New Artistic Outpost stamps!!!

Good morning all!!!

Today Artistic Outpost is releasing 4 new stamp sets!

Gatsby features Artistic Outposts version of the main characters in photograph style with deco backgrounds.

Flapper Fashions is just that a wonderful collection of "flappers". You will find the size of these dames are PERFECT for card making and mixed media projects.

Huck Finn is a collection of collage and illustration images featuring Huck, paddle boats, and that friend of his Tom Sawyer.

Windows and Doors features some beautiful background and focal images that coordinate wonderfully with many other Artistic Outpost images.

All of the new stamp sets are available both as unmounted red rubber sheets for $14.00 or pre-cut and mounted on EZMount cling foam for $22.99.

For a limited time, if you purchase all four of these sets, you'll receive a 15% discount. Please note you must purchase all four to be eligible for the discounted price. Simply use the code: GATSBY during check out.

Be sure to check out the blogs of the other Design Team members for more inspiration.  I've listed their names and links to their blogs at end of this post.  The Artistic Outpost Gallery has more awesome samples! 

Now for my projects!

For this release, I chose to work with Gatsby, Windows and Doors and Flapper Fashions.

Watch for it in Create - Vintage Idea Book by Northridge available Jan. 1, 2012

Here's a card created with Flappers Fashion!

I stamped the Flapper script on white card stock to start.  Then I found the little brown frame - another castoff from some other project! It was cut and embossed with Spellbinders S5-012 Classic Frame die template.   I distressed it a bit and glued it over the Flapper story. 

Next, I stamped and colored the lady with Copic markers: E00, E13, E15, E21, E95, E97, W3.   I didn't try to match it to any paper, I just colored!  Once I had these pieces I looked for DP to coordiate.  I found this paper from Graphic 45.   Can you believe that color match?  Perfect!

I created a little flower from seam binding to add to one corner of the frame.  I pulled little tufts of seam binding through the holes of the other 2 visible corners.  I used the same seam binding to make the little pleated edge.  I simply put some glue on the seam binding and pleated it.   

 

The tiny brown dots are made with Viva Decor Pearl Pen.  This is a new product at my LSS.  It's so fun to add dimensional dots, etc. with it.   It really holds its shape as it dries.

 Windows and Doors is the last set I worked with.

I put together this ATC with the street lamp image from Windows and Doors.  The verse is also from that set.  I added a "flapper" from Flapper Fashions.   These sets all work together so well!  

I used my Ranger Distress Broken China Stain to color the background initially.  Then I added Distress ink around the edges to darken it. 

I stamped and cut apart the verse to add along the side. 

I colored my lady with Distress Stain, too!  I dabbed some stain on my glass work surface.  Then I picked up some color with a waterbrush and painted it on.  Her dress is Fired Brick.  The fox fur has Walnut Stain and Wild Honey.  It's the same color on the street light.  I used very watered down Fired Brick for the skin color. 




I sure hope I've inspired you today!  Aren't these new sets fabulous?  Wonderful vintage images!!!

Be sure to do a little blog hopping to see more inspiration

 from these Artistic Outpost Design Team members!

Lisa Somerville

Gerrie Johnnic

Lynn Stevens

Barbara Washington

Stephanie Severin

Connie Paxman

Suzanne Czosek

Louise Granlund

Judy Hayes  - you're here!

Thank you for stopping!!!

Happy Day!

I wish I had time to create something solely for the my blog....but I haven't.  So, I went looking in my Artistic Outpost file and found this little card.   The stamps are from Artistic Outpost's set called Songbirds.

I stamped the row of little birds with Denim ink and added just a touch of color with Copic markers.  They're popped up across the checked frame cut with Spellbinders Labels Eight and Labels Eighteen out of Graphic 45 paper.  The shape behind is Labels Eleven.  I've stamped the music from Ephemeral Backgrounds to show through the opening with Vintage Photo ink. I've added it to the edges, too.

The banner is a new shape from Spellbinders!  It's one of a set of four called Ribbon Banners.  I stamped just "Happy Day!" from the the stamp that says "Oh, Happy Day!" to fit the banner.   I added Antique Linen ink to the banner before I removed it from the die template.  That leaves the edges the color of my original paper. 

I added a narrow tan ribbon across the bottom of the checked mat.





Until next time, THink SPring!  

My card for the 2nd round of the Spellbinders DT contest!

I thought I had shared my 2nd round project for the Spellbinders Design Team contest.  Looking back at my blog posts, I see I never posted it! 

This is the card I created for the 2nd round of the Spellbinders DT contest.  I was free to choose an altered item, scrapbook page or a card for the first round.  I chose "altered" and created the butterfly journal posted earlier.   For the 2nd round, I was asked to create a card.  I was thrilled!  I love to create cards!  So I put together a card.  It was nice but it didn't have any "wow!" appeal.  I couldn't seem to come up with a different idea.  It came down to the last day to get the entry submitted.  I was ready to send the photo of the not so exciting card!  But wait I had several hours yet!!! That's when this card came to be! 

Stamping the birds and rose, coloring with Copics and cutting it out took me the longest.  The rose has lots of little pieces.  The birds are shaped and popped up over the original image.  I chose this collage stamp from Artistic Ouptost's Bluebird set.  I also used a lacey branch from Artistic Outpost's Serenity on the dark red mat.
The open book was cut with Spellbinders S4-231 Labels Seven.  I used 2 sizes to cut a frame of gold craft foil that was glued to card stock.  I used a styllus to emboss lines to simulate book pages along the edges. Then I curled the pages to look like an open book.  I glued the birds and music background page to the back of the book, shaping it, too.  Once I had the book page put together, the card came together quickly.

There's a piece of text paper stamped with music behind the book (music stamp from Artistic Outpost Ephemeral Backgrounds).  I've distressed it and curled the corners which you see curling around the book edges.  I added silk ribbon and gold cord to simulate a book mark.

I used a piece of lace over the card front.  That's a thrift store find!  Several yards for $1.00!  I love bargains like that!   I used my heat gun to melt the eges a little.  The lace was white to which I added Distress inks to age it.

Some more ribbon and gold cord, a dark red stamped backround with gold mat and a cream card front with Vintage Photo ink rubbed over the edges completes the card.  I got it photographed and submitted.......a card with "Wow!".  It got me to Round 3 and the Design Team!

This is one of my all time favorite creations!  I love the vintage feel of it!

I hope you've enjoyed it, too!
-judy

Think and Wonder Notebook

Here's a little notebook that I made with Artistic Outpost stamps!

The kids with alphabet background and "think and wonder" are from the set Think and Wonder.  This stamp is my favorite from that set!  I stamped it here with Cranberry ink. 
The faint stamped ledger page in the background is from Ephemeral Backgrounds. That set has some great images to complement all the Artistic Outpost stamps!

I used lightweight kraft paper from a paper bag to cover chipboard for the notebook cover.  After I stamped the images, I added shading around the edges with Distress inks.
"Think and Wonder" was stamped on white card stock with Cranberry ink and clear heat embossed.  I cut them out and glued them to the cover.

I even stamped the pages inside! I used the ledger stamp on the pages, too. I stamped them lightly so notes can easily be written over it.


Once I had all the pages stamped and the covers finished, I used my Bind-It-All to cut holes and add the coil binding.  It's so easy to make coil bound books with it!

Feel free to email me if you'd like more details! 

 Thanks for visiting!!!

Spellbinders on HSN

'morning!

I just wanted you all to know that this morning at 7:00 and 11:00 EST, Stacey Caron from Spellbinders will be on HSN!  Check today's post on the Spellbinders blog for more details.  She'll be showing some of the DT projects!  I'm hoping to catch some of the 7:00 show before I head to work.

If you love Spellbinders like I do, you might enjoy some new videos on YouTube.  Click here to go to YouTube and the Spellbinders videos. If you click on "See All" on the right side by the videos, you'll be able to choose from all the videos.   Check out the "Coordinating Stamps" video!!!  That's my card that Stacey is holding!  It's still amazing to me to see my projects online!!! So awesome to see my card on that video!

Be back soon!
-judy




Happy Creating! -judy

I'm back!

Where does the time go!!!!

We got back from Ohio very early last Tuesday.  After sleeping in,  I spent the day unpacking, doing laundry and finishing a project due to be mailed on Wednesday.  Then, it was back to work on Wednesday. Looking back, it doesn't seem like I did a lot but it sure seemed like I was busy! 



 Here's a photo of Dennis, Sarah, and I after the evening show at the Arnold Classic.  Sarah finished 13th.  Not at all what she had hoped for. As we reminded her, it was an incredible accomplishment to get there!  I know I wouldn't want to go through her workout schedule and diet! 

I hope to get back to more regular blog posts now! 

Thanks for stopping!
-judy

I'm in Ohio!

Hi, everybody!

I'm in Colombus Ohio at the Arnold Classic. My daughter is competing in the pro-women's body building competition. Pre-judging was okay. She would like to have finished better. We're going to the evening show shortly. The final results will be announced then. It's on bodybuilding.com live tonight.
She's happy with the experience. She's one of 15 in the world to make the competition!
We're so proud of her!

Gotta go now!

Born to Stand Out!

Here's a card I created for Artistic Outpost with the new set Think and Wonder. 

I had fun with this card!

I stamped the girl with Espresso ink on white cs.  I added color with Copic markers.  There's a little bit of distressing with Chipped Sapphire Distress ink around the edges.  I added teal, antique gold and purple mats.  The purple mat has rounded corners. 
The lacey edge mat was cut with Spellbinders S4-319 Lattice Rectangles (the same one I used for the Blog Frenzy!).  I had cut it for another project but it didn't work out.  It was perfect for this card! It's cut out of Graphic 45 paper from the LeRomantique collection.  I've added some Antique Linen Distress ink around the edges and threaded a piece of silk ribbon through the lattice edge.
The Bazzil paper on the card front is a light salmon color that I over stamped with a swirly leaf branch from Artistic Outpost's Serenity set. It's stamped with Spun Sugar Distress ink.  You really can't see it much.  It just addes a little variance in the color.
I stamped the verse with Espresso ink and clear embossed it.  It's matted with antique gold paper.  I added post ends from Spellbinders S5-032 Elegant Posts at each end. They just fit with the character of this card! 

To finish it off, I added the crown with some jewels!  The crown die template is from Spellbinders S4-298 Antiquities.  I cut it out of gold mirror paper.  Adding the crown is a little out of character for me!  It was fun to "step out of my box" so to speak! 
I can think of a number of friends to send this to!
I love the verse "why fit in when you were born to stand out?"

Happy Creating!
-judy

Garden Gate Layout

Yesterday, the Spellbinders blog featured my Garden Gate layout!  Thanks, Holly, for the great post!

Here's the layout.......

The first time I saw the new Spellbinders Motifs and Accents sets, I immediately thought of a wrought iron fence.  That idea and my photo were my inspiration for this layout.  

The photo is a portion of one of my gardens that I created on a sloped portion of our yard that was very hard to mow.  I set every one of the rocks to make a wall about 18-24" high along the slope. I worked on it about 3 years.  Most of the garden is perennials that don't require much care.  The plants are well established now and tumble over the rock wall in places.  Some of the plants self seed including the Gallardia (red and yellow flowers) and Spurge (blue green foliage).  It's always a surprise to see where they come up each year!

Back to the layout......

Most of the pieces for the fence and gate are from Spellbinders S5-034 Parisian Accents set.  I also used the S5-032 Elegant Posts set for the posts and hinges and latch on the gate.  The top on the gate is from S5-043 Fleur de Lis Motifs. 

I'm not going to share all the directions here.  You can find them all on the Spellbinders blog here. 

I thought you might like to see how I put the fence and gate together. 

Here are all the pieces cut from black card stock

For the gate, I simply layered the Parisian Motif piece over the Lattice Rectangle with Labels Eighteen cutout and glued in place.  I slipped the Fleur de Lis piece over the top of gate and glued it in place.  I trimmed the bottom edge of the posts, as indicated in the photo, to be straight. 

For the hinges and latch, I used just a short part of the small Elegant Posts pieces.  I trimmed them after I aligned the gate with the fence.  Each one has a piece of acetate or clear packaging glued to the back to make it more resilient when the gate is opened to see the journaling.

I've only shown a few of the strips for the fence in the upper photo.  I cut enough 1/8" strips to go all across the Parisian Motifs piece.  You can see in the photo below how I aligned them for gluing. I used my guillotine paper trimmer to cut them all even before adding the bottom piece. 

Once the fence was assembled, I decided where I wanted the gate on my layout.  Then I cut the fence in two pieces.  I laid the post over the fence and trimmed the fence to fit under the scrolls of the post.  I fastened the gate to the post with the hinge pieces.  I added the latch to the other side of the gate and trimmed it to tuck under the post when it's closed.  Once I had the fence glued in place on my layout, I trimmed the ends that  extended beyond the edges of the page. 

The gate has a piece of the yellow paper glued behind it to hide the journaling.  When it's closed it looks as if there's nothing behind it!   I used a small piece of text paper to write my journaling.  The complete directions for all of the layout are on the Spellbinder blog post.

I hope I've given you some ideas for using the Parisian Motifs, Lattice Rectangles, and Elegant Posts.  Thanks for visiting! 

-judy

Did you hear the news?

Woohoo!!!  I made the Spellbinders Design Team for 2011!!!

The annoucement was made earlier today on the Spellbinders blog!   I'm so excited to be on the team a second year!  What an adventure this past year has been!  Lots of challenges, a few stressful months, lots of projects and wonderful memories!  Three of the new DT were with me this year, AJ, Latisha, and Kimberly.  I'll meet the rest of the team at a retreat in Arizona in April.    

Now that the news is out I can share my first round project with you.  I had the option to create a card, scrapbook layout or something altered.  I chose "altered".  My thoughts were that "cards are easy for me, a layout the hardest so I'd do altered first".  I expected we would be asked to do a layout in the final round anyway.......that is if I made it that far.  That's history!

I created this journal.....

I started with chipboard for the covers.  I applied adhesive with my Xyron and then laid crinkled tissue paper over the adhesive.  It was pink!  Lots of layers of Glimmer Mist changed the color.  The vine was cut with a Spellbinders die template.  I kept the die template in place for some of the misting to get the two tone color on the leaves.   The butterflies are cut from actual copper craft foil that has been adhered to card stock.  The paper backing really strengthens the copper. 

Real copper will change colors when super heated.  I used my heat gun (takes quite awhile to get hot enough!) to heat them until I liked the color change.  You can see it best on the biggest butterfly. 

I used Glimmer Mist on the inside cover, too, only copper color.  I added a verse from Artistic Outpost's Happiness set......so appropriate with my butterflies!  The edges of the inside pages are distressed and then sprayed with Tattered Leather Glimmer Mist.  You can see it in the next photo.    I added seam binding to use as a marker, again sprayed and rolled in Glimmer Mist.  I keep a whole roll of white and beige seam binding to color as I need. 

The butterfly dangles are 2 die cut copper butterflies that have been embossed over Spellbinders 12-1006 Floral and Stone Impressabilities.  Each dangle is 2 butterflies fastened over an eye pin and held together with red line tape and glue.  I added a bead to the end of the eye pin and curled it shut.  There's another eye pin at the top with a bead and loops to fasten to the seam binding.  These dangles are my favorite part of this journal! 

I used my Zutter Bind-It-All to make the holes and add the coil binding.  I even used a copper metallic marker to add touches of copper to the binding.....it needed to match the journal!  I sprayed the whole journal  with clear finish to protect the color. 

Thanks for stopping!  I had a bit of break from posting the past few weeks.  I hope to get back to posting more often now.  I'm planning to share some great Spellbinders projects throughout the year!!!

-judy