Our Latest Backgrounds Blog Posts

• Glazed Surfaces Catch My Eye — Happy Birthday Columbus!
  By Joe Rotella

  click to enlarge photo Glazed surfaces always catch my eye. Seeing a photo, stamp or drawing under a translucent layer of color adds a rich, dimensional aspect to any project. If things are whitewashed or have a sepia glaze they look more “vintage.” That’s why I was compelled to pick up the Tin Bucket Perfect [...]

  
  
  
  

• “The Game Is Afoot” — Sherlock Holmes Inspired Steampunk Related Card
  By Joe Rotella

  Are you familiar with steampunk? It’s a style that involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era Britain or “Wild West”-era United States—that incorporates elements of either science fiction or fantasy. Works of steampunk often feature anachronistic technology, or futuristic innovations as Victorians might have envisioned them. Gaslight romance or gaslamp fantasy [...]

  
  
  
  

• Dancing in the Moonlight
  By Joe Morgan

  For this weeks post, I wanted to use this stamp of four Victorian looking cats dancing in a circle. As soon as I saw it in the Viva Las Vegastamps! online store, I thought of this idea right away. The stamp is called Cat Dance and can be found by clicking here. For the moon, [...]

  
  
  
  

• Napkin Collage Cards Using Perfect Paper Adhesive (PPA)
  By Joe Rotella

  About two weeks ago, the Create & Craft team and I taught a collage frame class at Red Letter Journals in Grove City, Ohio. The class was inspired by the Botanical Paper Napkin Collage Frame I posted by in January. While the class was well attended, some of my “regular” students didn’t sign up. Turns [...]

  
  
  
  

• Red-eyed Tree Frog Box With Mica D’Lights and Cut • Bond • Create
  By Joe Rotella

  Sometimes ideas for a project float around in my head for weeks or months. Concepts float to the top, sink to the bottom, fade in or fade out. That was certainly the case for this project. Here are some of the random thoughts that came together to create this little box. My favorite electronic cutting [...]