colour using Colour Blast 'Stormy Weather' Colour Shimmer Spray, which I poured into a cup and applied with a wide brush.

I needed to give my page some structure (and given the theme of this page was about capturing photos) I used the Film Strip stamp to apply some horizontal and vertical lines to draw the eye to the focal area of my page using Staz On ink.

I wanted to add a supporting focal image to compliment my photo, so I chose the Whimsical Horned Boy. I already had this image stamped out on some tissue paper, so I used some matte medium to apply it to my page.

I kept building my background by stamping the Evidence Label stamp near the top of my page (I can see this stamp is going to get a workout from me); and then I added two Deathhead Moths (they matched the death stare my daughter was giving me). I also had these on tissue paper, so I used matte medium again to apply them.

My background was really starting to take shape now, so it was time to add some finer details. I reached for my Sky of Stars Background stamp to add some visual interest around the page. My page also needed a title and I knew EXACTLY which stamp I wanted to use for it - I Am A Ray. I stamped it out multiple times around my page (just to make sure I got the message across!)

Now it was time to add a splash of colour to my page. I used a Faber-Castell watercolour pencil to add some red around the edges of my moths, as well as to the cheek and lips of my horned boy before blending it out with a water brush.

I also added a couple of scribbles that I didn't blend.

Now it was time to work on the focal area of my page and add some texture. I used a mini paper doily; torn tissue paper; some tiny gold star punchinella and frayed gauze to create a mat for my photo. 

I cut around my daughter in the photo to get rid of the background and added some cardboard to the back to pop it up before adding it on top of my layers using Miracle Tape. I also added some extra gold touches to my page using torn pieces of washi tape and gold sequins. 

I added some small splatters of Colour Blast 'Sunburnt' Colour Artist Ink and then my handwritten journalling. I complimented my journalling with the What We Have Here stamp. (A perfect finishing touch!)

The final addition to my page was a handmade chevron embellishment from Charms Creations, to help draw the eye to my photo.

Here's a closer look at the completed page...

Thanks for stopping by so I could share this with you. I hope I have inspired you to get inky too!

Stamps used:

- Film Strip

- Whimsical Horned Boy

- Evidence Label

- Deathhead Moth

- Sky of Stars Background

- I Am A Ray

- What We Have Here

Other materials:

- Miracle Tape

- Bazzill 'Marshmallow' Card Shoppe cardstock

- Staz On ink

- Colour Blast 'Stormy Weather' Colour Shimmer Spray

- tissue paper

- matte medium

- Faber-Castell watercolour pencil

- collage materials (paper doily; tissue paper; punchinella; frayed gauze)

 - washi tape

- gold sequins

- Colour Blast 'Sunburnt' Colour Artist Inks

- Charms Creations chevron

- felt pen