September Challenge - Thoughts of Fall

September has arrived... the month we're all waiting for! Fall is around the corner... cool crisp air... pumpkin spice EVERYthing... and comfy sweaters.

So let's bring out the Fall themed challenges! Like this beautiful fox! Be inspired by Jewel & Earth tones like mossy greens, warm oranges, pale pinks n blues. Draw inspiration from the browns and grays. Use any woodland creatures like deer, foxes, squirrels, birds and more. Trees, branches, pines, mountains... all are appropriate! Also feel free to use lots of marks & textures in your background. GOOD LUCK guys!

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

March Challenge - A Striped Bird

Let's think about spring for a while shall we??

For March we're prompting you with words like green, white, olive, stripes, music notes, black, writing, journaling, birds, splatters, tape, triangles, neutral and whatever else comes to mind ♥

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 new DT member Shanna Shands.

An InLinkz Link-up

Vintage Britophile Mixed Media Canvas

Hello stamperphiles! It's Amy here today, to share a canvas I made for my daughter, who is a serious Britophile. She loves ALLL things UK. I wanted to make something that encompassed all things she loves about Brit style, and so I started with a 12x12 canvas board, and strips of vintage style papers. I arranged the torn strips in a loose interpretation of the union jack, and adhered with Mod Podge. To distress the background, I added several mists in light browns, and rolled over them with a brayer to blend. I used the cracked background stamp to add more "distressing," and to go with the tea theme, I stamped with the coffee ring stain stamp. To give the stamp a more muted look, I went over it using the blunt end of a paintbrush, and actual coffee in small amount.


 I took a thrift store teacup, and broke it, adding half to the canvas with E6000. I misted over the cup with brown mist, to give it a vintage look, and then stamped the London telephone booth with Memento ink in tuxedo black. I sprayed over it with fixative once dry, to keep it safe for misting and watercolor. I misted/brayered, and then painted using red watercolor. I like the faded appearance it gives. I also stamped the Big Ben using Delicata Ink, by Imagine Crafts in gold, and fussy cut it out. I added them "inside the teacup, along with a teabag, and embellished. Because I thought the canvas needed a little extra movement, I finished by stamping with the color wheel lines. Thanks so much for having a look today, and I hope you go get your stampin' on!! ;) Loves, Amy

Spring is Coming!!!

With Spring come the BUGS!!! 

Here are a couple of buggy cards for you!

Grandville Bug & Bike

With black ink on white card stock stamp VLVS! Grandville Bug cut mask of VLVS! Grandville Bug to cover stamped image then stamp VLVS! Clockface Bike. Heat emboss images with VLVS! Ultra High Gloss Embossing Powder. Stamp VLVS! Christmas Trees Large in the background, the more distant trees stamp off some ink before stamping on the card.  Heavily distress bottom edge of card with brown ink, lightly around the sides and top. Adhere to green base with VLVS! Miracle Tape.

If you haven't seen all of the Grandville Stamps you should go check them out in the VLVS! online store.  Search for Grandville and you will be delighted with them!

Supplies for Grandville Bug & Bike:

VLVS! Christmas Trees Large

VLVS! Grandville Bug

VLVS! Clockface Bike

VLVS! Miracle Tape

VLVS! Ultra High Gloss Embossing Powder

Ink

Card Stock

Bees on Honeycomb

On yellow card stock stamp VLVS! Chicken Wire with brown ink, using black ink stamp VLVS! Large Bee once and VLVS! Small Bee twice. Heat emboss images with VLVS! Ultra High Gloss Embossing Powder. Heavily distress edges of card with brown ink. Adhere to brown base with VLVS! Miracle Tape.

Supplies for Bees on Honeycomb:

VLVS! Small Bee

VLVS! Large Bee

VLVS! Chicken Wire

VLVS! Miracle Tape

VLVS! Ultra High Gloss Embossing Powder

Ink-Black and Brown

Card Stock Yellow and Brown

Spring is just around the corner!

Get your bugs at Viva Las VegaStamps!

Bye...Bye...Bye... Hurricane Season! Well, Almost!

Happy Monday - Welcome to Viva Las Vegastamps!!! Susan here with my bottom of the month post and Halloween is just TWO DAYS AWAY!!! EEEK! Guess what - today's how-to has nothing to do with Halloween. Living in South Florida, I am in Hurricane alley and over the past week, we have been dealing with the mess of Hurricane Sandy - which is now moving up the eastern seaboard. I hope everyone in the path of this rainy mess stays safe. There is a silver lining - storms are a perfect time to get crafty!

For today's project I am sharing a shaving cream technique to make a swirly background to go with my Hurricane Blowing Trees #18145 stamp. This is so much FUN! I can't believe I've never tried it before.

I sprayed some shaving cream into a paper plate, spread around with a plastic knife, then dripped in three colors of Distress Ink re-inkers {peeled paint, old paper, and iced spruce}.

I dragged the knife through the shaving cream to swirl colors around in patterns. If you do this too much, you will complete blend ink into shaving cream.

Then you place your piece of cardstock into the shaving cream mixture and press flat to make sure entire paper has made contact. **A NOTE** I used a smooth natural ivory colored cardstock as my base.

I gently removed the paper from the shaving cream and then scraped off shaving cream with the plastic knife. I placed paper onto a paper towel and wiped the remaining shaving cream off using a soft towel. I gave papers a zap with the heat gun to dry and to set color.

This technique is really easy and this project would be great for kids, too. I colored several pieces of paper using the shaving cream mixture. When the color became too solid, I added a spray of fresh shaving cream and swirled it in. The white areas of shaving cream result in a color resist.

I inked up my Hurricane Blowing Trees #18145 stamp with Versafine Black Ink and stamped onto the background. **PLEASE NOTE** The shaving cream leaves a film on the paper that makes the stamped image slightly distressed. I also stamped with dye ink on another paper and the image was blurred and resisted in areas. The Versafine ink came out the best and I heat set to dry.

Now for assembly! I tore the edges away on each side of my stamped image. A SECRET... I layered this onto the unusable stamped image torn in the same fashion, leaving a larger border. Card base is section of distressed corrugated mounted onto a Kraft card base using Miracle Tape. I adhered the base painted paper, then mounted a strip of burlap, and overlayed the stamped image on top all using Miracle Tape. I finished off with two sea glass nuggets for a little bling.

Presenting my windblown Hurricane Card!!!

Thanks so much for dropping by today! Hang around a little while and check out what the rest of the Viva Las Vegastamps! Design Team has been up to. Don't forget to visit the Viva Las Vegastamps! store - for all your stamping needs and for every occasion...even a hurricane!

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 real soon! Hope you have an inky day! Sb

For a Good Cause

Happy Wednesday everyone!! I want to share a little part of me with you today. Early in life I learned how fulfilling volunteering can be. I learned that by giving someone a part of me--my time, my skill--that not only does the person I help benefit, but so do I. I have volunteered for many things from organizing events, to creating artwork and graphic projects, to leading a community organization. I still love to volunteer and find that as a cardmaker it is very fun to give handmade cards to groups to use to send a special greeting or note to loved ones. Some organizations like Operation Write Home actually have this down to routine complete with a list of deadlines and needs. They send cards to active duty soldiers so that they can write their love ones. One of their highest demanded cards are blank all-occasion cards [note the changes in the directions to make this card for OWH--they have strict rules about things like glitter and shiny sparkly powders that would rub off]. Another fantastic place to donate your cards is the nursing homes and senior centers so that they too have an option for sending greetings to their friends and family members. I hope--if you don't already give--perhaps that you will consider donating handmade cards to such worthy causes--they are truly grateful for our efforts! I hope you enjoy my project! 

 The Method

For this project you will need:

Paris Trunk Ink Black

Versamark Ink

Distress Inks in Old Paper and Walnut Stain

Foam Tape

Soft Brush and cloth

a bit of ribbon

White and Red Bazzill Basics

I began by stamping my split column image on a random piece of paper so that I could make a mask. I cut along the right side of the column. This will protect my image on my project from being over-stamped with the grunge stamp. You can see on the mask how it protected the image below.

I stamped the column, placed my mask down and then stamped my grunge writing background. I trimmed this piece out close to the stamped images. The edges of the card were distressed. Old Paper was then stippled onto the images and the edges were lightly inked with Walnut Stain.

I stamped the red with the two swirl images in versamark all over.

I dusted the stamped swirls with Bronze Mixers and wiped with a soft cloth to remove the excess. For OWH I would instead dust the swirls with High Gloss Embossing Powder or instead stamp the swirls with a color dye ink to keep any possible glitter or sparkle from wiping off the card.

The red card stock was folded in half and edged with Walnut Ink. The stamped focal piece was attached to the card with foam tape and a bow was fashioned with some ribbon and added to the card with Miracle Tape.

Thank you for looking! ~leslierahye

My first Art Journal Page

I've been working on lots of "new" things lately.. trying new techniques in both scrapbooking and stamping. One of them being scene stamping (which I'll share later) and the other being art journaling!! I'm absolutely falling for the free form open endedness that journaling really DOES have. The page doesn't have to say something to anyone else.. just me. 

Here is my first page (which I'm totally in love with):

I used a Clairefontaine journal which you'll get to see more of later. As well as Distress Stain in Broken China, Distress Ink in Mustard Seed, Broken china, Pine Needles, Vintage Photo and Tumbled Glass. 

First I splattered some of my favorite distress colors on the page. Then I cut a Spellbinders floral silhouette die out of corrugated cardboard and inked it up with vintage photo. After I had it glued down I decided I needed a bit more color, so I created a mask out of white cardstock and dabbed on the same colors of distress I had already used. 

I stamped the 

 Bird In Flight

1.75x1.75 - 7.50 

on Kromecote with Memento ink and fussy cut him out. Then I sponged a little vintage photo on his outside and glued him down. I added some twine and floral beads to finish off this page!! 

I'm back and forth on adding a title.. but basically I'd call it "Inspiration" - as it's something new I'm trying inspired by all those that do do it. 

Save the date

Here's a small card I made for a really close friend. 

It's small with the perfect space on the back for a quick note. 

"Save the date, we've got plans"

I stamped the

Rubber Stamp - 2.75x2.75

in Memento ink on kraft cardstock and embossed it with Ultra High Gloss EP by VLVS!

Add a little black cardstock for a border, and some distressing with vintage photo distress stain and ink and you've got a nice little addition to a package for a friend. 

For extra oomph I popped the stamped image off the background with a few pop dots. 

A sad farewell.. but a bright beginning!

You've probably noticed a setting trend on the VLVS! Blog the last couple of weeks -- it is with a heavy heart that most of the team is retiring and new kids are here to show you their goods. So it's a sad farewell... AND a bright beginning :) 

It's also quite the bright beginning for me as I've just (last week) Started as an EMPLOYEE of VLVS! -- I'll be working behind the scenes setting up the fabulous stamps that you all purchase :) I'll also be dabbling in pressing the rubber! 

Its' quite fun and I can't wait to show you how things work behind the magical curtain :) 

But here is my last post as a Design Team member.. I will forever be a VLVS! stamp addict -- I enjoy the plethora of images as well as the amazing quality of rubber. Today I've brought you a piece that I have not shown on the VLVS! blog..  a "Brave the storm" style tag --

Using my absolute favorite stamp by VLVS! 

Vintage Umbrella Man Against the Wind

2 1/4 x 3

$9.75 mounted 

(don't forget you can get just cushioned or unmounted rubber, too!)

I stamped my trusty umbrella man on white cardstock with Memento Ink. 

The back of the tag is embossed with a TH die and distressed with distress stain. The clouds are hand drawn, and the raindrops and puddle are made with 3D Crystal Lacquer .. after the lacquer was dry I dabbed it with alcohol ink. 

So Brave the storm new kids comin' in! This is a wonderful company to work for, both DT wise and as an employee supplying you with your wildest stampy dreams! Also.. Brave the storm outgoing folks.. the ride was amazing and now we can relax and think fondly of our VLVS! DT days. Take on new adventures! Try new things! BRANCH OUT! I will miss you all!  ♥♥♥

-DeeDee

Everything, everything.

Hello again! For today’s post, which is also my last post (for now), I wanted to use this great “Running Lady” stamp that reminds me of Marilyn Monroe. I stamped her on white cardstock, and then colored her with Copic markers. After that, I went over her with a Versamark pen, and then covered her with Viva Las Vegastamps! own Ultra High Gloss Embossing powder. I didn’t cover the shadow, only the lady. Then I used a couple of colors of Distress Ink to color the cardstock as you see in the picture.

I hope you have enjoyed all of my projects. You can see them all at anytime by clicking here. Take care and please be sure to come back to the Viva Las Vegastamps! blog where new projects will be posted every Monday, Wednesday & Friday. There's an all new design team starting in April and it will nice to see what new ideas they come up with! Good luck everyone.

"The Game Is Afoot" - Sherlock Holmes Inspired Steampunk Related Card

Are you familiar with steampunk? It's a style that involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era Britain or "Wild West"-era United States—that incorporates elements of either science fiction or fantasy. Works of steampunk often feature anachronistic technology, or futuristic innovations as Victorians might have envisioned them.

Gaslight romance or gaslamp fantasy is an offshoot of steampunk. Steampunk stories are most commonly set in a romanticized, smoky, 19th-century London, as are gaslight romances. But the latter category focuses nostalgically on icons from the late years of that century and the early years of the 20th century--on Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde, Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes.

This card is inspired by Sherlock Holmes and his quote, The game is afoot!, from the The Adventure of the Abbey Grange. The same way a cat might chase down a mouse, Sherlock Holmes would chase down his quarry. Here's how I made this card.

The background is dry embossed aluminum that's been painted black and then sanded to highlight the embossed design. The silhouette of Sherlock Holmes was cut out using a Zing electronic cutting machine.

Brown paper and a cotton ball were adhered behind the background to form the pipe and smoke.

The silhouette is filled with gears, using the Steampunk Background 4 x 4 #16468 stamp from Viva Las Vegastamps! It was stamped on metallic gold paper using StazOn ink. The background was adhered to a black card base using Miracle Tape.

The cat is stamped on metallic bronze paper using the Steampunk Cat 2 x 2 1/2 #17720 stamp from Viva Las Vegastamps! using StazOn ink.

The mouse was cut from metallic black paper on the Zing and then filled with small clock gears.

The quote was created using a vintage Dymo label maker.

I hope you enjoyed this card and learning a bit about steampunk and gaslight romance. For more of my projects, check out my blog on Create & Craft.
Happy Crafting!
Joe

Retro Style Card – Will Trade Coffee For Gossip

June Cleaver is going to pop out of one of my kitchen cabinets some day, I'm sure of it. I live in a 1950's ranch with the original pink kitchen made by GE. Yup, the one you see at the start of the Tomorrow Land ride at Disney. That's fine with me though, because I love 1950's design.

I've collected Heywood Wakefield furniture and Russel Wright designs for 20 years. So when I saw the two woman drinking coffee (or tea) on Viva Las Vegastamps! plate 1364 I immediately thought of June Clever, pink, turquoise and retro wallpaper.

With those thoughts in mind, this was a quick card to create.

1. Round the corners and then use sepia ink to edge the turquoise, tan and background layers of the card.

2. Stamp the two woman drinking from plate 1364 on white paper and color with Copic markers. Fussy cut.


3. Stamp the sentiment "Will trade coffee for gossip." on turquoise and punch with a scalloped oval punch. Add three small pearls.

4. Layer the mats and backgrounds on an A2 card using Miracle Tape. Adhere the sentiment. Adhere the two woman with pop-dots for dimension.

There are so many sentiments that would go perfectly with the image of the two woman drinking. How about "Hi! We were just talking about you..." or "We start our day with coffee, but we end it with booze."

What sentiment comes to mind when you see this image? I encourage you to share your ideas in a comment. Who knows, maybe one day it will become a stamp!


For more of my projects check out my blog on Create & Craft.
Happy Crafting!
Joe

TH Inspired Tag using VLVS! Swirls

Hey Everybody!! DeeDee here!! Have you seen the 12 tags of 2012 TH is now doing?? 

well I wanted to participate.. but As a design team member for VLVS! it is our duty to promote as much VLVS! as possible, and it's QUITE easy when you love a company as much as I do VLVS! The images that Wayne and CO produce are just ... the best. so I took on TH's tag challenge.. but with a VLVS! twist.. 

First.. Pick a background! 

I chose a combination of three stamps:

  Swirl 2 1/2 x 3 1/4 - $10.25

Swirl 3/4 x 1 1/4 - $5.00

  Swirl 3/4 x 1 - $4.50

Then.. grab your tag and stamp them in WHITE ACRYLIC PAINT. I stamped them sort of haphazard all over.. and I wasn't careful about covering the entire stamp in paint either.. it sort of made this.. fun swirly collage with an almost foliage resemblance! 

Give the paint ample time to dry and then ink your tag. I used Spun Sugar Distress Stain.. and sponged some Festive Berries and Brushed Corduroy ink over it. spritz with water.. and wipe the ink off of the painted parts!! Background CHECK!

(here's a closeup of the background)

I then embellished with a 3D heart made from punched hearts that I folded in half and glued sides together. There's a bit of old pattern wrinkled up underneath the heart.. and I used some vintage lace and snug hug for my trim embellishes! 

The Cupid was hand cut, inked and crackled! What do you think?? Aren't the VLVS! Stamps just SUPERB! they do the same thing as tim's giant stamp, but only BETTER!! 

Let me know what you thiiiiiiiiink!! -DeeDee

Life’s A Beach Card with Sand from Cancun!

Last June, I was in Mexico for business and had just a few minutes to run to the beach and feel the water before heading back to the airport for the trip home to Ohio. In those short minutes, I couldn't resist filling an empty water bottle with sand, knowing it might come in handy for some future craft project. Well, the time has come.
I thought these four stamps from Viva Las Vegastamps! would make a great beach scene:
- Alien Sun Tanning 1 1/4 x 2 (#2277)- Sunbathing Lady 2 x 2 3/4 (#2414)- Sunbathing Lady 1 1/2 x 2 3/4 (#14263)- Life's A Beach 1 1/4 x 2 1/4 (#14215)


I stamped the three figures and then cut them out with my new cutting machine - the Zing! It does an AMAZING job fussy cutting because it has a 3-point laser alignment system. And it's fast! It cuts 20" per second!

The stamped figures were colored with Copic markers.

I created the umbrella with the Zing too. Each piece is made by taking a triangle and "cutting out" a circle from the bottom of it. A stir stick inked with Brushed Corduroy makes the perfect umbrella pole.
To make the card base, I started with a cream colored card and used Faded Jeans and Wild Honey distress inks to make the sky. The inks were applied with an ink applicator in a circular motion on a non-stick craft sheet.

To make the beach, I applied three overlapping strips of 1" wide Miracle Tape to the card, trimming the top strip so it had a bit of a wave too it before adhering it to the card. I dumped on some of my Cancun sand, used a brayer to be sure it was pushed down on to the tape and shook off the excess. The tape does a great job holding the sand. Instant beach!

I attached the pieces to the card base using Miracle Tape and foam dots. I added a bit more sand around the base of the umbrella pole using liquid glue.

To see more of my projects, check out my blog on Create & Craft.
Happy Crafting!
Joe

Celebrate the Every Day

If you haven't heard or haven't been paying attention... VLVS! is hosting a monthly challenge where a selected winner receives a gift certificate to the online store! Very generous of our fearless leader, Wayne! 

This month's theme is "CELEBRATION"

and I made my first piece for January based off the idea.. but with a twist.. I'm a big fan of "the small things" and so I went with "Celebrate the Every Day"

I recently got my little grubbers on two fabulous stamps that are going right in the front of my stash.. 

The Chicken Wire 3 3/4" x 4 1/2"

and the Birds on Wire 1 1/2" x 6 1/2"

I used the chicken wire as a background.. I stamped it in clear embossing ink and then doused it Ultra High Gloss Embossing Powder by VLVS! I then smeared, sprayed and spritzed a combination of Broken China distress stain and water all over my tag. Once that was dry I laid newsprint over my tag and ironed out the embossing ink. Then I grabbed the bird stamp, my Memento Ink and a clear block.. some creative placement and VIOLA! the "Sing" "Chatter" and "Spread Joy" were written by hand in black ink on manila to match the rest of the tag. Swipe the edges of the tag with the same ink as the stamp and some creative doodling... And we get....

Thanks for coming by again this week!! Don't forget to enter your own piece into the competition!

-DeeDee

Ho...Ho...WHOA!!!

Happy Saturday and welcome to December!!! It's Susan (again) with my regularly scheduled Saturday top of the month project. Today's project also features a fun product called Creative Paperclay® now available for sale over at Viva Las Vegastamps! This is my first time working with this and I'm so happy with the results.

Can't believe Christmas is just a couple weeks away. Have you seen our 12 Tags of Christmas Bloghop? This project will certainly get you in the Christmas spirit!

A sneek peek!

This piece begins with this Santa Foot through Ceiling #5395 and the unmounted Christmas alphabet #7560 from Viva Las Vegastamps! As soon as I saw this stamp I knew what I wanted to make.

For the background wall, I rolled out some Creative Paperclay and sandwiched it in my T!m Holtz distressed brick embossing folder. This took a little over a day to dry. I made sure that I could get it out of the folder before I let it dry completely. **Make sure to dust embossing folder with powder or rub with versamark or something similar to help clay release - I forgot to do that.**

Creative Paperclay® after pressed and dried in embossing folder.

Bricks colored with distress inks and mounted to patterned paper
backing with miracle tape.

Stamped image colored in on cardstock.

Santa foot stamped on clear acetate.

CLOSE UP of finished boot mounted in box.

Here's the details: The box is the base of a box of blank cards with envelopes. I try to upcyle things into art pieces whenever possible. I stamped the Santa Foot with Stazon onto white cardstock and also onto clear acetate. I painted in broken pieces with white gesso on transparency and cut out. I left about 1" above image to use as a glue flap when mounting in shadow box. The foot stamped on paper I colored in and then embossed the boot with clear embossing powder. The white fuzzy part is embossed with a Ranger white puff powder. This really didn't puff up how I expected. I cleaned up all the edges with a black zig pen. I mounted all of the pieces in the box and I stamped my sentiment in red ink with the candy cane letters. I love these letters! I finished off scene with some tinsel trim and a Jolee's Christmas tree embellishment. 

Santa might want to lay off the cookies...

It's December which means there is a new VLVS Theme Challenge. Submit your "CHRISTMAS" theme creations using Viva Las Vegastamps! for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate at the VLVS online store. CLICK HERE for info on submissions. Also check out the Viva Las Vegastamps! store - there is something for every occasion and more! December's Theme is "Christmas" and we will be celebrating with a Twelve Tags of Christmas Bloghop December 1st thru December 12th CLICK HERE to check it out!

Thanks so much for visiting & if you would like to see more of my creations please visit my blog, sbartist : painting in the dark HERE. Have a great weekend! : )