Last post of 2008 Where has the year gone?

Hi Everyone,

Well, we are drawing near the end of another year. A very creative and exciting year for me personally. Here is a Birthday card I made for my soon to be 7 year old granddaughter. I think she will like it.

I just can't get over how darn cute this little elephant is. In case you haven't been to my blog for a few days this elephant is from the Dr. Pea_Nut stamp set I bought at Our Craft Lounge a couple of weeks ago. I also bought Bub's Beaver.

I of course colored the elephant with copic markers. I stamped the scalloped punch birthday and trimmed close around the scallops and cut another yellow scallop punch to put behind it.

I used a corner rounder punch to create the scallop on the orange panel under the main elephant image. I tied a yellow stitched grosgrain ribbon around the entire image panel. I mounted the scalloped sentiment circle up on a photo mounting square. I added a few white gel pen accent dots and my cute cute birthday card is done. I think she will like it.

I will have some more cards for you tomorrow. My husband is out of town and nothing to stop me from stamping from dawn till dusk until Sunday, that's what I call a Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all!!!

Cathy

I took some time to do a couple of challenges

I decided that I would take a little time tonight and make a card for two challenges at GinaK Designs. I love the Hoodie set Just so Sporty by Melanie Muenchinger, sold at GinaK Designs.

I have always liked making black and white cards but I usually add a splash of red with it. This card was for two challenges on the GinaK Designs forum on Splitcoast Stampers. The first challenge Day 2 was to have something on your card "off kilter" I made my background cut at an angle thus satisfying the off kilter challenge.

The challenge for Day4 was to make a black and white card. I have had this cute dp that I got in a package of papers at Target. I colored the hoodie from the Just So Sporty set, stamped Thank U, sponged the edge with basic grey, and mounted on black card stock. I added a piece of black and white checked ribbon to the bottom of the main image. I added a black brad to one of the sateen flowers also available at GinaK Designs and my two challenges are complete in one card.

I have really missed doing the GinaK challenges but most of all I have missed having the money to buy her stamps, sigh, deep sigh! I know that there will be a new release next week and I am trying to budget a little so I can get at least one new set but we will have to see.

Be sure to check out my weekly post on Artistic Outpost. Wednesday is my designated day to add my projects to their blog site. Check it out sometime.

Goodnight,

Cathy

I'm Baack!

Hi Everybody:

Christmas is over at the Edgar household and I can get back to business now. Notice that I didn't say normal?!?

I don't want to make another Christmas card for at least 6 months, or see one for that matter. I am so ready to move on with Valentines day and just whatever cute thing I want to do. Tonight I finally made this card that I have had colored for months.

I know that you all remember that this set by Melanie Muenchinger called A Year of Flowers sold at GinaK Designs, is one of my favorite sets and I used the heck out of the poinsetta flower for holiday cards

I colored the rose with my River Rock stamp pad and aquapainter, Yep, I do know how to use other mediums, just always seem to pull out my copic markers. What can I say I love my copic markers!

I punched out the main image with my marvy giga scalloped oval punch and cut out the pink oval behind with my fiskars cutter. I had colored some leaves but they were too green so I went with plan B and stamped onto the same polka dot paper I used to mount the rose image. I had saved this piece of DP to use with this rose when I got it colored because it matched so perfectly. I found this piece of rose dp that I thought would coordinate nicely with the river rock polka dot. I didn't really like it, it was too plain until I decided to add the pink which is the back side of the river rock polka dot. I punched photo corners with my SU photo corner punch and put them behind the corners of the main image.

The pink ribbon was some that I dyed and the ribbon slide was from a bulk order from when I was a SU demo. I tend to hoard these little slides but sometimes they are just the accent that I am looking for so I do use them.

This isn't the monochromatic card that I had planned but I think it turned out pretty.

I have to get busy and get my Christmas Thank You cards made and sent this week. I have been working on them. I am using the My Cuppa Joe set from GinaK Designs (which I am sad to say is the last GinaK set that I have been able to get and I won that one from a challenge drawing). I know that there will be a new release and last month was the first month for quite a while that I couldn't buy any stamps. If I don't get any other stamps I have to get the butterflies but it was the free set if you bought 3 sets and I just have to wait until it is available for sale.

I hope that you are all as happy to see some new cards as I am to be making them. I am glad to be back to my mundane life of work by day and stamp by night. It's not cheap but still cheaper than therapy.

See you tomorrow. Goodnight

Cathy

Look at these cute stamps from Our Craft Lounge!

I am going to show you three of the cutest stamps that can be used for many different occassions from the fairly new Stamp Company Our Craft Lounge. The stamp set is called: Dr. Pea_Nut






I showed you this stamp a couple of days ago but I didn't make a card out of it and I had colored that one blue. I thought that a "sick" elephant would be green. He looks like he feels pretty bad to me. I colored them with copic markers of course, I seldom use anything else these days, just seems to be what I always grab.

Bub's the Beaver is the name of this stamp set from Our Craft Lounge and I love love love to color this set.

I have to work at using designer paper on my cards sometimes. It isn't that I don't have any, I have hundreds of sheets because I buy it when I see something I like or it is on sale. It is probably because I color the image and then make the card afterwards and I don't always find what I feel is the perfect dp. Sometimes being a perfectionist is a hinderence.

I sponged the edges with Ranger Vintage Photo Distressed Ink to soften the cut edges a little. I added a green brown ribbon under the main image. I popped up the main image on foam picture mounting tape and the scalloped sentiment is up on two stacked foam tapes to make it higher than the main image.

Finally I added the brown Robin's Egg Dew Drops from the Cowboy bottle.

My final image is also of Bub's the Beaver with my new favorite sentiment. "Well, I'll be dammed....."

This is another image that I showed you the other night with the blue elephant but I sponged the edges with Ranger Vintage Photo Distressed ink and added the cute brown gingham ribbon. It is still a pretty masculine card since there is only a ribbon knot and not a bow. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I may post sporatically for the next few days. I have to work tomorrow (Christmas Day), and Friday,and we are having our family Christmas on Saturday. Hopefully the weather stays nice like they are forecasting.

Hope to see you back here soon.

* * * *

I just read that Whimsey Stamps was having a Guest Designer call for January and the Bub's Beaver qualifies for the 3 layers and at least 3 embellishments and besides I think he is too cute. Must be an animal or Whimsey stamp. Here are the important details. Full requirements are available on Splitcoast Stampers under Design Team Calls:

Monthly guest designer for January 2009, design call now open!We are looking for a talented crafter who loves to stamp, create and share! Each monthly guest designer will be asked to create atleast one Whimsy Stamps project per week. This project must then be posted on your blog. Whimsy Stamps will post your artwork on the gallery page of our site. We also ask that you participate in any other Whimsy related challenges.Important:-Anyone from around the world may enter this design call.-Monthly Guest designers must have their own blogs to share and promote projects featuring Whimy Stamps.-Enter as many times as you would like.-It is not necessary, for this particular design call, to use a Whimsy Stamps image, however if you have one, please do.

* * * *

I love to be on a design team, it gives me a true purpose to stamp and create not just because I love to do it and would do it anyway.

Cathy

My First InStyle Stamps!

I got my first order of InStyle Stamps yesterday and made these cute cards.

All of the images are colored with copic markers, my usual medium of choice.

InStyle Stamps is a new stamp company that just opened an internet store a couple of weeks ago. The images are sold as single stamps. Check out the store and Virginia's, (InStyle Stamps owner), blog. The stamp above is a modified version of the Roxy Stamp. I changed the hair size from the huge afro to this modified afro just for fun and because I can :)

Here is a stamp called Pam:

The stamp only has one dog on a leash but I added two additional friends for a more fun walk. I like the saying "It's all Good" because it works for so many things. I made the bottom dog walking outside the frame. This technique is called outside the box and I think it adds a little interest to an otherwise pretty plain card.

My final stamped image is the Roxy without any hair adjustments:

This depicts my high school era. Yes, I am that old! I have always liked the colors blue and green together, maybe for that very reason. I colored the image with copic markers and then used my copic blender pen to make the blue jeans appear bleached out or very worn.

I airbrushed the prima flowers with my copic airbrush the largest on the bottom in green and the middle in blue. I added a blue and green large brad to compliment the color scheme.

I hope that you enjoyed learning about this new company and seeing a few of the stamps they are offering currently. Virginia is adding more stamps all the time and has some great challenges, contests and the cutest animated images that she will make from your photos. Check it out.

I hope everyone has a safe and Merry Christmas.

Cathy

OMG these stamps are too dammed cute!

I placed my first order from Our Craft Lounge on Friday and they arrived today. I was soo excited to get them. I was even more excited when I realized that I didn't have to cut them out and the packaging is the best I have ever seen. Here are my two samples:

This darling elephant image is from the Dr. Pea-Nut set and I thought since I was making him a little sick elephant he would be blue. I used copic markers to color him and I haven't decided what kind of card I will make I couldn't wait to post these to show you.

The second image is the cutest grumpy beaver and who doesn't need a stamp that says "Well, I'll be dammed...." I know I do and I know I will use it a lot :)

Isn't he just the cutest ever! I can't wait to have some time to color some more as there are several cute images on this set that I can't wait to use. Make sure you check out these sets and all of the others from Our Craft Lounge. This set is called Bubs the Beaver.

The artist of these darling stamps is none other than Marianne Walker, Product Specialist for Copic in North America, who taught the Copic Certification Class I had the pleasure of attending in Kansas City in October. (I apologize Marianne if I got your title incorrect, I couldn't find it anywhere on your blog tonight.)

I have to go play some more, I can't help it these are just too much fun.

Night......

Cathy

What a Cutie Pie Valentine!

I know that it is less than a week until Christmas but I am tired of making Christmas cards so I'm not. I got these new stamps yesterday from Artistic Outpost and couldn't wait to play with them.

The stamp set is called Cutie Pie and was a new December release at Artistic Outpost. I had chosen the Vintage Circus stamp set for my release set as a Guest Designer so had to wait until the new stamps were actually released to get this darling set. The images are all cute but this is my favorite so it got to make it's appearance first.

I had colored one little majorette already with a white skirt and hat but the lace heart I wanted to put it on was off white, so it didn't work. I colored another with beige and brown tones with more a burgundy red shirt and boots for a more antiqued look. I added a burgundy ribbon and a antique silver heart to the ribbon knot.

I had a few issues (personal) with this new set. I had gotten two stamp plates from Artistic Outpost in my order yesterday. I waited until dinner was over to cut them out. I cut out both sets and then brought out my cookie sheet covered with waxed paper that I use to set the stamps on to apply the glue to the back. The glue is just sticky enough that they will adhere to the acrylic blocks. I use Ailene's over and over which I apply thinly, with a 1/2 inch artist brush, to the back. I leave them on the cookie sheet over night and they are ready to use the next day. I cut a 8 1/2 X 11 acetate transparency sheet cut in half to put my stamps on and they slide right back into the original plastic packet with the index card. Well...........I started mounting my stamps onto the transparency sheet and realized that I was missing the largest heart stamp from the Cutie Pie set. I remembered that I had cut it out as it was the first stamp I cut out.

I dug through the trash to see if I had thrown it away accidently. I know it is disgusting but it is just paper and coffee grounds, but to no avail. No heart stamp. I finally gave up and figured that it was gone for good. I was creating this project and thought I might want to put a sentiment along with the heart charm and guess what, the seriously cute stamp is MIA also. It wasn't late and I never moved anything from the table except to throw the scraps away. I have no clue what happened to them. Long story short, I ordered another Cutie Pie set and while I was at it ordered Snowy Woods too, hate to waste the shipping on one set. Any excuse to get a new set works for me.

Enough about my mental lapse, what do you think of my little majorette on the lace heart? I had bought the lace hearts a few years ago when I was making rag quilts and still had a few left and thought it would be really cute with this Vintage Valentine set, I think I was right.

I have to go wrap my Christmas presents which I have put off as long as I possibly can.

I am sure that I will have a post each night this week as we are not having our family Christmas until next Saturday. I have to work Christmas Day and the following day. That gives all the kids time to have their Christmas with the kids at home and then come to Omaha for the week-end. Hopefully the weather will straighten up and not be so frightfully cold.

See you tomorrow,

Cathy

I did a scrapbook layout--Yea Me!

I have never really thought much about scrapbooking, I leave that up to my three daughters and I just make cards and altered projects. Well I had colored some images from the Home Stamp plate from Artistic Outpost and when I tried to lay out my card it became a scrapbook page. Sometimes the images just take on a life of their own and become what they want to be not necessarily what I had invisioned. Here is my scrapbook page:

For the past two years I have been gathering papers and stamps that I wanted to use to create a scrapbook of my Dad and Grandparents. I have their photo albums and want to make a Memory book for my kids and grandkids to look at and learn a little bit about their Grandpa and Great Grandparents. They never knew them because my dad passed away before I got married and my grandparents died before my oldest daughter was born.

I decided when these images became a scrapbook page that I would use a couple of the photos of my grandparents house. The top picture is of my grandparents in 1957 in front of their house. I didn't want to ruin the photos from the album so I scanned the photos onto photo paper and used those images. I also wanted to make the photos in the scrapbook sepia instead of black and white or colored. I also used the photo that had my dad and grandma and grandpa by Grandma's Lily pond, which she was so proud of. This photo was taken in 1942. I am grateful that my grandma added the dates to the back of the photos and it is so nice to see her handwriting on them as well.

I had sponged the edges of the Artistic Outpost images with Distress Ink in Vintage Photo and Pine Needle so I also sponged the edge of my photos with the same Distress Ink to maintain the continuity of the color scheme.

I added the antique prima flowers that I picked up at Yesterday's Scrapbook store, yep the one a couple of blocks from me. I love that they are cut from printed paper and there is a vast variety of neutral colors in the one container to choose from. I didn't want to just attach the prima flowers with a small brad so I used these medium sized decorative brads that I bought at Michaels.

The Rooster weathervane and flower are popped up on foam mounting tape to complete my page.

I really like the way it turned out and it may be the jump start I need to actually get my scrapbook started.

Hope you are all staying warm, it is really cold here in Omaha. A good reason to stay in and stamp don't you think? We got snow, sleet and thunder snow Thursday night and it is supposed to stay cold so we will have a white Christmas for sure.

I got new stamps today from Artistic Outpost so I will be making new projects and getting a jump start on my Valentine cards. I got the Cutie Pie Vintage Valentine stamp plate and the Adventure stamp plate. Can't wait to play with them but tonight the glue is drying ( I buy the unmounted and put Ailene's Over and Over glue on the back so they adhere to the acrylic blocks) so I can play with them tomorrow.

I also have new stamps coming from Our Craft Lounge, whose stamp artist is none other than Marianne. Marianne is the Product specialist for Copic Markers and taught the Copic Certification class that I attended in Kansas City in October. I'm thinking they are going to be awesome to color with my copic markers.

I also ordered some individual stamps from InStyle Stamps, a brand spanking new stamp company. You might want to check their site out, they have some pretty cool stuff as well.

Working on Christmas Gifts and my first Blog Candy

I made it home before the sleet started tonight. We have had a couple of inches of sleet and we are supposed to get about 4-6 inches of snow. I may or may not go to work tomorrow. While I was sitting out the storm I decided to work on some Christmas gifts, I would hate to rush into anything you know!

My oldest daughter requested some cards for all different occassions. I am going to part with some that I have made and never given away(that would be the majority of my projects). I wanted to make her a set of cards from the new stamp set I got yesterday. This is the set that I requested as my prize for winning the Christmas Card Contest a couple of weeks ago.

Inspired by Nature is the name of this set sold by Stampin Up. This was one of the sets that I had on my want list before I gave up my demo with SU but I never got to order it. When I won the Christmas Card contest the sponsor, Susan Daly, is a SU demo and the prize for each category was a stamp set up to a 25.00 value, so I finally got it. Okay, card details:

I punched an oval with my giga marvy oval punch for my mask. I placed the mask where you see the light center. I used my copic airbrush to spray the desired colors. Most of the cards have 3 different colors combined for the backgrounds. I then lightly sprayed the area that I had masked.

I stamped the corn flowers and grass, which are two different stamps, in a solid coordinating color as a silhouette. I have always loved silhouette stamps and now they are popular with everyone, who would have guessed.

I think that I will have to make a set like this for myself. I didn't put any sentiments on them because my daughter has sentiment stamps and can add the one she wants when she wants to give them out.

Which one do you think is my favorite? I think this should be my first blog candy, what do you think? The first person to leave a comment with the correct answer to this question will win a set of cards just like this.

Thanks for stopping by. Remember to leave a comment with a guess of my favorite of the four cards and you could win a set just like it.

Bye for now.

Cathy

I got some Clear Art Stamp sets last week

I have been wanting to do some of the challenges with the ladies on Splitcoast Stampers in the Crafty Secrets Forum. Yesterday's Scrapbooking store just two blocks from me carries some of the Clear Art Stamp sets and I bought two sets last week-end. The small journal set with the cherub I showcased last night and the Kitchen Classic set. Here is a card I made for the "b" challenge on Crafty Secrets Forum using a couple of images from the Kitchen Classic set:

The challenge on Crafty Secrets for 12-16-08 was to use at least 3 "B" items on your project. I used a border, a bow, there was a boo boo which I covered with a button. Three "b"s and a cute card....doesn't get any better than that in my world!

Aren't these little guys cute. I colored them with copic markers. I punched them out with my scalloped square punch and sponged the edges with blue bayou stampin up ink.

I trimmed around the edge of the border to show the scalloped detail. I sponged with the blue bayou ink as well. I attached the border just a little above the bottom edge to let the blue background show underneath. I tied a blue ribbon bow above the scalloped edge. I had dyed the ribbon a few weeks ago with SU reinkers.

I found buttons in my button stash and added teal emboidery floss. My little card was complete. I left the inside blank so that I could send it for an occassion when one arose or I will just hoard it as usual.

Thanks for looking and have a great night.

Gotta go finish my project for my Artistic Outpost posting tomorrow. My designated day to upload projects is Wednesday on the Artistic Outpost blog.

Cathy

Altered Journal--Christmas Gift for Mother in Law

Hi everyone:

The Artistic Outpost Stamp release for December sneak peeks ended yesterday so you will still see lots of Artistic Outpost cards and projects from me but just not every day.

I wanted to make a Journal for my 86 year old Mother in law as she still writes in a diary or journal every day. Here is the altered journal that I made for her:

Isn't that little chereb writing in the journal just the cutest little angel. I noticed a month or so ago that the Yesterday's Scrapbook store just a couple of blocks from my house had a few Clear Stamp sets in one corner of their store. I finally had a few extra dollars burning a hole in my pocket and went in and bought this little set and Kitchen Classics.

I colored the chereb with copic markersand sponged around the edge with Antique Rose Distress Ink by Ranger and sponged over that layer with Pixie Pink Stampin Up ink. I used a pink from the Berry Bliss Designer Paper from SU and the brown polka dot is also from SU Designer paper series Chocolate Chip.

I knew that the journal that I wanted to alter would not work with the SU spiral punch so I just marked the binding placement and used my small round punch and cut a slit with scissors so that it would slide over the binding. I placed a piece of narrow brown checked ribbon over the seam so that it would fray from being handles. Placed a piece of the same brown check ribbon under the image layer on the top so that the journal could be tied shut.

I wanted the journal to be functional so I didn't want to embellish it too much but wanted it to be pretty so I added the half pearls in the corners of the main image on the front and placed a large half pearl with a gold band brad in the center of my two pink prima flowers.

I like the way that this altered journal turned out and I know that my mother in law will like it too.

Thanks for looking. See you tomorrow.

Cathy

Love the Glitter of the Circus Final Sneak Peek

The thing I love most about the Circus is when all of the lights are off and all you see is all of the bright lights and glitter. I tried to create this same effect on this Circus Collage here. I am not sure I succeeded but in real life you can see through the glittery background and see the main Circus Collage Stamp from the newly released Vintage Circus Stamp plate from Artistic Outpost.

I stamped the main stamp collage image (can you tell that it is my favorite:) ) I stamped the center section with the tiger head so that I could cut it out and pop it up to accentuate it.

My favorite tiger is the White Bengel Tiger so I tried to maintain the shades of grey copic marker for coloring the tiger. I colored the mouth and letters with red copic marker. I over colored the letters with a red Atyou Spica glitter pen so that the letters would sparkle as well.

I couldn't capture that effect in the photo if I wanted you to see the glittery background. You can't win them all. Here is a close up and in the top letters you can see the glitter pen on the letters.

I also outlined the main image with the same Atyou Spica pen from Copic. I also used a black ultra fine point copic multiliner pen to draw in the tiger's whiskers.

I enjoyed creating this image in neutral tones with red highlights and creating the glittery fun background to showcase the image. This is the reverse of what I usually do but I like the way it turned out.

I have been able to create so many different kinds of cards and projects with this wonderful Vintage Circus set because there are so many great images that all work so well together that it is just so much fun to create project after project.
Thank you to everyone who has stopped by to see my sneak peaks and leave comments. Please don't stop coming by because I will be posting lots of Artistic Outpost cards and projects every week. I will be posting weekly projects on the Artistic Outpost Blog as well.

Thanks to all, Good Night

Cathy

Day#5 Sneak Peek Final project

I made this tiny treat bucket using the elephant from the Vintage Circus stamp plate from Artistic Outpost. I bought these cute little buckets in a two pack at Target in their dollar bin at Halloween time.
I used the Denim, and Mushroom reinkers and Bronz reinkers from Adirandock on a felt pad with applicator handle by Tim Holtz to create this neat faux marble glaze on the tin bucket.
When the ink was dry I stamped the elephant with Versamark and embossed with white embossing powder.
Just a hint , to not make the same mistake that I did, use an embossing buddy, dryer sheet or swifter sheet to rub over the marble background as you can't remove any stray specks of embossing powder.
To finish the bucket I added a bag of peanuts tied with a blue checked ribbon and added ribbon to the handle.

You could also use it as a votive candle holder or swizzle stick holder for a party.

I hope that you have enjoyed looking at all of the sneak peaks for the Cutie Pie, Vintage Circus, and Fortune Teller Stamp plates now offered for sale at Artistic Outpost.

Sorry about the short post but I am in Kansas City for my youngest granddaughter's first birthday party and away from all of my photo files.

I appreciate everyone who stopped by to see my and all of the other guest designer projects for the new stamp release.

Have a good day.

Cathy

Day#4 Sneak Peek Anything but a Card!

I love to make items with stamps that aren't cards too! There are so many things that you can do with stamps and today I have a faux leather Vintage Circus tag to show you. The Vintage Circus elephant and Circus , from the new stamp release at Artistic Outpost,saying were perfect for my tag.

I do not mount my rubber stamps so I had to put some photo mounting tape on the back of the stamp so that I could make a nice deep impression on my image. This is just fun foam that is heated with a heat gun and while it is hot you stamp your image and hold the stamp down until it is fairly cool.

I then cut the fun foam to the shape that I wanted and sponged Distressed Vintage Photo ink to give an aged appearance to the faux leather. I then used my paper piercing tool to make faux stitching around the edge.

You can tie a leather strip to the hole, which was punched with a regular paper punch, ribbon, or a string of beads.

* * *

I really like the way these altered dominos turned out using distressed ink refills in pearl, cranberry, meadow and bronz. The technique is very easy you just put about 4 drops of each color that you want on the Tim Holtz felt pad applicator and because I wanted a lighter color I added a few drops of blender solution. I added a couple of drops of the bronz reinker. You just tap the applicator pad onto the domino until you get the color desired. I let it dry a little bit and then I stamped the images in Stazon ink.

I thought aboout making a pendant but several of the girls at work said that they would look neat just on a shadowbox shelf too.

You can find all of the new release stamp sets for sale on Artistic Outpost now. Go check them out, they are really a neat group of sets in additional to the wonderful sets already offered.

Thanks for looking and have a great day.

A list of the new stamps and a description is below:

Cutie Pie

Adorable images inspired by children's Valentines from the 1950'sincluding a majorette, a football player, and a beauty queen. Thethree main images average three inches in height perfect for yourcards, ATCs, or other mixed media projects.

Entire collection comesin either an 8.5" x 5.5" unmounted sheet of red rubber OR mounted onEZMount cling foam, trimmed closely, and "mounted" onto a clearplastic printed index sheet.

Special price: $10.00 - umounted, $18.00 - mounted

Vintage Circus

Everyday is a circus in the Artistic Outpost studios. All we aremissing are the wild animals and the three rings. This collection features vintage images from circus posters and advertisements fromthe 1900's.

For our cardmakers, the main circus collage measures3.75" x 5", a large stamp perfect for creating backgrounds. Entirecollection comes in either an 8.5" x 5.5" unmounted sheet of redrubber OR mounted on EZMount cling foam, trimmed closely,and "mounted" onto a clear plastic printed index sheet.

Special price: $10.00 - umounted, $18.00 - mounted

Fortune Teller

To tell the future, a gift exploited for fun or fortune, has been hadits place in the folklore and legends of most of the world'scultures. In this full 8.5" x 11" collection, we feature images ofthis "gypsy" art including a large background vintage almanac, a funcrystal ball with words sized to fit just right in the middle, andmany mystical elements and words.

Entire collection comes in bothunmounted red rubber OR mounted on EZMount cling foam, trimmedclosely, and "mounted" onto a clear plastic printed index sheet.

Special price: $20.00 - unmounted, $30 - mounted

Special bundles on UNMOUNTED stamps collections ONLY:

Cutie Pie & Vintage Circus - $18.00

Cutie Pie, Vintage Circus, & Fortune Teller - $36

Day#3 Sneak Peek "Time is a Circus"

I really love all of the images that are available in the Vintage Circus Stamp plate on sale now at Artistic Outpost. I colored the image of the man holding the lion cub with copic markers. I wanted the appearance of a much loved, much carried around picture so I used UTEE(Ultra Thick Embossing powder) to create the cracked glass effect. I sponged over the top of the cracks to accentuate them with Vintage Photo Distress Ink by Ranger Inks and Tim Holtz.

I mounted the main image on brown cardstock and added the antique brass brads. I found this really neat background paper with all sorts of travel signs and the luggage tag which gave it the world traveler image I was looking for.

I stamped the circus ticket on red cardstock and crumpled it up to add texture and aged appearance. I stamped the words CIRCUS on light brown cardstock and airbrushed it to give the appearance of weathered leather. I attached the ticket and Circus pieces with a circle clip and my card was complete.

* * *

Using the same photo image, of the man holding the lion, I created another quick card by just stamping the image in Antique Linen Distress ink on a white top note die cut panel. I over stamped the sentiment in Distressed Vintage Photo ink. I sponged two different distress inks, Antique Linen and Vintage Photo, on the edges to darken the edges and highlight the faded photo image I wanted for the main focal point.

I tied a strand of twine around the right side of the top note panel and attached that to a dark brown cardstock to which I had added a narrow striped accent piece of designer paper. I used the same striped designer paper with the stripes opposite for the background. The final base is a textured brown cardstock.

Tomorrow I will have a couple of "anything but a card" projects so be sure to check it out.

Thanks for looking at my sneak peeks and be sure to stop by the Artistic Outpost blog and see what the other Design Team and Guest Design Team members have created as well. There is some really awesome stuff to see.

While you are there be sure to check out the great introductory sale prices on the new sets in the Artistic Outpost Store.

Cutie Pie

Adorable images inspired by children's Valentines from the 1950'sincluding a majorette, a football player, and a beauty queen.

Thethree main images average three inches in height perfect for yourcards, ATCs, or other mixed media projects.

Entire collection comesin either an 8.5" x 5.5" unmounted sheet of red rubber OR mounted onEZMount cling foam, trimmed closely, and "mounted" onto a clearplastic printed index sheet.

Special price: $10.00 - umounted, $18.00 - mounted


Vintage Circus

Everyday is a circus in the Artistic Outpost studios. All we aremissing are the wild animals and the three rings.

This collectionfeatures vintage images from circus posters and advertisements fromthe 1900's. For our cardmakers, the main circus collage measures3.75" x 5", a large stamp perfect for creating backgrounds.

Entirecollection comes in either an 8.5" x 5.5" unmounted sheet of redrubber OR mounted on EZMount cling foam, trimmed closely,and "mounted" onto a clear plastic printed index sheet.

Special price: $10.00 - umounted, $18.00 - mounted


Fortune Teller

To tell the future, a gift exploited for fun or fortune, has been hadits place in the folklore and legends of most of the world'scultures.

In this full 8.5" x 11" collection, we feature images ofthis "gypsy" art including a large background vintage almanac, a funcrystal ball with words sized to fit just right in the middle, andmany mystical elements and words.

Entire collection comes in bothunmounted red rubber OR mounted on EZMount cling foam, trimmedclosely, and "mounted" onto a clear plastic printed index sheet.

Special price: $20.00 - unmounted, $30 - mounted


Special bundles on UNMOUNTED stamps collections ONLY:

Cutie Pie & Vintage Circus - $18.00

Cutie Pie, Vintage Circus, & Fortune Teller - $36

Day #2 Sneak Peek Time Slips Away

When I first saw the Vintage Circus Stamp plate from Artistic Outpost I knew that I wanted to make an hourglass and have the words from this stamp cascading down with the sand.

I think I captured the effect that I had hoped for. I don't claim to be a drawing artist but I love to color with my copic markers. I used my copic markers to color the wood top and bottom of the hour glass and used my copic airbrush system to shade in the blue, grey and beige to make the appearance of sand flowing down through the glass.

I cut out the hourglass and mounted it on black cardstock. I then used my corner rounder punch to make the scalloped edges. The beige brown cardstock is a sheet from the Outlaw Designer paper series from Stampin Up. I used the white gel pen for the dots to outline the scallops and frame the hourglass. I mounted all of the layers onto a piece of textured brown cardstock for the base.

* * * * * * * *

My second card for the sneak peek is another project using the largest background image from the Vintage Circus plate. I showed you a card yesterday that I had colored the entire stamp in with copic markers. Today I only colored the center tiger image in detail and used grey tones for the background.

The center tiger image was stamped twice and cut out. I used picture mounting squares to attach the tiger image to the main background panel to pop it up and add dimension. I mounted the main panel onto blue cardstock to bring out the blue in the main tiger image. I had used red cardstock to mount the images so I tied a piece of thin red satin ribbon holding a padlock and key.

Be sure to check out the specials being offered for the three new sets described below being released December 15. The Design Team and other Guest Design Team members have some wonderful projects created with the 3 new plates, so hurry on over to Artistic Outpost and take a look.

Cutie Pie

Adorable images inspired by children's Valentines from the 1950'sincluding a majorette, a football player, and a beauty queen.

The three main images average three inches in height perfect for yourcards, ATCs, or other mixed media projects.

Entire collection comes in either an 8.5" x 5.5" unmounted sheet of red rubber OR mounted onEZMount cling foam, trimmed closely, and "mounted" onto a clearplastic printed index sheet.

Special price: $10.00 - umounted, $18.00 - mounted

Vintage Circus

Everyday is a circus in the Artistic Outpost studios. All we aremissing are the wild animals and the three rings.

This collectionfeatures vintage images from circus posters and advertisements fromthe 1900's. For our cardmakers, the main circus collage measures3.75" x 5", a large stamp perfect for creating backgrounds.

Entire collection comes in either an 8.5" x 5.5" unmounted sheet of redrubber OR mounted on EZMount cling foam, trimmed closely,and "mounted" onto a clear plastic printed index sheet.

Special price: $10.00 - umounted, $18.00 - mounted

Fortune Teller

To tell the future, a gift exploited for fun or fortune, has been had its place in the folklore and legends of most of the world's cultures. In this full 8.5" x 11" collection, we feature images of this "gypsy" art including a large background vintage almanac, a funcrystal ball with words sized to fit just right in the middle, and many mystical elements and words.

Entire collection comes in bothunmounted red rubber OR mounted on EZMount cling foam, trimmed closely, and "mounted" onto a clear plastic printed index sheet.

Special price: $20.00 - unmounted, $30 - mounted

Special bundles on UNMOUNTED stamps collections ONLY:

Cutie Pie & Vintage Circus - $18.00

Cutie Pie, Vintage Circus, & Fortune Teller - $36

Thanks for looking!

First Sneak Peek!

Closeup of right panel of Vintage Circus card

Come one Come all to the Greatest Show on Earth! Remember how excited we are when we hear those words. The Circus is a favorite generation after generation.

I am so excited to get to show you my first sneak peeks of the new Vintage Circus stamp set being released December 15, at Artistic Outpost.

Vintage Circus

Everyday is a circus in the Artistic Outpost studios. All we are missing are the wild animals and the three rings. This collection features vintage images from circus posters and advertisements from the 1900's.

For our cardmakers, the main circus collage measures 3.75" x 5", a large stamp perfect for creating backgrounds.

Entire collection comes in either an 8.5" x 5.5" unmounted sheet of red rubber OR mounted on EZMount cling foam, trimmed closely, and "mounted" onto a clear plastic printed index sheet.

Special price: $10.00 - umounted, $18.00 - mounted

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to come back as I will have different sneak peaks until the release. Be sure to stop by the Artistic Outpost blog to see what the other guest designers have created with the other sets being released on December 15, as well.

Cathy

Look what I bought for my Birthday

Look at what I bought for my Birthday. Isn't it cute. It is a Mazda Tribute. I think of it as my wanna be SUV.

I took a break from stamping tonight and so instead of showing you a card or project I decided to share my present. It will be my presesnt for the next 5 years but that is okay it is worth it.

I have been downloading music to my MP3 player tonight so I can listen to music while I stamp and I can listen to music at work. I work for Marriott International in the Internet Customer Care Department so mostly answer emails all day. We'll have to see how that works out with listening to music because I have a hard time listening and not singing.

I am a good singer but my daughter, who has my sense of humor, once asked me if I knew who was singing a particular song that I was singing along with. I told her the artist and she said, " good, then let them sing it" She is the same daughter who was having an arguement with her older sister when she was 5. My older daughter thought she would end the arguement by saying, "Do I have concern written on my forehead?" My darling little girl answered, "yes, and it is spelled wrong".

I am sure that is much more than you want to know about me but may give you some insight as to why coloring is sooooo theraputic for me ha ha. I raised 3 girls and one boy and they all have grown up to be wonderful adults although I threatened to have them freeze dried at age 10 until 18.

My daughters are now my best friends and we all share a love for creativity.

Just wanted to share a little something with you tonight. Hope you enjoyed my ramblings, if not come back tomorrow night I will have another project for you :)

Good Night

Cathy

I won a Christmas Card Making Contest!

Isn't this just the cutest little guy. I made a two coaster mini photo album today, isn't it cute.

I think that I should buy a lottery ticket. Some wonderful things have happened in the past few weeks and everyday it seems like something else good happens to me.

I had entered a Christmas Card contest about 6 weeks ago and submitted my Believe Santa card which fit into their Vintage Christmas card category. We were supposed to post a link to the contest to our blog but we couldn't ask people to vote for our card. I completely forgot about the contest until today. I checked Susan Daly's blog today and low and behold my Believe Santa card was shown and listed as the winner in the Vintage Christmas Card category.

I get to choose one Stampin Up stamp set with a value of up to 25.00. Perfect for me. While I was a SU demo until November there was one set that I really wanted but never bought. Inspired by Nature was on my wish list but my wish list was longer than my money so I never bought it. That is the set I chose. Can't wait to get it.

As you all know if you read my blog I am a guest Design Team member for Artistic Outpost Stamps and my appointment is for the December 15 release and will extend throughout 2009 as needed. They are releasing 3 new stamp sets and I had the privilege of working with one very special set. The sneak peaks start on December 10 and I will be showing a sneak peak every day until the release on December 15.

I have more Design Team news to share with you soon but not quite yet. I will just say that I applied for another guest DT spot which was supposed to be a one month spot the end of December. Today I got an email asking for me to do a specific challenge and they would let me know within 48 hours. In about 2 hours, after submitting my project, I got an email offering me a different DT spot starting in February. If it has to do with stamping and I get to color I am okay with that :)

Well, I am going to quit boring you now and go clean off my stamping table before I go to bed.

See you tomorrow.

Cathy

Balancing Act

Christmas Time can be a balancing act. I wanted to use this cute seal from Melanie Muenchinger's Jumpin for Joy set sold at GinaK Designs.

I colored the seal and packages with copic markers. I used a stardust glitter pen, sold at GinaK Designs, to over color the ribbons and bows on the packages. I stamped the words Joy and Happy Holidays from the Christmas Blessings set also sold at GinaK Designs.

Do you see a pattern here? Gina K Designs stamp sets have always been my first love for stamps that I can color with my copic markers.

I wanted to make it appear that the seal was balancing the packages but it didn't look right until I added the words Joy and Happy Holidays.

I mounted the main image on a piece of designer paper I bought at Michaels last year. I mounted the polka dot piece on Garden Green Stampin Up cardstock. I tied a big red bow at the bottom.

I was going to wait and post this card tomorrow, but on the week-ends tomorrow may not have any time for uploading to my blog :) so I decided to go ahead and grace you with another card tonight. Lucky you!

I will probably see you tomorrow. If you stopped by to look. Thanks

Just a reminder, sneak peaks for the new release at Artistic Outpost start on December 10th. I am one of the guest designers for December, so be sure to come back to check out what I have done, and if you have time please leave me a comment so I know if I did okay. I am a little nervous because this is my first gig as a guest designer and......I just hope I don't bomb.

Have a great week-end.

Cathy

More Happiness and Butterflies

Okay, it is cold here today and butterflies make me think of spring and spring makes me think of warm weather, warm weather makes me warm right? WRONG! It is freezing so here is a beauty I have been working on today. I decided that today I would play for me and not do any Christmas Cards or Release projects What do you think?

I seem to be doing everything in oranges, black and brown laterly. Oh, well I guess they are fall colors. I colored the butterfly using the copic Gradiant technique and the colored in the butterflies in the filmstrip. I added one side of the file strip to the top and botton of the two larger images stamped the end section between the film strip sides (sorry,it is hard to explain which part of the stamp I used so you could duplicate it) and stamped along the sides of the image

Once I have my film strip segments stamped on I airbrushed the images and borders with beige, orange and yellow copic markers. I finished the card off with 3 orange snaps at the top right and left botton sides for a little added interest in the dark unused sections.

I kinda like how this turned out.

Have I mentioned(only about a 100 times) how much I am enjoying working with the Artistic Outpost stamps. This set is from the Happiness stamp plate. So many options in each set. Keep watching I am just full of ideas for these sets.

Starting on Wednesday December 10 we will begin the sneak peaks for the December 15 Release at Artistic Outpost. I have some really fun projects and I have seen the projects the other girls have in store for you as well. You're gonna like what you see.

I can't believe that it is only 9 p.m. and I have already posted my nightly or bi nightly blog page.

Another My Cuppa Joe Cards

In case you can't tell I really like this stamp set from GinaK Designs. I can think of about 100 people that I could send a card made with this set to. But as my kids say, I only make cards I don't give them away. Sad but true!!! Here is my latest card anyway :)

For some reason this image appears to be blurry, The photo I saved wasn't blurry, maybe it is my tired eyes.

I stamped the images from My Cuppa Joe on white cardstock and colored with copic markers. I got the coffee bag a little darker than I had planned but I think it is okay. I really wanted to use this background paper so had to leave my back layer a little larger than usual.

I colord the flowers in coral and brown to match the image and paper. I sponged around the main image with Adirondak Distress Ink, added a tiny coral ribbon on a clip on the left side and a large square brad at the bottom for balance.

All of the layers are mounted on River Rock, one of my all time favorite Stampin Up cardstock colors when I want a neutral color.

I love the font on all of the GinaK Design stamp sets. They are so fine and clear IRL but this photo makes it look hard to read. Must be the photographer........oops that would be me :)

Okay, I know that I am a perfectionist to a fault but I think this card needs something else on the right hand side in the middle of the card. Will have to look at it more tomorrow and see what I can come up with.

Have a great night, or tomorrow as most people I know are already in bed. Thanks for stopping by.

Cathy

Greetings from the Funny Farm!

This card says it all! I worked all week last week and prepared Thanksgiving Dinner for 21 people at my house. The 21 people included 9 children ranging in age from 15 to 11 months.

I totally understand that these family members didn't just appear all at one time, but it is usually just my husband, my dog, my cat and myself here. After 4 days of company, which I loved don't get me wrong, I find this sentiment totally appropriate and a sincere greeting. Besides the pain of stamping and copic withdrawal is very real.

Enough of that. I got two new sets of Artistic Outpost stamps last week and tonight was the first chance I got to play with them. This set is called Home. I colord the barn, grass, trees and ground with copic markers. I used my copic airbrush system to color the sky. I sponged the outside edges with Adirondak distressed ink. I stamped the barbed wire on the striped background paper for a little added detail. I used my copic blender pen to create the clouds and outlined the barn, trees and grain bin in cool shadow to add a little dimension.

I popped up the main image and sentiment on foam mounting tape to add dimension.

One of the things that I like the most about the Artistic Outpost stamp sets is that there are 3 or 4 main image stamps as well as several words, phrases, or sentiments in each set.

I also got the Artistic Outpost stamp set called Happiness which has different butterfly stamp images. I thought that the images might have too much black area to color the butterflies the way I like to color but I think I was wrong. What do you think?

I haven't decided what I am going to do with this image yet. I am thinking that I may use it for come note card sets

More My Cuppa Joe

I think this is such a cute versatile set. Here is another card using my "free" stamp set from GinaK Designs. There are so many little coffee cups and sayins in this set I just love it. Almost as much as I love coffee!

I am trying to decide on my design for my girls coffee note card sets for Christmas. I think I like this one. I stamped the coffee cups randomly on my white cardstock. I then stamped the main sentiment in the middle. I stamped coffee all over the background. I stamped Friend on the cappacino cup in the lower left corner and coffee on the blue cup upper left.

I colored all of the cups with copic markers and the airbrushed around all of the cups with the same color used for the coloring.

I think I like the simplicity of this because I have 3 daughters so that would be 12 cards to make with coordinating envelopes. I thought about putting some ribbon on it but couldn't figure out where it would go without covering something up.

Well, I have procrastinated long enough. I have to start cleaning my house and do some laundry.

See you tomorrow.

Cathy

Coffee Anyone?

Anyone who knows me knows that I love coffee. Gina K Designs introduced this new set in her November Release Party and of course I had to have it.

I didn't really have the money to buy any sets during the release party so I decided to do the challenges that they always have during the release party. The prize for being the random drawing winner from the entries is a stamp set of your choice. The only way I was going to get one right now, so I got busy and made something for each challenge.

A while back I posted the three challenge creations. I never win anything but it is still fun and I did some techniques on the cards and scrapbook page that I had never done before, so it is a learning process as well. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Long story short, I actually won Melanie Muenchinger's challenge drawing. We were to use as many different GinaK Design stamps as we wanted on one card. I used 5 stamps from 4 different sets. Sorry, I am rambling, I won the challenge and decided that my free set would be the My Cuppa Joe set and then in a couple of weeks I will order the To a Tee sayings because I need them to go with my Just so Sporty set.

Back to the card way up at the top. I stamped the cup, circle and cupcakes on the plate on white cardstock and colored them using the Copic Gradiant technique in blue and lavendar. I cut each image out and glued them to a white card stock base. I wanted a little more color so I used a left over edge of a lavendar top note die panel and cut each end about an inch wide. I then glued the two ends together. I tied a piece of grosgrain ribbon over the top of that. I had dyed the ribbon a while back.

I popped the You're Cool Beans circle up on a piece of mounting foam and my card was done. Took me longer to write about it than to make it.

My family are all coffee drinkers so I think that I am going to make coffee note cards for Christmas gifts.

I have to get busy now and clean my house. I am having 16 people here for Thanksgiving and I have to work through Wednesday night so I only have my evenings to get stuff done.

Hope you all have a great week and I will post again tomorrow.

Cathy

I can't believe I haven't posted since Wed, Sorry!

Where does the time go? There has been so much going on with work and getting my projects done for the December 15th release at Artistic Outpost.

Here is a card that I made the other night that I haven't had time to post yet:

I have always liked the look of a black and white photo that has been retouched with red highlights. This is the look that I wanted to create with this image. I colored the image with grey copic markers and made large shadows around the little girl. It could be a boy but for today it is a girl. I thought that I could just color the flowers on the vines on the right hand side of the image with my copic markers.

What was I thinking!?! It looked like I shot her, sorry, but that was the first thought that came to my mind when I looked at the red flowers.

I didn't want to discard the image so plan B came into effect. I colored some tiny prima flowers with my copic markers and then colored tiny half pearls with red copic marker as well for the center. Those little boogers are really hard to place in the middle of a flower.

I wanted to maintain the black and white with red accents when making the actual card. I mounted the main image on black cardstock and also mounted the bluebird script that is included in the stamp set. I angled the phrase behind the main image.

I wanted the main piece of cardstock to be red but it was too stark to just leave it plain. I stamped the bluebird script stamp all over the red with Tim Holtz red distress ink and then sponged the edge with the same ink.

I finished the card with a piece of black and white checked ribbon and wallah, another super easy card made with Artistic Outpost stamps.

I just wanted to let everyone know that Artistic Outpost is having a sale right now on a really neat set that was included in their last release. It is called Snowy Woods and it is on sale for 19.99 right now. Here is a picture of the images in the set, they are awesome and check out the Snowy Woods Gallery for some wonderful samples.

I was very excited today to get my free set of stamps that I won doing Melanie Muenchinger's GinaK release challenge last week. I thought that I should receive the My Cuppa Jo stamp set today as it should have been mailed Tuesday. The mail person came and I checked the mail, no stamps. Oh well, I knew they would be here Monday then. Pretty soon I heard the mail truck again. I looked out the window and she stopped at my mailbox, so I took my happy little hiney back out to see what she left and, you guessed it, my Cuppa Jo stamps.

They are all cut out and I am going to play with them tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great rest of the week-end. See you tomorrow!

Cathy

I'm Loving these Artistic Outpost Stamps!!!

I have never really considered myself much of a card maker but these stamps make it really easy for me. Maybe I have been doing it long enough now I have figured out what is working for me so I am happier with the results. Here are two cards that I created tonight:

This is the Blue Bird stamp plate from Artistic Outpost which I received on Monday. I colored the image with copic markers and highlighted with my Copic airbrush system. I wanted an elegant card so I made a frame using a decorative corner punch. I airbrushed the scallops to accentuate the brown in the image. I mounted the image behind the scalloped frame, mounted the frame on craft cardstock and mounted all on brown cardstock that I had airbrushed brown to match the scalloped highlights. I tied a 1 inch brown grosgrain ribbon at the bottom and added a brown dew drop in each top corner.

The second card I made tonight was also from the Blue Bird set but I went for a more antiqued look on this card:

I colored the image with copic markers and left a little border around the image when I cut it out. I distressed the edges of the image and mounted it on black cardstock. I wanted to use the bottom piece of cardstock which is from the Outlaw designer paper from Stampin Up and I wanted to pick up the darker grey in the paper. I didn't have any grey cardstock that color so guess what, yep, I used my copic airbrush with my darkest grey marker for the color I wanted. I had stamped the words stamp from the Blue Bird set all over the grey cardstock before I airbrushed it. I distressed the grey panel before I mounted it onto black cardstock.

I thought thin twine would look more vintage for this image than any ribbon that I had. That meant a trip to Michaels because of course I didn't have any twine. I wrapped the twine around the main image. I decided that I really should add a sentiment so I stamped the Thinking of You, from the Blue Bird set as well, on white cardstock, airbrushed it to match the other images and mounted it on black cardstock. I punched a hole on each end of the sentiment tag with my tiny hole punch and threaded my twine behind the sentiment and tied it around the card.

I stamped the birds sitting on the wire angled across my final background paper in Basic Grey Stampin Up ink. The Artistic Outpost stamp plates really come with so many different stamps in each set that you can create a main image and different backgrounds all from one set.

Like I said I am loving these images to color and make cards with. I hope you are enjoying looking at them as much as I am creating them.

That's all I have for tonight but you can count on something new tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by.

Goodnight

Cathy

End of a Serene Day Card

I am going to be busy for the next few weeks creating cards and items for the December release at Artistic Outpost and I don't have a problem with that at all. I am so excited to be a part of this creative team. The stamp plates that I got yesterday are so easy to work with and the images are large enough to create a wonderful focal point. I really like this card I made last night with the Serenity set:

Not too much to ttell about this card it went together pretty quickly for me. I colored the Serenity farm house scene with copic markers. The stamp images are pretty densely etched but it is no problem adding the color with the copic markers. I wanted a sunrise or sunset because, well, just because I wanted to, no other explanation. I used the gradiant copic technic to pull the colors and blend them away from the sun.

I had bought a pack of paper called Ocean at Michaels because I am planning to use it for my release cards but decided to sneak this piece out. It is double sided so no problems matching the colors. Maybe I shouldn't tell you my secrets :) I mounted the main image on a piece of brocade blue and used the same color for the card base. I wanted this to possibly be a masculine card so I didn't want to add any bows. I decided to use three buttons and tie brown checked ribbon through the button holes, now that was fun because I didn't use a needle. I attached the buttons with glue dots.

I really like the way that it turned out.

Did I mention that I won a stamp set today on the GinaK Design forum on Splitcoast Stampers. After the release party they have challenges created by some of the design team members. I know I mentioned this a couple of days ago and posted pictures here of the cards and scrapbook page I made. I have participated in these Challenges for months because I love to do them and any excuse to play with great stamps works for me but I have never won anything. Today I looked at the challenge results for Melanie Muenchinger's Mixology101 challenge and I won!!!!! I was so excited because I really wanted a couple of stamp sets from the release party but it just wasn't going to fit into the budget so for the first time I didn't order any and decided to do the challenges on the off chance that my name would be drawn as they are random drawings from all of the entries. It was MY lucky day. Thanks Melanie for the awesome challenge and Thanks Gina for always being so generous.

Okay, I have been rambling like a sleep deprived stamper long enough. Thanks for stopping by for a looksee.

Cathy

I can finally say I am a Guest Designer for Artistic Outpost

I am a guest designer for Artistic Outpost for December 2008 and as requested in 2009. Isn't that exciting!!!

I finally get to tell you and it is a good thing because I have been holding this news for a week and you know how well I keep secrets!?!

This is the announcement that came out today on the Artistic Outpost blog:

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

2009 Guest Designers
Thank you to everyone who took the time to submit their artwork for our recent Guest Designer Call - we had an overwhelming number of people apply. Unfortunately, we could not take everyone who applied, there will be opportunities in the future for Guest Artists, be sure to watch for those calls. In the meantime, be sure to check out our generous Publication Incentive and our new Referral Program.Congratulations to the following designers who will be working with Artistic Outpost in 2009 as Guest Designers. We know you're going to enjoy seeing their work using our current plates and our new plates in 2009.

Please welcome our 2009 Guest Designers (in no particular order)
Judy Hayes
Robin Willis
Cathy Edgar
Debby Boltman
Susan Conrad
Toni Tessler
Lynn Stevens
Rachel Baird
Debi Wind
Sharon Briss

End of announcement.

It is so exciting to see my name in print saying that all my coloring practice has paid off :)

I will be the guest designer for the December release stamp plates and I can't wait to get started on the images. Mine should be here by the end of the week but you won't get to see any samples until December 15. They are awesome plates and you are going to love them.

I am off to my stamp room to play, I will post later.

Cathy

My first card from Serenity Set from Artistic Outpost

Isn't this an awesome image? Remember a few days ago when I said that I had found a new stamp company with sets that so fit my coloring style. I finally ordered two sets that came today. They are from Artistic Outpost and they are so wonderful to color. This set is called Serenity and I know that I am going to use this set a lot. There are 12 images in this set, so I have a weeks worth of new cards and images to play with, Yeah!
I colored the image with Copic markers and even though the stamps are very densely detailed I can still add plenty of color to each image, added bonus for me.
I wanted to showcase the image by framing it with the dainty flourishes that came in the set as well so I just used my versamark and stamped the flourishes in the corners on white cardstock and embossed with white embossing powder. I then used my heat gun to set the embossing powder. Because I love to play, or work, with my copic airbrush system I airbrushed the area over the flourishes with the same blue that I had used for the sky and sprayed until I got the tone that I was looking for. I added more color with the airbrush around the picture to set it off just a bit more. Once I had the color the way I wanted it with the airbrush, I needed to remove the color that had sprayed on the flourishes. I used my copic blender solution on a flat Q-tip and swiped the color off of the flourishes.
I added a piece of grosgrain ribbon that I had dyed to match the blue sky and tied a knot bow below the main image. I then mounted the main image on the embossed frame panel which I then attached to the Bordering Blue cardstock.
I love the way it turned out and I know right now that I hate the fact that I have to go to work tomorrow when I would much rather be playing with my new stamps again.
Thanks for sharing my excitement of my new found Stamp Company Artistic Outpost and go check out their stamps, I think you will like what you see, I know I did.

Good night
Cathy

3 challenges in one day, that is a record for me!

I have had so much fun today just doing challenges for the November release party that was held at GinaK Designs on Thursday November 13, I really couldn't buy anything so I am hoping to win a set by doing the challenges. The winners are chosen at random so I have a chance :).

Here are the pictures of the challenges that I did:

What do you think? I guess I should tell you what they are supposed to be and then you will know better if they are acceptable.

The first challenge was by Erika, a scrapbooker extraordinare, who challenged us to use stamps with our scrapbooking. That was easy for me, I use stamps for everything. I had never done a scrapbook challenge before and was completely done with the page before I realized that it was a sketch challenge. Okay, here's your sign!!! There was supposed to be a main image, mine had two, there were supposed to be two embellishments in the upper right section, mine had journaling. There was supposed to be several rows of journaling under the photo, mine was photos with journaling on the side, couldn't even justify my mistake by saying I turned the challenge sideways to make it fit. Oh, well. It was fun. I submitted it anyway, they don't have to count it if they don't want.

The second challenge was by Melanie, to use several GinaK sets all on one item. I chose a single layer card. I had never done the mirror image technique with acetate paper but I wanted the sleigh turned the other way so I did it and it worked, added bonus. Then I masked the sleigh and stamped the bear from Jumpin for Joy, another of Melanie's sets, I stamped the deer from Christmas Blessings in front of the sleigh. I then stamped the everygreen branches and pine cones from Winter Foliage, Last but not least I stamped Go Team? from Melanie's Just so Sporty set. In all I used 5 images and 4 different sets. I colored it with copic markers, drew in a horizon, added reins to the deer and placed them in the bears hands. I made him a Santa hat which is the only thing that was 2 dimensional. I had fun and it turned out cute, if I do say so myself.

Last but not least is Jessica Fick's sketch challenge. I love to color the little boy with the Christmas tree from Cozy and Warm Christmas. I had colored him in red and blue. I didn't have any DP that matched the blue so I decided to make a frame using my decorative corner punch in a rectangle shape. I hadn't tried this shape before but fortunately the rectangle that I cut matched the punch cuts so they really came out even. I glued my frame to the main image. I found a piece of blue checked paper to accent the blue in the little boy's snowsuit and glued my main image to the blue. Finally I glued the blue to another red so that it would not fade into my background paper. My backgrond paper is a piece of white card stock that I ran through my cuttlebug using the negative ink technique, which is just to ink the negative(indented) side of the embossing folder before you run it through the cuttlebug. This method is so much easier than trying to ink the paper after it has been embossed.

I ended up with a dark blue line in the middle where the folder overlapped from the second run through because the paper was larger than the folder. I decided that I would just turn the challenge card around and have the verticle piece be on the right side instead of on top. I used a piece of 1 inch red satin ribbon to cover my blue line. I then mounted my main image on framing mounting squares so that it had some dimension.

The last thing I did was tie a red bow at the top of the card from the same red satin ribbon.

Now you know what I did today, more than you wanted to know? The challenges always teach me things that I didn't know like today I did the mirror image and a rectangle frame with a corner punch. It just goes to show you that you are never too old to learn new things and I am trainable!!!