Unique Laser Designs: Couture Hanging Tag

I have been a terrible blogging crafter, as I haven't done either for two weeks.  I am even late posting this, my debut project for Unique Laser Designs.  Please, don't fire me, Shilo!

This project was made for a dress form swap at Scraps of Darkness.  I love making items to swap with fellow crafters from all over the world.  I knew I wouldn't have much time once August began, and I doubled up on projects.

Here is the hanging tag:

I have used the Graphic 45 "Couture" collection for the image and the quote inside of the frame.  The dress form is Prima Marketing resin.  The feathers are probably chicken.

Close-ups:  

For further information, please see my post at:

Or if you have any questions, please ask in the comments section or email me ( veryvibrantviolette at gmail dot com) and I will try to answer coherently.  Thanks for stopping by!

Z is for Zoo

My blog looks like I haven't been very busy.  I swear that I have been busy though!  I had meant to write this post and schedule it for this morning.  Good intentions and all that...

Here is my project for the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Z is for Zoo challenge.  

Alas, it is snark free. I did try to channel my inner Tim Holtz on this card. 

My animal is a zebra.  I had some zebra print brads, which were black and white, but I used a Staz-On ink pad to make them black and brown.  I don't like using bright white embellishments when my card doesn't have any other white.  

The zebra stamp is from Sin City Stamps and the sentiment stamp is an old Tim Holtz stamp that I have had forever.  

Thanks for stopping by and happy travels!

Please stop by and visit my Snarky Sisters (list to the right)  and our reigning queen, Darnell, who is our Guest Designer this challenge.

L is for Layer: One Layer Card

A one layer card is flat. I was good at these when I was six. Now these cards are hard!

I made a few different cards before I found this digital stamp from Bugaboo.   I threw out card version one. Then I made this one. It's fun getting artsy with Distress Inks.

But I wasn't feeling the love.  

A friend was entering the Christmas in July challenge at Bugaboo. I popped to the site and saw that they were having a Christmas in July sale.  I love a sale!  I also need to expand some of my snarky craft collection. I just haven't been living up to the Snarky Sisterhood standards lately.

I printed and colored this image twice. I was in experimentation mode with my PanPastels. I was pretty happy with my result and I pasted the card onto a piece of Cardstock so it could become a full fledged card. I trimmed off the excess card stock and some of the excess image because I wasn't paying attention or I was drinking or became suddenly blind. So I present you with attempt number three of the wine image!

Ooopsies.

Finally the  finished product.  

This image is the Frame It-Red Wine digistamp from Bugaboo.  I colored it with PanPastels and Prisma Color pencils.

My Snarky Sisters and I made some flat Ednas.  Here in my flat Edna in Rothenburg.  If you'd like your own flat Edna please take her and make your own!  Please stop by the Sisters' Blogs and check out what they have put together for the Layer Challenge.

Together Artist Trading Cards

Over the weekend I decided to get to know my PanPastels better.  I wanted to make some of the velvety smooth, color intense backgrounds that they can achieve.  

I used the pastels with embossing ink with stencils or rubber stamps.  I double stamped the images on the orange ATC, first with embossing ink and clear embossing powder then with black Staz-On over the clear embossing.  This was followed by adding details with white paint.  The next layer was a coat of Prima's Color Bloom Spray in Pearl White.    

I had read that using the Color Bloom Spray over the PanPastel would set the pastel.  I'm not sure if this is true, because I think I just made a sticky mess.  I let the cards dry over night and they were still sticky to the touch, which I combated with a layer of matte gel medium.  I added the embellishments with the gel medium.

Here is my result of my playing around.  The first image shows how I stamped over the resist image.  This one was a bit further off than I intended, but I wanted to show doubled image.

Then the finished cards.

The stamps I used are from the Five Nostalgic Couples from Rubber Dance.

 Thanks for stopping by!

Guest Designing for Rubber Dance

In May, I found a small rubber stamp company through DT calls.  I hadn't heard of this company before so I investigated.  This company is called Rubber Dance and is a owned by Bibi Lindahl in Norway.

Her stamps are amazing!  I instantly fell in love with the company and applied to the design team.  

I was asked to guest design!  How exciting!  I just love new toys.

I have been sitting on a project for almost a year, not quite sure where I wanted to go with my project.      I had papered the box and tags and then the project stalled.  Once I asked to guest design, I decided I wanted to use the Retro Beach stamps!  

The Retro Beach stamps are gorgeous.  The Sea Mesh background stamp is one of my favorites and I have been using it for all sorts of textures.  I used every stamp on the sheet in this project.

I stamped with Distress Ink, and then I sprayed the stamped images with water.  The water made the ink wick and I figured it was a great effect for a beachy project. This is why the stamps are a bit blurry.  Then I used embossing powder on the edges and images to stand in for sand.  

Above is the project with only stamping and embossing.  Below are finished sides of the box.

The top of the box:

Here is the box with the mini-album.  I would have liked to add more embellishments to the album, but I also wanted it to be able to fit into the box.  

Here are some details so that you can see how the Distress Ink and embossing effects.

I hope you have enjoyed my mini-album and box made with stamps from Rubber Dance!  Thanks for stopping by!

Click the badge to go to my GD post.

B is for Buttons or Brads

It's time for challenge number 12 at the Snarky Sisterhood.  We want to see your buttons or brads.  Edna prefers Brads.  I think she has pretty good taste!

I went with the brad option myself.  

The image is from Rubber Dance, which I cut apart so I could reattach the limbs with brads.  Both backgrounds are made with Tim Holtz products.  I have used a layering stencil, Distress Paint and Distress Ink on this card.

Please check out what my Snarky Sisters have made for this challenge.  Thanks for stopping by.  If you want to be the Queen of Snark, you have until July 25 at 2355 PDT to enter your project.