Cats and Hats

Have you visited our new Shopify shop Veralanestudiodigitals.com?  We have a growing inventory of unique and quirky designs that will bring smiles to your crafting. 

Today’s feature is Cats and Hats. 

Unleash your inner crafter with Cats and Hats! This stamp set features three plump and whimsical cats, four crazy hats, and a sentiment, perfect for adding a playful touch to your projects. With both JPG and PNG files included, the possibilities are endless! (Pawsome, right?!)

https://veralanestudiodigitals.com/search?q=cats+and+hats

 

Watercolor creams with sequin waste

I love sequin waste.  It comes in a Mylar roll in various “sequin” sizes.  The holes are from where the sequins are punched.  They make amazing stencils and are great for backgrounds.

For this fast and easy background I layer a piece of sequin waste on my cardstock.  You can hold in place or tape down with washi tape to avoid any shifting.  I used a red watercolor cream, from Brea Reese and rubbed over the sequin waste, using it as a stencil.  I took a baby wipe and rubbed out some areas.  I repositioned the “stencil” and rubbed over the holes to leave some of the circular patterns showing.

The monochromatic background is just enough tp layer your card elements.  The little whimsical girl is from the Vera Lane Studio set “Give me some sugar”   Keeping this card in the red tones makes for a visually pleasing composition with very little effort!

New releases and crafting disasters

July is flying by and we added several sweet little gals to the shop and a dancing kitty.  There will be a surprise "soft release" this Wednesday, July 26 so please stay tuned! 

Our first July release has become a shop favorite-- our Kokeshi Dolls.  It's a set of five little cuties, and accent flower and a sentiment.  With our ATC challenge theme using your favorite VLS character with blooms this set has been certainly been a hit!  Our design team has posted fabulous samples featuring these gals.  We are finding these gals as so easy to color, fussy cut and paper piece!  Chiyogami Paper makes a terrific background or fussy cut for a doll's kimono. We are also loving the play with hair color as this lime green-headed Kokeshi by design team member Mischelle Smith.  This will be one of the stunning cards traded in our current ATC swap!


Our second July release is "Just Dance."  This value bundle 8 stamp set

comes with a sweet ballerina in her tutu, her dancing kitty, a studio door, a headband and crown and sentiments.  The studio door can be trimmed to make a glass window with acetate for any of our characters to stand behind.  Use our little dancer alone or with the other elements in the set. This set is adorable for the dancer in your life, journal entries, birthday greetings and invites.  Add glitter and gems to create a special artwork for someone special.

We have all had our share of crafting disasters in our studio spaces.  My dog loves to come into my studio and stretches his little body to eat paper items off my table.  I have found many long labored cards and coloring half eaten in other parts of our home.  Or maybe when I nearly drank my paint water or cleaned my brush in my coffee?  Or when precious Copics unknowingly fell into the wastebasket and had to be replaced!  Unfortunately my list is not a short one.  If you have a crafting disaster we are doing a give-away for your story on our private VLS FB group.  Please join us and you have a chance to win the July 26th soft release set.

Why Digi Stamps?

Hello and welcome back to Vera Lane.  I have been absent on the blog scene post two eye surgeries but my goal is to get back and hopefully provide some useful information for new and old fans of VLS.

What are Digi Stamps?

A digi stamp is designed by an artist much in the same way a rubber stamp is designed with the crafter in mind.  Many applications overlap.  A digi stamp is readily accessible and downloads after purchase.  The files are stored on your computer and can be used over and over again.  Digi stamps are digital files scanned, cleaned and saved in high resolution jpg or png format.  What does that  mean?  You can resize and your image will still be crisp and clean, ready to color!  Images are brought into your graphics program (or even a word processor such as MS Word) and manipulated to your liking and printed on your computer for purposes of paper art crafts.

 

ATC by Sharon Rogers

A digi stamp, unlike rubber, can be resized, made thinner or thicker, reversed and rotated.  If you are using png images, images can be combined.  For example:  this character on the left does not come wearing a hat -- the hat image can be resized and stretched or pinched to fit any character.  Images are layered on your screen. "Love" is also a separate digi stamp.  Sharon reduced it to fit on the brim of the hat.  The combined image is printed, colored and fussy cut as one.

The png image holds no white space around it.  A jpg file has a "white box" surrounding the image.  You will not be able to layer a jpg file in the way you can manipulate png files because the surrounding white box is in the way.  When using a jpg you will have to print, manually layer and fussy cut as you would with rubber stamps.  Sizing for overlaps with jpgs may be trickier since you will do this post printing your sheet. 

ATC by Stephanie Eaton

Digi Stamp Advantages:

• Many images readily available for instant download with no shipping costs!
• Space saver -- images are stored on your computer or file folders to color later
• Use ink from your laser printer or ink jet (print in grayscale to avoid smears)
• Ink color can be changed on computer
• Color as you would a rubber stamped image with desired media
• Can be scaled to any size for ATCs, journals, planners, cards, invites and more
• Can layer and print as one
• Very affordable

You can see that digi stamps offer a wide range of design opportunities.  Vera Lane Studio is the leader in value priced bundles.  Our sets work together to give you an unlimited possibilities for your paper crafting . Most of our sets come with sentiments additional images and image accessories that can be combined to suit your design tastes.

Getting started is as simple as opening a word-processing program such as MS Word.  You do not need fancy software.  Photoshop, Photo elements, Publisher and even free downloadable programs will do the job as well. 

Creating a page layout is fun and easy.  Bring your image file in, resize and position.  Work with single items or create a scene.  You can squeeze many images on a page to print out and store in a file folder to color later. 

We have a few videos on our YouTube channel to get you started. Our closed FaceBook community has many talented members including our fabulous VLS Design Team eager to help and advise.  If you are not already a member come and find us and join our friendly community!

Next week we will talk about printers and papers.

Announcing the January 2017 Vera Lane Studio Design Team

With an overwhelming number of applicants for our first Vera Lane Studio Design Team  we are confident this talented group of ladies will inspire you with their weekly makes.  We will be adding guest designers so others will also have an opportunity to showcase their talents using our whimsical and quirky digi stamps. 

We are a friends community first.  Our closed FaceBook group allows a safe haven for sharing and new friendships.  Vera Lane is a place to play, a place to get away from daily worries and escape into creativity and inspiration. 

A special shout out to our Design Team Coordinator Nikki Woodward for her dedication and hard work behind the scenes as well as being and super talented designer!

Meet the Design Team!

Nikki Woodward; Design Team Coordinator

Our VLS Design Team Coordinator has been behind the scenes at Vera Lane for quite some time!  Nikki has coordinated for other stamping site challenges but has found her happy place here on Vera Lane (and we are excited to have her park here)!  Nikki has been an admin for VLS as well as our crafty cheerleader! She hails from Canada with roots in the UK.

Nikki, is mom to three (handsome) superheroes, a wife and a passionate experimenter of all things arty and crafty. She describes her style as eclectic, having a love for whimsical, quirky and the unusual. Nikki loves mixed media, colour, using different techniques and tools. Her favorite thing to make and trade are artist trading cards, but also make cards and art journal. Nikki tries to approach everything with a positive attitude and a lot of humour, its got to be fun - right?  

Stephanie Eaton

Stephanie is our "Grunge Designer in Residence" here at Vera Lane Studio. Her painterly style and grunge techniques offer a unique look with our VLS characters.  Stephanie is currently working as the education coordinator at her local JoAnn Fabric and Craft Store in Jackson TN. She was also a Head Start teacher for 9 years. Stephanie has a passion for teaching and sharing all things art and crafts. 

Stephanie is a 42 yr old mother of two creative adults and touts that her creativity grounds her and keeps her sane!  Look for Stephanie's creations on Instagram.

Teresa Morgan

Perhaps you know Teresa from her 100 days of Vera Lane Studio ATCs!  What an accomplishment as she inspired many with her endless creativity!

Teresa lives in Staffordshire, England with her partner, daughter, her partner and two cats! Teresa has been crafting in one way or another for most of her life and started card-making around 12 years ago. Teresa  decided to start blogging a few years ago, and this led to her invite to couple of design teams.

Teresa is an "outside of the box" thinker and has fun trying out new products and techniques. She enjoys altered art, journaling, and mixed media, as well as card making.

When not covered in paint and glue, Teresa loves to get outside and enjoy the countryside. She is an avid photographer, always looking for interesting details or beautiful plants to photograph.

Teresa has made wonderful friends on social media through her crafting, and is looking forward to making some more lovely friendships in this team!

Carole Jones

Carole is from the North West of England and lives with her lovely hubby and kitty, Casey. Carole loves all types of arts and crafts and can spend hours in her craft room, losing all track of time. She currently enjoys making cards, tags, ATCs and boxes - in fact anything from paper. Carole's eclectic taste can range from cute and whimsical to shabby chic and vintage. Carole is an avid fan of challenges and we look forward to her challenging you!

Sharon Rogers

Sharon Rogers in not new to Vera Lane -- she has been playing on our lane from the very beginning!  Active in our FaceBook group Sharon's creations are always inspiring. 

Sharon has been crafting for at least half of her forty-eight years. From rubber stamping, sewing, papercrafts, ceramics, cross stitch, beading –" LOL you can imagine the “stash” of things I have – can’t bear to throw anything out not even a scrap of paper – never know when it might come in handy!"  Don't we know it!

Sharon is married with two adult daughters (23 & 19) and two dogs.  Sharon works in their own turf Management business as a greenkeeper and drives a truck!!

Crafting is Sharon's only hobby and form of relaxation and creativity – She crafts whenever she can – even take digi images to bed to colour before she goes to sleep!

Sharon has been on several design teams but now chooses to park her truck here on Vera Lane! And we are thrilled that she is here!

Miscelle Smith

Mischelle Smith has been in the papercrafting world for over 20 years.  In her ‘old life’ she was the founder of a stamping company that reached stampers worldwide.  Today, this die-hard stamper has spread her wings into the worlds of mixed media, journaling, scrapbooking and everything she considers ‘Artsy Fabulous’. 

Mischelle considers most of her work ‘Art Therapy’.  “Art heals me – the entire creative process heals me and feeds my soul.  Without art in my life I would be nothing more than an empty vessel.” 

Mischelle’s style is broad – from eclectic to creepy, whimsical to unique, traditional to classic – she likes to explore and experiment with everything the industry has to offer.  “I love pretty much everything made for papercrafters.  Yep.  Pretty much everything.”

Over the years Mischelle has been published in many of the industry publications; has been a guest artist on the Carol Duvall show several times; and has made guest artist appearances on Paint, Paper and Crafts.

Mischelle lives in the heart of Kansas with her husband, Kevin, and their two kids – Kevin II (Boy) and Sophie.  Their American Bulldog, Stella, is not only the glue that holds the family together – she is also the most photographed member of the family.

Meet our special "Pop-up" Designer, Jane (Not so Plain Jane) Wetzel

Our intros would not be complete without a special shout out to Jane Wetzel.  Jane is no stranger to design teams but like a true artist does not conform.  Jane has been playing on Vera Lane for a while with her creative and unique art pieces offering a little something different and whimsical.  Jane is a true mixed media artist, whether she is using home-made stencils or creating small canvases or wooded boards her creations are truly inspirational.  Don't look for Jane on any given day -- she's our pop-up designer, you just never know when the VLS mood strikes her!

Welcome all design team members! 

We are looing forward to your creativity and sharing.

Please leave a comment and a chance to win a set from our shop!

Tiny Snow Family

The Tiny Snow Family is our last set to be released in 2016!  This is a sweet little quirky snow family with SnowMom, SnowDad, snowboy and snowdog!  Two cute sentiments complete the set.

Our set will come to you in both png and jpg high quality resolution files without watermarks.  Your immediate download from our Etsy Shop can be saved to your computer for personal used.  These little guys can be used for cards, tags, planners, journals and holiday giving bookmarks!

No coupons needed as our sets are always bundled, always discount priced!  If you are new to Vera Lane Studio please stop by our shop!

Have a little fun

The Stampotique Designer's Challenge (SDC 163)  is calling up the use of an older stamp and give it new life.

Large Fleurfly is most definitely a blast from the past.  She's part of the Fleur de Girl collection, my original line for Stampotique.

I found a book text "Have a little fun" -- and I did, creating a funky little background for this image.  This little card fits into an A2 envelope and the art measures 3.75" x 4.5". 

Large Fleurfly is colored with Prismacolor pencils.  The background is patterned scrapbookpaper that I brayered with white acrylic. I smeared some more paint with my fingers, collaged a bit, and accent black acrylic with my liner brush. 

I have a box of nice quality A2 envelopes and I like making cards this size in advance.  When I am looking for something to send, I peruse my collection and see what fits.  Certainly the message "Have a little fun" would be a welcomed greeting.