It's Friday again, almost weekend! :) But first we have a new episode of Behind the Scenes - Meet the Manufacturers!
Lucky winner of last weeks BTS is:
Congratulations Alice! Please e-mail me your address and the stamp set + chipboard album are coming your way! :)
Today's manufacturer is also a stamp company. I had the priviledge to guest design for them last year November and loved working with their stamps! Today we are talking to the lovely DeeDee Catron. It was great meeting DeeDee in person at CHA! So please let me introduce you to Viva Las VegaStamps:
DeeDee, please introduce yourself and guide us through your company!
Hello! My name is DeeDee Catron and I’m the Marketing and Artistic Director for Viva Las VegaStamps!; the world’s largest rubber stamp manufacturer. I live in Las Vegas with my husband and son and our two dogs.
VLVS!
offers the highest quality deeply etched pink rubber stamps available on the
market. We were founded in 1991 by Wayne Gartley (Stampo in the stamping
community!) with a large naughty bits and famous faces section. Viva Las
VegaStamps! has since evolved to include rubber stamps in categories like
vintage, steampunk, people, backgrounds, western, Egyptian, scenes, nature,
animals, words and sayings and many more! We pride ourselves in being in ALL
aspects of paper crafts; from altered goods to cards, from scrapbook layouts to
tags and everything in between.
VLVS! manufacturers over 19,000 pink rubber wood mounted stamps. They’re manufactured on a 9x7 inch plate of plain rubber. Then they’re cut apart, cushioned and mounted on individual blocks for purchase. You can get them mounted, cushioned on cling foam for your acrylic block, or just the plain rubber! Some of my favorites are the Pointed Pen Tip, the Six Hexagon Background, and the Bird In Flight, because they’re timeless stamps that I can use on almost everything.
It would be awesome if we could have a little peek inside the factory, how and where are the products produced.
The manufacturing process is very interesting. Images to be made into stamps have to be strictly black and white. They’re laid out on a 9x7 inch plate with adequate space between them. They’re then sent to an Engraver who makes a Magnesium plate and a Matrix board. Both are mailed back to us, the Magnesium plate is stored and the matrix board gets indexed and taken to the factory. In the factory we have shelves of boards with their coordinating piles of rubber. When we need a stamp made, we cut a piece of rubber to match the size of the matrix board, lay them together and put them in a press! The press pushes the rubber into the matrix board at a high temperature, which cures the rubber in that specific shape. Viola! Included in the pictures of the process are the stacks of plates and rubber and the press itself.
How are new
stamps developed. Do you have in-house designers or designers from outside.
Products are developed right here in my office! Being the marketing and
Artistic Director gives me lots of power! Not only do I get the chance to
design stamps myself, but I have a handful of wonderfully talented artists who
do drawings for me as well. Some artists draw on request, and some draw
whatever they feel like for me to pick and choose from. Once I’ve got an idea
for a board (Or theme of stamps) I look through the artwork I have, send out a
few requests, and fill in some spots with my own designs to create a cohesive
set of stamps.
How do you think the scrapbooking/mixed media scene will evolve in the upcoming year. What will be hot and new, what will be out.
I really think mixed media is where it’s going.. which is great! It brings together mass produced paper and embellishments with fine art skills, creating true works of art. As far as trends go.. I think more hands on DIY stuff will be even more prevalent than it is now. People doing their moldings, making their own floral vines, creating their own patterned paper.. that sort of thing.
Where can we find your company?
VLVS Website
Here are some projects created with VLVS stamps:
BY Aimee Fleck for VLVS.
By Hermine Koster for VLVS.
Journal page by Susan Brown for VLVS.
Journal page by DeeDee Catron for VLVS (There's Nat, DeeDee and me at CHA! :))
Here is a video for making your own Washi Tape.
And here is today's awesome giveaway: Plate917 – a 9x7 inch collection of images perfect for mixed media!
For your chance of winnig this inspirational set of stamps you go to the VLVS website and find your favorite stamp set of the 2013 releases. Then you come back here and leave a comment. You can comment until Thursday, February 21 midnight (GMT +1). Winner will be announced in next weeks BTS! Good luck!
Thank you so much for this peek into your company DeeDee!
Wishing you all a happy and creative weekend!