The Rooster Says it All!!

The Artistic Outpost Home stamp plate is so versatile and makes it so easy to make a simple card that doesn't look simple KWIM :)
I stamped the rooster stamp with Momento Tuxedo Black ink and sponged lightly around the edge with Tim Holtz Broken China distress ink. I have to admit that turquoise is one of my favorite colors. Maybe the fact that I was born in December and my birthstone is turquoise has something to do with it....
I used an ATC background that I got as a free download from www.itkupilli.etsy.com several months ago and I hadn't used any of them until now. I chose the teal/mauve group and I love it, just don't usually make ATC sized cards.
The edges of the sahara sand SU cs were all sponged with broken china distress ink. I love the teal striped cs that I picked up at Hobby Lobby a couple of years ago and I think I just cut into my last full 12X12 sheet for this project. I will have to try to find more, it is a nice subtle stripe dp I love :)
A few turqoise buttons, some tan/grey brads, a piece of twill that I had dyed and this quick and easy project is ready to send.

Don't forget that Artistic Outpost is have a big sale and if you don't already have them Snowy Woods and Vintage Halloween seasons are fast approaching.

I may not have mentioned it on my blog before but Artistic Outpost has a monthly promotion that if you make a project using their stamps and post it in a gallery you could win a stamp set just for using their stamps. Here is a link to the Program: http://artisticoutpost.blogspot.com/2009/07/july-referral-program.html

Not sure what I will have for you tomorrow but I am finally getting caught up with my postings but there is a lot of DT stuffs going on right now and a lot of it is stuff that I can't show you yet...I know I am such a tease. I have a couple of KLM Digital Design cards that are almost ready to post.
Have a great day!

Cathy

Class Reunion Scrapbook layout

I was raised in a small rural community town in Iowa and so the Home stamp plate from Artistic Outpost is perfect for my Class Reunion scrapbook page.
I wanted to use the new masks that I got at Michaels for the page as well. The masks are Tim Holtz and are so easy to use. I can use them with my Tim Holtz applicator sponges or my copic airbrush. For this page I used the airbrush.
I used the barn, Home sentiment, trees, barbed wire and the sentiment "country roads take me home" from the Home stamp plate and stamped them all in brushed corduroy Tim Holtz Distressed Ink. I sponged around the barn image and home with Vintage Photo Tim Holtz distressed Ink.
The school mascot was the Wildcat, We are the wildcats, mighty mighty wildcats,, Sorry having backflashes :) The Wildcat on our gym wall looked exactly like the Tiger from the Vintage Circus stamp plate so he gets to be on my reunion page as well.
I won't really add any more embellishments to this page until I go to the reunion and get some photo so add. My plan is to have this page be the right side of a two page layout and have a collage of pictures on the other page and only one group picture finished in Sepia on this page.
I don't very often create a scrapbook page but every once in a while one comes to mind and I go with it.
It is kind of hard to see the print at the bottom of the page but there are trees on the left side and the "country roads take me home" sentiment and then the barn image with trees on the right hand corner.
Be sure to check out the Artistic Outpost blog and store for lots of ideas for all of their wonderful stamp plates.

Thanks for stopping by, 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.

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