Quick and Easy

Hello Crafty Friends!

I cant believe how quickly this year has passed! 

Today I want to share a cute and simple cat card I made for a friend whom is a fellow cat lady. 

Stamp Used:

Tuxedo Cats

Do you ever feel like you struggle to make a quick and simple card when you need? 

Me too!

Fear not, this stamp really does all of the work for you! 

I started by stamping my tuxedo cat stamp on white card stock with black memento ink. 

To color my image, I used a variety of alcohol based markers.

(Blick, Copic, and Spectrum Noir)

I chose to do a double mat to give more visual interest. 

I hope this gives you some ideas for a quick and easy card! 

I love that this stamp can be used for any occasion, and who doesn't love cats?!

Happy New Year!!!Stay crafty my friends

Pretty Little Houses & Pink Flamingos

Hello my fine feathered friends!

 

Aimee here with not one, not two, but

THREE

projects for you!!!

 

When I saw the house half plate,

I just KNEW I had to have it!

These little houses are so sweet and adorable

and I have so many ideas for them.

 

Want to make these projects?

 

Well, alllllrighty then!

 

What you need:

Recycled cheese container

(this is a Laughing Cow cheese container)

Acrylic paints

Smooch inks

Sandy stuff from Mud Puddles

Foam tape or pop dots

Black ink (I used Pitch Black pigment ink from Ranger)

Other ink colors of your choice

Super Gloss EP from Viva Las Vegastamps!

Scissors

Miracle Tape

Heat gun

A toothpick

Scraps of paper- white, blue, green, patterned papers

Pink Flamingos (the ones we get with our Viva Las Vegastamps orders)

Craft Bond or other stinky glue

Stickles

Stamps

 

 

First things first-

paint the cheese container inside and out...

I painted the outside purple and the  inside blue.

Once the blue was dry, I stippled a lighter blut over it,

then painted some blue Stickles over it.

Stamp houses with black pigment ink and emboss using Super Goss EP.

I did 6 houses.

Repeat with trees.

Stamp some trees in other ink colors.

Stamp the clouds on blue patterened paper using blue ink

(I used Denim Adirondack ink from Ranger)

Color houses and trees with Smooch colors.

Color in clouds with white Smooch.

While the Smooch is drying, start tearing up some green card stock for 'grass'.

*****************************

Once everything is dry, start layering.

Use Miracle Tape to adhere everything...

I started with a couple of clouds, and then added a house.

Add some torn paper 'grass'.

Then add a tree or two.

Add more 'grass' using pop dots or foam tape,

and keep going until you fill the container and like the way it looks.

*****************************

Once your container is layered to your liking,

put some of the Mud Puddles sandy stuff inside.



For your pink flamingos, snip the base off of each one,

put a little stinky glue on the back of each one,

and stick their legs down into the sandy stuff.

 

For the 'whimsy' flag, simply stamp the words onto a scrap of card stock.

Trim with scissors into a flag, put some Miracle Tape on the back and stick the tooth pick to it.

Put a pop dot or some foam tape behind the flag and stick it down,

tucking the toothpick ("flag pole") down in behnd some grass.

I am going to get little clear acrylic easels for these cuties!

 

 

And, here we have an art journal page.

This back ground was already done-

watercolor paints, Gelatos, and some stencils....

Sometimes I just play around in my books making backgrounds.

You'll follow the same process with this as you did

 with the container, minus the pop dots.

Place some clouds, then a house and a tree.

Layer some 'grass', and add another house and tree.

I also added the cool funky fence to the 2nd house.

Layer some more and add the third house.

 

 

I hope you enjoy these projects!

Have a lovely day!!

 



Some Mary Vogel Lozinak inspiration

Have you seen the call to arms for our Mary Vogel Lozinak blog hop yet? It's more of a link up party where participants can win gift cards to the VLVS! store by linking up their own projects and commenting on some others :)

If you're feeling a bit lost on how to use Mary's images... we've snagged some of HER own work with the stamps to share with you :)

Two Heads

available on plate 1398

Headless Unicycle Juggler

available on plate 1399

Hello - a whimsical colored stamp

Hello everybody!! Our term is coming to a quick end here @ VLVS! and it sure has been fun!! Today I'm going to share my "tryout" piece in case I don't make it this go round -- because it was inspired my lovely teammates!!! They really do some fabulous work and I always catch myself saying "GOSH! I wanna try that"

So I did! I grabbed a not-my-typical type of whimsical stamp:

Umbrella Man (2.5x3.5)

and stamped him on 

Kromecote cardstock which Wayne recently stocked in the store! it creates such a CRISP CLEAN image -- there's no messing this up, folks! I am IN LOVE with this paper! It has a shiny side and a matte side, so it has endless possibilities! For this application I used the matte side and stamped with  Memento tuxedo black ink. 

After stamping him I colored him with Prismacolor markers in Deco Blue, Cool Gray 60% and Yellowed orange. 

I then adhered some Basic Grey paper to a recycled kraft base with Miracle Tape, gave it a little distress ink.. and glued my man down! Add a bit of doodling with a white pen and VIOLA. A fun scene, simple yet graphic and fun card to send to a close friend! 

Thanks everybody!!! -DeeDee

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

Absolut-ly Fabulous Card - Shaped Like A Bottle of Absolut!

From the first time I saw the TV show Absolutely Fabulous, I fell in love with it! If you aren't familiar with it, Absolutely Fabulous, also known as Ab Fab, is a British sitcom created by Jennifer Saunders, based on an original idea by her and Dawn French, and written by Saunders, who plays the leading character.

According to Wikipedia, the series features Saunders as Edina Monsoon, a heavy-drinking, drug-abusing PR agent who spends her time chasing bizarre fads in a desperate attempt to stay young and "hip." Edina is joined in her quest by magazine editor Patsy Stone, her best friend and enabler, whose drug abuse, alcohol consumption, and promiscuity far eclipse Edina's comparatively mild self-destructive behaviour.


The stamp, Party Girls 2 1/2 x 3 #183, from Viva Las Vegastamps!, immediately reminded me of Patsy and Edina. I decided to use this stamp, along with a bit of a play on words and a card shaped like a bottle of Absolut Vokda, to create a card that's perfect to tell someone you think their fab-u-lous!


I started by creating the card base using the Zing electronic cutting machine. Using Make The Cut!, I traced the silhouette of a bottle of Absolut, copied it, and then welded the two shapes together along the side, to create a bottle shaped card, sized to fit in a #10 envelope.  I cut out a single bottle shape in vellum to use as an overlay on the front of the card (to resemble the frosted glass of the bottle). I cut the cap out of paper covered in aluminum tape.  The lettering is the font Futura Extra Black Condensed BT, which is pretty close to Absolut's lettering style.

I stamped Party Girls 2 1/2 x 3 #183 on white paper, colored them with Copic markers and fussy cut them out.

To make it look like the bottle contained liquid, I masked off the top of the bottle and used distress ink to shade from the neck down.

To assemble the card, attach the aluminum cap and letters to the vellum. I ran the pieces through my Xyron to turn them in to stickers. The attach the vellum to the front of the card using Miracle Tape. Only use the tape behind the letters and cap so it doesn't show through the vellum.

Lastly, apply the party girls to the front of the card with Miracle Tape. Your done! The card is shown here resting on a red background so you can really see the shape.

You can see more of my projects on my blog on Create & Craft.
Happy Crafting!
Joe

What Was I Thinking?

Valentine's Day is coming soon! I am sure that most of us, at least one time in our lives, could relate to this card. Some people will go buy a nice mushy card, but in the back of their mind they'll be thinking "I need that card that Joe Morgan made!" Anyway, it's just for fun, because Valentine's Day isn't all about hearts and flowers for everyone. Sarcastic people like me would prefer that we skip it and have Halloween twice a year instead. So on to my card!

I used two Viva Las Vegastamps! for this project:
Hugging Lovers
Looking Back Over the Years

For my background, I used a conversation heart embossing folder to dry emboss pink paper. I stamped the sentiment on white and used a decorative punch to punch it out. I stamped the Hugging Lovers stamp on white and colored it with Copic markers and then fussy cut it out. I assembled the card as shown with some green and pink ribbon behind the sentiment and I also inked the edges.

I hope you enjoy my card and at least got a good laugh from it! Viva Las Vegastamps! has a ton of sentiment stamps for everything. I get ideas just by reading them!

For more of my project ideas, visit my blog on Create & Craft.

Peace...Love...and Naked Men!

Wow it's the end of December!!! It's Susan (again) with my end 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 project is using four stamps from Viva Las Vegastamps! This piece begins with Angel Blowing Horn #6303. I also used "I Wish For A World" #1541, Patriotic Shirt Man #18119 and Leafy Border #6292.

 

I started with a sheet of paper that was previously business cards that has been painted over with gesso and other acrylic paint. I make these when I have paint leftover that I've mixed up for a project so it doesn't go to waste. The business cards were on this gunmetal parchment, which on the backside is lovely, but for this I used the painted side. It is a nice base and has a nice texture from the gesso. I stamped the Angel, the leafy border and my naked man with Stewart Superior Memories Regal Burgundy Pigment ink and embossed using VLVS Ultra High Gloss embossing powder. Before stamping the man, I rubbed the area with Stewart Superior "New Canvas" Palette hybrid ink {this is white}. I used the ink pad directly to paper in a circular motion and blended out the edges with a paper towel. This made a nice highlighted area for my guy. After stamping, I added some color with watercolor pencils and waterbrush. I added some coloring with CaranD'Ache watercolor crayons, but left them as pastel state {I didn't blend with water}. I finished off by stamping sentiment in Stewart Superior Memories Black Dye ink and mounting on burgundy cardstock.

For the corner embellishments I used the Creative Paperclay® in a small embossing folder. I rubbed the embossing folder with clear ink before pressing clay into it to help ease release. I gently pulled it out and accelerated the drying process by placing in a pan in the toaster oven on one medium toast cycle. Then I cut it apart, sanded edges then inked with chalk inks.

Detail of the Half-naked man colored with watercolor pencils.

Detail of Corner Embellishment made with Creative Paperclay® in embossing folder.

Today is December 30th which means there's only two days left to enter the monthly 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! Please drop by on Sunday for a special New Year's Celebration with the Viva Las Vegastamps! Design Team Bloghop with a chance to win by commenting on every stop on the hop.

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. Happy NEW YEAR!!! : )

Circus Themed Card using Creative Paperclay

A couple years back, I took a pottery class through the Lifelong Learning program offered by my city's Parks and Recreation department. We learned to throw pots, work with clay slabs and even did some molding. Back then I used some small face molds to make embellishments for a clay bowl. When it came time to play with Creative Paperclay I remembered the molds and thought it would be fun to cast paperclay.

The Creative Paperclay was really easy to work with and molded quite well. I was happily surprised by how much detail you can get. Once the castings were dry, I used an emery board to smooth the edges so they were ready to paint.

Viva Las Vegastamps! has several circus themed stamps and for some odd reason, when I look at them, I'm drawn to the Unicycle Lady 2 3/4 x 3 1/2 #14619.
I thought she would look great in brightly colored costume that sparkled. So, I stamped the image with dye ink, colored it in with Copic markers and then used a glue pen to add glitter. After I fussy cut the image, I knew I had the focal point of a card.

The sentiment, Perhaps You Were Just 1 1/2 x 2 1/4 #7834 from Viva Las Vegastamps!, seemed like a good companion to the unicycle lady. The molded faces could become part of a crowd, watching her perform. I found a vintage crowd photograph, printed it in sepia tones, and painted the faces a similar shade using an acrylic wash.

I love texture and wanted the bottom of the card to look like the dirt floors I had seen in circus rings. I had saved some sawdust from a previous project (I save everything! LOL) and applied it using 1" wide Miracle Tape and it gave me just the looked I was hoping for.

With all the components complete, I assembled the card. I used pop-dots to lift up the circus ring wall from the crowd, so they would appear to be sitting behind the wall. I used pop-dots again for the unicycle lady so she would be in front of the wall. It took a double layer of pop-dots where he body was above the crowd (versus the wall).

I hope you enjoy this card and it doesn't give you any nightmares about your past at the circus!

You can see my other projects on my blog on the Create & Craft website.

Happy crafting!
Joe Rotella

Season's Greetings Side Step Card

I participate in a card swap at Red Letter Journals. On the first Sunday of every month, about two dozen card makers get together to learn a new technique and trade cards using the technique they learned the previous month. It’s a great way to learn new things, have fun and get some great cards!

Today at the card swap our friend Nancy shared a “side step card” that really impressed me. As soon as I got home, I put the project I had ready to post on the back burner and created this card using two stamps from Viva Las Vegastamps! ; Waving Santa 2 ¾ x 2 ¾ #4820 and Seasons Greetings Square 1 ¾ x 2 ¼ #10110.

The stamps were stamped on white cardstock using black dye ink and then colored using Copic markers. To highlight the images, glitter was applied using Sakura 3D Crystal Lacquer as an adhesive. The fine tip made it easy to get in to the tiniest parts of the stamped image. Since the Crystal Lacquer dries completely clear, you can still see the stamped image under the glitter.

I created the “HO! HO! HO!” banner on the computer, punched out a gift box using the Martha Stewart present punch and cut out a Christmas tree using Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL).

I cut out the card base using a side step card pattern I found at Carson’s Creations.

Check out the 12 Tags of Christmas Blog Hop that's going on at Viva Las Vegastamps! The tags look fantastic!

You can see my other projects on my blog on Create & Craft.

Happy Crafting!

Joe Rotella

Flamingo Chillin' in Paradise

Happy Wednesday...Susan here! Down here in South Florida, Summer is still in full swing! Though we are being teased with chance of a cold snap coming tomorrow {wink...wink - we know these are very rare}. So to warm everyone up, I have created a card featuring this cool "Flamingo Chillin' in Paradise".

This tropical card begins with this Flamingo in Hammock #5327 and the layered stylized sun #5329 from Viva Las Vegastamps!

Here's the details: I stamped it in orange on yellow stock, cut out and layered yellow and orange papers. The sun has a face, but I masked over it with a piece of cardstock, so it didn't take away from the flamingo. I edged with my favorite antique gold dew drop ink. 

I hand colored the flamingo with my watercolor pencils, then added some twinkle with liquid "Shimmerz Bling" in Under the Sea and Gold Shimmer. The flowers are Prima layered on a recycled tag from a totebag. This tag was the shape of a pretty flower, so it was perfect. I covered up text with acrylic paint, then added color back to fill in with my Caran D'ache water crayons and rubbed edges with antique gold. I pinched the corners to add dimension and adhered the prima flowers with a gem brad and popped up with some 3-D dots.

All of the paper layers are being held together with "MIRACLE Tape".

Now it's time to make some MAGIC happen! It looks great as it is, right? I think it needs a little something else. I am going back to add some dimension with Sakura Crystal Lacquer to really add some BAM!!!

I started by adding clear Crystal Lacquer to the sunglasses, beak and drink.

Next I added green and orange colored Crystal Lacquer to palm leaves, book cover, legs and shells.

 ...and a DRUMROLL PLEASE!!!

 

Here is the NEW and IMPROVED piece. Can you see the difference??? I realize it's hard to see from the photos, but the following photo show an extreme close-up. The Crystal Lacquer really makes the color pop! And the colored crystal lacquer adds extra depth as it retains it's transparent qualities. I can still see my coloring through it. Water can look like water, the beak and glass look like they are really 3-D. Very quick and easy and the results are fabulous!

Today is the last day to enter your creation for the VLVS Theme Challenge for November. Submit your "THANKS" 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 starting tomorrow December 1st!

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. Enjoy the rest of your week : )

I Like Cats Too!

First of all, I have to say that no cats were harmed in the making of this card! Secondly, I love cats and would never eat them!

I was looking through all the stamps that I got in my pound of rubber from Viva Las Vegastamps! and spotted this sentiment about exchanging cat recipes. I thought to myself that I would never use such a thing! But then, I saw this wonderful chef stamp, and my evil wheels started turning! For the little cat heads, I used a stamp of two cats playing leap frog and just used their heads.

After putting the stamps together in my head, I wasn't sure if I would like a card using cats in such a manner, so then I started looking for other ideas, and I found this cute stamp of a dog with a chef hat! So then it didn't seem so bad. I think the Chef leans toward weird, but then the dog balances that out by leaning toward cute since that is the type of behavior we can expect from dogs. At least in cartoons anyway.



For both cards, I stamped my images on white cardstock, and colored with Copic markers. I used pattern paper for my backgrounds and inked my edges and then glued my pieces in place.

Please feel free to stop by my blog to say hello and see my other Viva Las Vegastamps! projects! Thanks for stopping by!

So who can relate to this card?

While browsing in the Viva Las Vegastamps! store a few weeks ago, I noticed the unusually large selection of stamps of different women with unique facial expressions. Then I came across this sentiment (see card) and knew I could put it to use.

The two stamps that I used are:
Lady With Dog #7546
First He Put Me On A Pedestal #3128
I stamped using Memento ink and then colored with Copic markers. Then I inked my edges and assembled as pictured with some coordinating patterned paper. I raised the matted picture piece with foam tape and finished with three orange rhinestones. This looks like someone who would own a lot of jewelry so I thought the rhinestones were a good match!

That’s my project for this week. Be sure to stop by my blog to say hello and see all of my Viva Las Vegastamps! projects in one place. Thanks for looking, would love to hear your comments.