Mail art : recycled envelope

Hello my dear crafty friends and welcome to my my last for this term VLVS tutorial!

This is my very first mail art project and I just hope I did it right. But then, with Mixed Media there is no right or wrong things; so I hope you do like it and I made a good job.

Here we go!

Step by step tutorial:

1. Take the old envelope and open it as shown. Cover it all with a layer of gesso and let it dry. Do not try to make the perfect coverage; just a bit is  sufficient for this project.

2. Take a few Iridescent Ann Butler's Clearsnap paint and cover the gesso over with a mix of 3-4 of them. Those paints are Gel Medium based, shiny and very thin ones. Wipe  some paint with baby wipe as shown and let it dry.

3. Tear a couple of paper rectangles and glue them with non permanent glue on the top right corner and the low left corner (this will be the place for the shipping info). Add a bit of paint around just to wet the edges of those rectangles and add  black embossing powder over the wet edges. Heat emboss the powder.

4. Peel off the paper rectangles and this is what we have now: one layer painted envelope.

5. Grab your favorite VLVS stamps and stamp them over the envelope with black Archival ink.

Actually this ink was the last one I tried over the sample piece. I tried pigmented ink  and it didn't work over the glossy paint. Then I tried solvent ink- BIG NO! Then I tried die inks- different brands- and it was still a mess. The last one left- ARCHIVAL- made the job.

 The full stamps list in on the bottom of this post.

6. As the next step I added a few stencil strokes with white Chalk It Up ESF paint over the Stencilgirl stencils and added a few more VLVS images to make it look finished. I used stencil with the words with meaning: like SECRET over the front and Inside Out on the back  and not just lovely splashes.

7. Finally, as I didn't like the colors too much, I added a few layers of another colors of the same kind of semi translucent paints, more in pinks/blues and as you see the images are still seen and the color  looks more interesting.

And this is how the finished envelope looks:

And the back of the envelope:

VLVS stamps used :

Discover Item 19024 Plate 890

Special delivery Item 19559 Plate 1451

 Writing  Arrow Item 19078 Plate 917

Deliver toItem 19562 Plate 1451 

Postal Background Item 14596 Plate 1200 Cancellations, Postmarks, Postmark Collage

Map of the world  Item 19340 Plate 1435

Tricycle  Girl  Mailing Letter  Item 19558 Plate 1451

Happy mail enclosed  Item 19560 Plate 1451

Dictionary page Item 19015 Plate 890

To my out of this world friends: card tutorial

Hello my dear crafty friends and welcome to my VLVS monthly tutorial.

This time I made a card, but then it's a very Mixed Media card after all and it even looks more like an art piece.

So here we go!

Step by step instructions:

1. Cover the card sized white cardstock piece with a few layer of double sided Miracle tape  as shown. I used 1/2'' tape, but it can be done with thinner or thicker one too.

2.Use  square punches or just hand cut a few squares and rectangles to cover the entire piece and then glue them into the grid over the double sided tape. Do not try to cover all gaps as we really want to see them later.

3. Sprinkle blue glitter over the glued squares and see how it fills the gaps left over the glue.

3. Pick your VLVS stamps and stamp over the entire piece with white pigmented ink and heat emboss with black fine detail embossing powder. You can see all four stamps I used to make this card. They all totally fit the sentiment I had in my mind for this card.

4. Color the stamped images with distress markers as shown.

5. Ink the whole surface with a mix of distress inks over the and around the images.

Add your sentiment made of small stickers. 

I made my sentiment as " To my out of this world crazy soul mates" and I mean my craft friends!

Hope you liked my small tutorial!

VLVS products used :

Miracle tape 1/2''

Whimsical Moon Face Item 19519 Plate 1448

Alien circle  Item 7138 Plate 648 Page 378

Alien space scene left 2*2   Item 19372 Plate 1439

Alien space scene right 2 1/4*2 1/4 Item 19369 Plate 1439

Let's get lost in unknown destination

Hello my dear crafty friends and welcome to first VLVS post in September.

Irit is here and this time I decided to make a journal page again (so what if it's not in my journal? I can always glue it into with a drop of a good glue, like a few strips of VLVS Miracle tape); it's just easier to make those art pages separately.

As you know any art journal page needs  it's title. So first thing I picked my titles from my VLVS stamps collection (not as big with sentiments as I want, but yet I can manage ). So my title as picked is Destination Unknown and as the extra words I added Let's get lost, Discover and Explore.

The next step was  to pick the color scheme and I decided on reds and blues with a bit of coppers.

The whole page was built around the couple- they can be a family, friends or just random people around who are moving somewhere, but yet not sure about the  destination.

Each image was stamped with clear embossing ink (I used VersaMark as that's what I have, but any clear ink is perfect); then I heat embossed each stamped image with coordinating embossing powder: red, blue, copper and black. The heat embossed background is misted and inked with distress inks. I usually begin with mists and if the coverage is not sufficient I add inks and more mists.

My favortie background stamps were used to make the background:

Cracked background,Solid color wheel, Color wheel lines, Torn paper and Postal background.

I hope you liked my art piece.
VLVS USED TO MAKE THIS PIECE:
Cracked background  Item 16208 Plate 1287
Solid color wheel-Item 19339 Plate 1435
Color wheel lines-Item 19338 Plate 1435
Let's get lost Item 19348 Plate 1435
Destination unknown Item 19019 Plate 890
Discover Item 19024 Plate 890
Explore Item 19022 Plate 890
 Writing Arrow Item 19078 Plate 917
Postal background Item 14596 Plate 1200 
Man and Woman symblom  Item 19080 Plate 917
Torn paper Item 19341 Plate 1435

Discover Chipboard Printer's Tray {GDT : Irit Shalom}

>>> We are welcoming Irit Shalom back today with a guest spot. Please visit her first post to learn more about her.

Hello my dear crafty friends! Today I am going to show you my second project made as VLVS Guest designer and this is my tribute to Steampunk. About a year ago I hardy knew that this word exists. Now I am a proud steampunk lover and I made this chipboard tray as my 2014: Steampunk year.

I should say that the only Steampunk stamps I own are from Viva Las VegaStamps! and I bought them long before I was asked to be their guest designer. I just think that VLVS have the best assortment of steampunk stamps in the world! I believe that this is true and not just my statement. Then I have a few steampunk chipboards and some Tim Holt
metals. That is practically all. But look how much can be done just with a bunch of lovely stamps, some inks and a lot of imagination!

So here is my tray: each window is heavily stamped, heat embossed and inked over. 

Some of the windows are collaged and some were made with a single stamped image only. The grunge 2014 letters were hand cut and adhered over 3d foam glue for the dimension. I even stamped this small letter in the bottle with Dictionary stamp and rolled into the tiny bottle. As for other techniques: I used crackled paint over the frame and added a darker shade with more ink over the dry paint. I changed the color of metal plaque with alcohol ink. I heat embossed the chipboards around with a mix of 2-3 embossing powders. Not much and maybe even too much. I like the final result and I am very proud of my steampunk project.

VLVS PRODUCTS:
Number strip, Charred wood background, Cracked background, Dictionary page, Discover, Color wheel lines, Flying watch, Grunge 1, Grunge 2, Grunge 4, Grunge 0, Washi grid background, Stained glass mosaic background, Steampunk cat, Steampunk head large, Steampunk gear hair, Diver in suit


Other products:

Tando Creative, Wycinanka, Ranger, Clearsnap, Meg's Garden, Prima, Tim Holtz- Advantus, WOW! Embossing Powders, Ranger, FWAB

And finally I want to thank DeeDee and VLVS for the great chance to be their guest designer. I hope I inspired VLVS blog readers and hope to be back here some day!

>>> Irit! Thank YOU! for being here, inspiring us, and sharing your beautiful work on our blog.

Guest Designer : Irit Shalom

Today we have a special guest on the blog - Irit Shalom! She's been an avid fan of VLVS! for quite some time, and I'm excited to have her work featured on the blog. You won't be disappointed! She's a master stamp layerer and you're going to drool over her piece today.

My name is Irit and I am from sunny Isreal. In my "real life" I am a dentist, but for the last 5 years I do it as a part time job, because I need some extra time for my scrapping and crafting addiction and I have a lot of fun doing something else after 25 years of dentistry. I have been married for 31 years to a retired high police officer, who is the full time family cook these days. 

I am a mom to 4 grown ups: 2 sons and twin daughters. The empty nest is probably the main reason for my obsession for crafting - finally I have some time for myself. My oldest son is an army officer, married and a father of my 2 adorable grandchildren. My second son is "a world traveler" - for the last 7 years after his army service he is out of Israel for at least 9 months a year - lives and works in Spain. My twins are college graduates,just got their first real jobs and one of them is getting married in a few months.

For many years it was a polymer clay and jewelry making artist, but after I saw a scrapbook layout for the first time in my life (only 6 years ago during my visit to USA), I finally understood that I am in love with paper. Today I mostly scrap, stamp and do altered art. I have been a design team member for about 20 manufacturers in the past. Right now I design for mainly stamp and tool companies around the globe. I was published in print in Israel, USA, UK and Australia and web published in every possible on-line magazine around the world. Last, but not least- my other addiction is..... Folk dancing. So if I am not in my crafting room - I am probably dancing. I am totally thrilled to be a VLVS guest designer and hope to do my best.

From Irit: First of all I want to say huge Thanks for this chance to be VLVS guest designer for August. I got a lot of fantastic stamps to use for my projects and as I have much more at home it was very easy to make a big project and to have any stamp you need to make it.

This altered 5 paged project was made as an "inspiration lifting" art piece. But then I lifted it from myself, so it's totally right. I made a similar project like 18 months ago for the recent, just out of the print, issue of Rubber Stamp Madness and I made 4 "Houses of Everything" for the big article using RSM house template. I think that we all have a lot of different houses in our life that we fill with things we love or dream of. For the original project I picked houses of Dream, Imagination, Adventure and Knowledge.

This new project, made for VLVS Guest post was made in the similar way, but after all it's totally different. I made 4 different house shapes, free hand cut; I used only VLVS stamps, quite a lot of them; I made totally different house this time and I called them "Houses of Anything". I also picked 3 of 4 houses that are totally different from the original work: house of Memories, Hope, and Art and added the Adventure.

All of the pages were made in a similar way: resist emboss technique with white and black embossing powders over clear embossing ink. More stamping was made with black permanent ink. Some of the shapes were stamped with image masks; some were stamped one over another to make these themed collages. All roofs were separately stamped and name of the house was added with letter stickers. Over some pages I
added stamped and hand cut images for the 3d textured look. Each page was colored with inks or water colors and I added just a few chipboards and stickers to make it more interesting. And if anyone, who knows my work, wonders why this piece is so "flat" and not over embellished as my usual work, the answer is simple: I was asked to make a project with VLVS stamps. They should be a star of this piece and
not lots of embellishments and my glue gun.Thanks for reading this long post and see you again in two weeks with a totally different VLVS project.

VLVS Stamps Used:
Clockface, Flock of geese, Weathered tree, Banksy girl floating with balloons, Businessman silhouette, Butterfly specimens, Alien circle, Brick background, Film strip, Map of the world, Number strip, Solid color wheel, Washi grid background, Washi lines background, Stained glass mosaic background, Charred wood background, Cracked background, Dictionary page, Handholding circle, Sunken anchor, Explore, Nautical collage, Discover,  Destination unknown, Let's get lost, Torn paper, Color wheel lines, You color my world, Pocket watch, Watch movement, Flying watch, Swirl, Bellows camera, Clock, Writing Arrow, Dandelion silhouette


Other products:
White cardstock: American Crafts, Inks: Clearsnap, Ranger, Paints: Faber Castell DMC Gelatos, Chipboards, wood: Wycinanka, Metal: Meg's Garden, Bling, stickers: Flourish with a Bling, Letters: Pink Paislee, American Crafts, other, Other: ribbons

Spotlight Shift!!

I thought it seemed like a good day to spotlight some of our fans and their projects!!

 

This first one is from Mary Vogel Lozinak, who is actually an artist of ours here @ VLVS! -- The stamp she uses on this is a favorite of many : Don't Let Anyone Ever - 3/4 x 2

 

The second is by one miss Irit Shalom - she finished with our Clock - 2 1/2 x 2 3/4

 

And last but never least is Michele Kosciolek who has been loving our Butterfly 3 1/4 x 3 1/4!

We really enjoy seeing work by fans using our stamps - so if you're playing around why don't you share something? You can always share it on our Facebook page!