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!

Tag concertina

This tiny tag concertina is a fast little make that can be tucked in an envelope along with a greeting for that extra surprise and smile.    

To create:

1. Wet watercolor paper with a brush or spritz with water. 

2.  Brush on Brea-Reese glitter ink. The micro glitter sparkles leaves a nice shimmer (which is hard to detect in the photographs). 

3. Experiment with wet on wet, dripping more ink on wet areas.  

4. Add highlights by dipping  a clean brush and plain water.  The plain water will “erase” or lighten the color.

5. Allow drying time. Use a die cut or a tag punch to make tags.  Position your punch to capture the most interesting part of your painting.   

6.  Add your stamped or digistamp images and some text.  Attach the tags with strips of washi tape or scrapbook paper strips with a glue stick. 

Create a stack of tags for later use.  Can also be cute as gift tags, hang tags on wine bottles or attached to a cellophane bag of goodies.  

Alcohol Inks from Brea Reese

This square card was a total experiment with the Brea Reese Alcohol inks.  These super intense affordable inks are a fun medium for interesting backgrounds for your cardmaking.  I did not have any waterproof paper on hand so I took a gamble and used photo paper.  I was thrilled to see the colors mix and create this glaze-like layered effect.

My little chicks are from Vera Lane Studio’s Farm Animal set 2 .  The chicks are colored in COPIC markers and mounted on foam squares.  The stamp sticker is from K& Company.

Welcome Guest Designer for February; Bonnie Irvine

We are excited that Bonnie is joining us as guest designer for Vera Lane Studio.  Bonnie has been a fan favorite and frequent poster.  Her passion for Vera Lane images really shows in her brilliant and cheerful creations and excellent workmanship.  We hope you will follow Bonnie's weekly postings along with the rest of our stellar team.  
  

My name is Bonnie Irvine and I live in a tiny rural town in western Ontario, Canada. I have been a craft fanatic since I was a little girl. It's always been my go-to free time activity. I love creating with paper, paint, inks, and especially digital stamps since they give me the flexibility I need for the various sizes and substrates I work on. Mixed media and art journaling are a particular favourite and I love the way Vera Lane Studio images spark my creativity and suit my colourful quirky style. I am delighted to guest design with this talented team this month.

Please enjoy this video clip of some of Bonnie's amazing cards using Vera Lane Studio images. 

Our Design Team is Growing! Meet our new memeber Tasha!

We are moving into our fall season on Vera Lane and are happy to announce our newest Design Team member, Tasha Nez.  Our Design Team guest and talent coordinator Stephanie Eaton was our scout on this lucky find!  Tasha has been a Vera Lane Studio fan within her busy school schedule.  Having guest hosted for us in the past with favorable reviews we are so excited she is joining us full time!  Here is a little bit about Tasha: 

My name is Tasha and I’m a mixed-media artist, amateur
photographer/graphic designer and gallery assistant for a non-profit
art organization. I’m from a small city in sunny New Mexico! I
recently graduated from college and received an Associate’s Degree in
Human Services focusing on Substance Abuse. Alongside having a passion
to help others I also have a passion for creating art! I like to
dabble in so many different forms of art from acrylic painting,
water coloring, book-making, photography, jewelry-making to
illustrating just to name a few.
I first started creating art almost six years ago by making artist
trading cards with sharpie markers as my only medium. Who knew that
those small cards would lead me on such a grand adventure! It is my
hope that I can inspire others to seek and discover creativity in
their everyday lives and make their worlds as colorful as can be.

I hope you will all join us in welcoming Tasha.

VLS May Guest Designer; Fran Chalmers

With our May theme " Blessings" we bring you another guest designer.  Fran Chalmers resides in the UK and is no stranger to Vera Lane Studio. She has been playing on the block for quite some time and is one of our most active ATC swap members, trading her cards all over the world.  Inspired by what others create with Vera Lane Studio images Fran is taking on the challenge of guest designer for the month of May.

Fran is 60 years young and is married with two lovely daughters and a handsome cocker spaniel named Angus.
Angus is a subject of many of Fran's photography shoots, and if you catch her on Instagram  you will see what a fabulous photographer she is!
Fran says she has no formal art training but loves to be creative and feels the "buzz" when she zones into her crafting mode.  Enjoying mostly creating cards and ATC's Fran looks forward to mixing it up and creating other crafty projects.

You will see Fran's creations on Sundays.  We are looking forward to Fran's creations this month!

A shout out and thank you to Stase Collins for giving us a great month of humorous inspiration with her creations in her April guest spot.  Our design team member Angie Jones will our hostess for our monthly ATC swap with the theme of "blessings."

Please look for our monthly new releases and creations from our team and our guest Fran!

April Guest Designer: Stase Collins

Our Guest Designer for April has been dazzling us with her creative creations by mixing and matching Vera Lane Studio images to create a wonky nursery rhyme book.  We've asked Stase to share a little bit about herself:

I am a 70 something year old who lives in the UK. I have been crafting for approximately the last 12 years and enjoy many types of craft. Mixed media, upcycling, making albums and cards to name just a few.
My latest obsession is the quirky and whimsical digital stamps from Vera Lane Studios, which I enjoy playing and having fun with. It keeps the brain active!!

Here are just three pages from Stase's book.  Please join us this month so you can view more of Stase's creations.  We have an active ATC swap also taking place.  If you are not part of our FaceBook community and like working with digi stamps look us up!

Collage Sheets on Vera Lane

Today we released our 15 image value bundle "Circles and Stems".  These images download in both png and jpg files.  The possibilities are endless with these graphic images to incorporate into your art journals, planners and all paper craft projects. The resize and distort to give you hundreds of variations -- link together to create a header for stationery or note cards.  Use as backgrounds.  Add a monogram.

Next week we will debut our Arthur Avenue collections.  These images are bright and bold, quirky and wonky!  Our team is having a blast working with the images and we are sure you will too.  In addition to the launch we will now be offering limited editions of collage sheets.  These sheets have multiple images pre-colored. Cut and paste for an easy craft fix or enhance with a touch of colored pencil or markers to blend into your art journaling and collages.

We've decided to add a collage sheet for the circle and stem set to introduce you to our new collage elements section. There are 27 colored images in this PDF file. For our limited license fee you may download repeatedly for your personal use.

Please check our shop regularly for weekly updates and new image sets!

Design Team 2018

Happy New Year everyone!   Vera Lane Studio has been busy planning ahead for our 2018 collections.  We released 2018 Matilda early and she has found her way into many hearts.  We have two new lines and our "Tiny Veras" that will be released each month, collage sheets and planner props too!  Our new line will lend itself to more art journaling and mixed media to prepare to see some new things emerging from the studio.

As we say goodbye to two design team members we are moving ahead with our very talented ladies; Corrie, Carole, Stephanie, Sharon, and Teresa.  New to Vera Lane Studio Design Team we are bringing aboard Angie Jones. Thanks to Stephanie for locating the perfect fit for our team, Angie has already been creating behind the scenes and you will love her style.  Angie is attracted to the quirkiness of Vera Lane Studio and has been a member of several design teams.  She would like to share a little bit about herself:  

"I live in Queensland, Australia with my hubby, son, daughter and our spoilt adopted Greyhound.

I have always loved colouring in since I can remember....my stamping / card making started around 30 years ago.....I bought some copic markers at a craft show about 3 years ago and sort of yes/ no for a year. Around 18 months ago, I did a few online classes and bam.....whole collection of markers now and I colour everyday!  I still have traditional stamps but I love and prefer Digital images now. I also create art journal pages, atc’s and have just really gotten into decorating my planner/diary."

Welcome Design Team 2018!

Please join us on Face Book and follow on Instagram to see what 2018 will bring!

Welcome October Guest Designer, Maxine Hole

It's hard to believe October is here and we are welcoming another guest designer to the Vera Lane Studio design team.  Maxine Hole comes from Croydon, England, a large town in South London.  Maxine has been a member of Vera Lane Studio fan group since June 2015 and would like to let you know a little bit about herself.

I live in Surrey and have been married 20 years.  I have two children , one now at college and the other looking at University. About 4 1/2 years ago I found I had more free time on my hands so I joined a local card group run by our previous guest designer Jo Harper, since then I haven't looked back.
I really enjoy making clever cards that move and I love getting my teeth into a project, so this guest spot has been a pleasure and has relit my passion for all things craft.  I hope you like what I have created, leave me a comment and say Hi!

You will be able to see Maxine's creations every Sunday in October!

October Nights - a collaborative with Papercakes and Vera Lane Studio

I'm excited to announce a month long collaborative with Vera Lane Studio and Papercakes by Serena Bee.  

The design team of Vera Lane Studio will be posting creations with Serena Bee's Papercakes paper collections Spooky Pastels and October Nights along with our quirky Vera Lane Studio digi stamps.  This collaboration is a perfect marriage of whimsy and fun!  With both digital download products the possibilities are endless and I am certain you will agree when you see what our design team has come up with.

Our collaboration will run the month of October.  Vera Lane Studio Digi Stamps has dozens of Halloween images for every taste, cute to spooky, whimsical to wonky.  The Papercakes paper collections offer a wide variety of patterns for you to mix and match to coordinate with your art creations.  To view this exciting collaboration please check us out on FaceBook.

Serena Bee's Papercakes collections can be found here.

Vera Lane Studio digi stamps can be found here.

I hope you will stop by and check out what our stellar Vera Lane Studio Design Team has come up with to celebrate October Nights!

Welcome Guest Designer Jo Harper

 Jo Harper will be joining the Vera Lane Studio design team in our guest designer spot for September.  Jo is no stranger to Vera Lane as an active participant in our monthly themed swaps.  Our theme for September is "The Royals".  Jo would like to share a little bit about herself:

I'm very excited to be chosen as a Sunday Guest Designer for Vera Lane, and have been busy trying to improve my colouring skills... I mostly make cards and ATC's, and I love funny quotes and words!

I have been married for 24 years, with two children, both at University. Oh, and a cat called Tortie! We live in a small village in the country, just outside London with quite a large garden, which occupies much of my time, growing fruit and vegetables and preserving.

I have been crafting for about 15 years, and run a local craft club with around 20 members (ages 27 to 94) – we love playing with ink, paint and anything messy! We mostly make cards, and I have to come up with a design every week, which is sometimes quite a challenge!

I'm looking forward to sharing my creations with you – I love Janet's images, they are such fun and easy to use, and definitely suit my sense of humour!

We had a great month of samples from our Guest Designer Vicki Garret and we thank her for her wonderful contributions.  I know you'll be welcoming to our new guest Jo and will support her with your comments.

Meet our Sunday Guest Designer for August; Welcome Vicki Garrett!

We are excited to announce Vicki Garrett has joined the Vera Lane Studio Design Team as our Sunday Guest Designer for August.  Please look at her lovely weekly creations.  Vicki would like to share a little bit about herself!

I'm over the moon excited to be guest designing with Vera Lane Studio's this month!

I have been a huge fan of Janet's whimsical and quirky images when I discovered them in my early years of papercrafting. I enjoy many forms of creative expression, including paper crafting, mixed media, scrapbooking, writing and music. Visiting my blog has been described as a "surprise" given my lack of one certain style. I sure hope you enjoy what I've created for you this month!

Vicki will be joining our team in a month of sprinkles and sparkles!  I hope you will enjoy what we have in store for you this month!

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.

Meet our July Sunday Guest Designer; Linda Camus

Welcome to July on Vera Lane!  Not only are we adding a new design team member (Corrie Herriman) we are welcoming our July Guest Designer - Linda Camus!

I am so excited to be your Sunday guest designer for July.  My name is Lin and I am married with 2 adult sons. I have two dogs which keep me active and love going for long walks with them. I live in Tasmania, Australia which is a gorgeous part of the world and I am retired which gives me a little extra time for crafting.

I have been card making for at least 10 years and sell my work at our local market.  I am not one that like to do lots of layers and flowers. I am more of a clean and simple worker. 

Why do I love Vera Lane images? First and foremost, I love their quirky design, they are easy to colour and I just love how easy they are to fussy cut.  You can work with them in so many ways from a card to journal page.  Janet does a wonderful job and I hope my designs can do the digi’s proud.

Linda will be bringing you lots of inspiration this month every Sunday. 

Visit Lin's blog at: lin-linscards.blogspot.com.au

Lin's creations along with the rest of our team's eye-candy can be viewed in our closed FaceBook group.  If you'd like to learn more about Vera Lane Studio you can join our FaceBook group or visit our FaceBook business page.

Windows and doors

We have two new releases this week on Vera Lane!  Our first release will be a shop favorite.  It is as versatile as it comes and can be integrated with your home photos and characters from our many collection.
Windows is an eight-image value bundle with five windows, a door and two sentiments.  Resize, stretch and pull these fun window frames to layers with characters or your family photos.  Our team has had so much fun playing with this set!

Design Team Member Teresa opens our week with these lovely samples that she shares on ur private FaceBook group.  All the characters are from other Vera Lane Studio sets!

Cute, right?  Please check our FB group to see the amazing projects our incredible design team has come up with  for the rest of our debut week!

Our second set release can be used with the windows quite well.  These "Girls on the block" faces make the cutest journal clips!  Use these heads for finger puppets or just about anything else!

April Guest Designer; Marina Prinsessan Holmen

Marina Prinsessan Holmen

I am delighted to announce our guest designer for the month of April, Marina Prinsessan Holmen.  Marina has been a fan of Vera Lane Studio digi stamps having submitted outstanding samples to share with our members,  I know the works she will be posting this month will be a treat!

Marina Prinsessan Holmen is 57 years young and loves to create cards.  Marina is married to a officer in military with 3 children ranging in ages 36, 21 and 19 and a  dog. Professionally Marina works children with special needs and has done so since 2003.

Inheriting her artistic vein from her mother and she from her mother , Marina loved to create art from an early age. Her art philosophy is to find beauty in the ugly, albeit Marina's creates are those of beauty!  When Marina had no time for pottery she began her paper crafting with scrapbooking -- that let to creating cards.  Marina has been creating wonderful paper crafts since 2002. 

Marina's creations will be posted on Wednesdays for the month of April.  I know you will be inspired by her creations.  Please welcome Marina in joining our fabulous and creative design team and cheer her posts on!  You can find more of Marina's creations on her blog at: www.frideborgsmys.blogspot.se

Digi Stamping; Papers and a new release

Paper choices

There are many paper types out there and it can be overwhelming to choose.  How you work, what type of media you prefer and how much are you willing to spend are factors in your decision making.

Reams of paper vary in weight and price.  In the US we measure by lb.  GSM (gram per square meter) is the Euro weight.  The heavier the paper weight the more substantial the paper.  Paper is measured in the weight of printer's sized sheets (not the size you put in a home printer).  Depending on the paper type printer's sheets can vary in size so it can become even more confusing!  

While I like a heavyweight cardstock many home printers do not.  I have printed up to 110lb and preference a 100lb. paper.  I find a 65-80 lbs. weight acceptable, this compares with about a 150GSM.

I have tested four papers with Copic markers and Prismacolor pencils and this is what I found.

Hammermill Paper, Color Copy Digital Cover, 80 lb, 8.5 x 11, Letter, 250 Sheets

This is my personal favorite.  It is a bright white very silky smooth paper.  The paper takes the printing ink very well and gives you a crisp image.  Copics blend very well with no feathering and maintain true colors.  Prismacolors go down smoothly.  It is a very reasonable price at about $10-12 a ream.  The heavier stock costs a little more.  I had switched to 80lb. just to take a little stress off the printer and it does the job. Personally I prefer this white over the other samples.

***Neenah Premium Cardstock, 96 Brightness, 65 lb, Letter, Bright White, 250 Sheets

Neenah is my second choice, although I think all these papers you will find suitable for digi stamp printing and coloring.  Neenah Bright White takes both Copic and Prismascolors well maintaining true color and vibrancy.  Ink prints crisp and clear. The 65lb. weight does not give the substance of the heavier weight but it works and can also be found for a few dollars less.  The white has a bit of a yellow cast to it when compared with the other samples.

Many crafters preference the Classic Crest Super Smooth Solar White 80# Cover 8.5"x11" 250/pack.  this paper is about $36.00 a ream.  I had ordered the wrong paper but was still happy with Neenah quality.  The Classic Crest Solar White does get great reviews but I do not have it to compare.  I have read that people love it or hate it for Copics so I suppose it depends on the artist.  For 1/3 the price I found the Premium Card Stock a decent paper.               

                                                                                  

Copic Markers Blending Card by X-Press It, 25 Sheets (250GSM) **110lbs US 

This is a bright white smooth surface paper designed by Copic for Copic markers.  The white has a bit of a blue- gray cast.  It is a pricy paper at about $15-$16 for only 25 sheets.  While the markers blend very nicely on the paper's slick surface I found that color loses a little vibrancy and washes out unless you add multiple layers.  The paper is designed for alcohol markers so pencils are not compatible for my tastes, I like a little more tooth to grab the pencil.  Not much of a fan for these reasons: cost, too white, not good for combining your media.

Georgia-Pacific White Cardstock Paper, 8.5" x 11", 110 lb, 150 Sheets 

If you are new to digi stamping or on a budget this is a great starter paper.  Many crafters use this paper.  You can pick up a ream for about $5.00.  This cardstock keeps colors very true but is a little trickier to blend with alcohol markers.  It will leave a little streaking if you aren't careful. It's a nice bright white and closest to the X-Press It in hue. The surface is not as smooth as the Hammermill or X-Press It. It does have a little more tooth which makes it better for pencil.  If you like combining the two on your images this paper is a fair choice.

I have the above mentioned papers from experimenting while searching for a good all-purpose paper for my digi stamps.  The Hammermill is my go-to and pretty much the only paper I use lately. Choosing the right paper is a matter of preference and how you work.  There are other papers available that I have not reviewed, therefore this review is limited to the above products.

If there is a paper you prefer please mention it in the comments.

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.