One of my favorite color combination is Black and Cream. I know you probably think its boring - but when I see it I think elegant and classy.

Horizon of Friendship

This card is pretty self explanatory. The background for the Willow Tree is Wrinkled Distress. I think this Willow image is great (hmmm - maybe because I love tree stamps???).

I hope you have trees budding for spring where you are - here in NE Ohio - we don’t have any trees budding just yet - but soon….

Hope you find time to be creative today!
KAT

The Stuff
Stamps - (all Innovative Stamp Creations) Birch Tree Paintings, Nature Silhouettes II, Dainty Daisies
Paper - Very Vanilla (SU); Reflections (Close to My Heart)
Ink - Jet Black Archival (Ranger), Antique Linen Distressed Ink (Tim Holtz - Ranger)
Other - misc punches

Distressed Pearls - Friend

Where have I been, what have I been up to? Just life and I’ve been creating away but too lazy to upload to my blog - I know - very bad blogger! I hope the Easter Bunny will still leave me a Dark Chocolate Bunny!

On the 13th Innovative Stamp Creations is releasing their April stamps and they are just BEAUTIFUL. I’ll be sharing some different projects of the next week using these stamps.

Distressed Pearls - Friend

This is a new technique from Tim Holtz using Distressed Inks and Perfect Pearls. It’s very simple with a great end effect. Stamp you image using Distressed Inks and quickly apply your Perfect Pearls - mist with water and allow the background it to run until you are happy with it and then dry with your heat gun. It shimmers. I thought these new flowers looked like Tim’s stem flowers from the Nature Grungeboard set so I added one stem with some Distressed Stickles.

Making any Art today?
Kathy

The Stuff:
Stamps - Nature Silhouettes (Innovative Stamp Creations)
Paper - Mellow & Archaic (Basic Grey); Choc Chip, White (SU)
Ink - Peeled Paint, Spiced Marmalade Distressed Inks (Tim Holtz - Ranger), Choc Chip (SU)
Other - Spiced Marmalade Distressed Stickles (Ranger), Nature Grungeboard (Tim Holtz - Idea-ology), Pearl & Gold Perfect Pearls (Ranger)

Thankful

I love the technique that Tim Holtz did with the Alcohol Inks and Metallic Mixatives on his Day Two of the 12 Days of Christmas 2008. I thought I would give it a try using different colors and turning it into a card.

Thankful

For the background I used Terra Cotta and Butterscotch Alcohol Inks and Copper Metallic Mixatives. Word a warning - a little mixative goes a long way - if you use too much you get just a big copper blob on your paper! One other thing that I discovered trying this technique is if you want a crisp, clear image you do need to emboss. I tried stamping the trees in both Archival ink and Stazon and, with both, the metallic mixative just bled through.

Hope you are finding time to be creative today!

KAT

The Stuff
Stamps - (all Innovative Stamp Creations) Presence of Trees, Be Thankful
Ink - VersaMark, Onyx Black Versafine; Scattered Straw, Dried Marigold (Tim Holtz, Distress Inks, Ranger)
Paper - (all SU) Glossy White, Black
Other - Alcohol Inks (Tim Holtz, Ranger), Labels One (Spellbinders); Copper EP, Black EP (Ranger)

Appreciate Your Grandfather

When I was younger I loved spending time talking with my Grandfather - we talked about everything from planting a garden, the new article in National Geographic, religion to how to “shuck” a lima bean. I wish he was still here to see the woman that I grew up to be and so that we could still talk for hours. So in honor of my Grandfather…

Appreciate your Grandfather

This card is pretty self explanatory - tole technique, gold embossing, crumpled/inked cardstock and lots of linen thread.

If you are lucky enough to still have any of your grandparents in your life give them a hug today!
KAT

The Stuff:
Stamps - (all Innovative Stamp Creations) Men of Wisdom, Nature Silhouettes I
Paper - Very Vanilla, Black (SU); World Traveler (Heidi Swapp)
Ink - VersaMark; Onyx Black Versafine; Tea Dye, Frayed Burlap, Black Soot (Tim Holtz, Distressed Ink, Ranger)
Other - Wax Linen Thread, Mini Library Clips (SU)

Suzanne's Kitty

What’s with the name? When I was working with this stamp one of my friend’s was here that has a striped kitty. Her kitty is black, gray and orange - yes orange - I did not make that up! So this card is in honor of Suzanne’s kitty.


Side View
This card is a simple spotlighting technique. I used 1 and 2 inch square chipboard to highlight certain parts of the image. The highlighted portions are water colored with Primsa pencils and Goo Gone.

Happy Wednesday!
KAT

The Stuff:
Stamps - Precious Kitty (Innovative Stamp Creations)
Paper - (all SU) Pink Pirouette, Black, White
Ink - Versafine Black (what only one ink???)
Other - 1 & 2 inch chipboard squares, Prismacolor pencils, Goo Gone, Black Diamond Stickles (Ranger)

Man Card - Brother

I think I mentioned before that I struggle making Man cards - so I am forcing myself to make a few using the same stamp set but with different techniques. This one uses the Retiform technique and it’s probably the closest that I will ever get to a one layer card.

Man Card - Brother

The technique is fairly simple using glossy paper, some dye based inks and I used a Tim Holtz blending tool but you could use a scrap of sponge. Oh - lots of Post Its. Here is a link to the tutorial on SCS.

Have a creative day!
KAT

The Stuff:
Stamps - (all Innovative Stamp Creations) Men of Wisdom, Photo Negative
Paper - Glossy White, White, Black
Ink - Black Archival (Ranger): Antique Linen, Tea Dye, Vintage Photo (Tim Holtz, Distress, Ranger)
Other - Brads, bracket, Post It Notes

All My Love

How about a Valentine’s card? It’s funny - I noticed when I went to work on this card I have NO red cardstock - never have… Hmmmm. So how about a Pink Valentines card.

All My Love
The heart is emboss/resist on the left and stamped in the same color ink on the right. I drew the heart on scrap paper and used that as a template to create each side. I randomly (as in sketchy around the edges only) inked up the Little Specks background stamp and then stamped on the Vanilla background. Some crumpling, sewing, distressing and inking finished up the card.

Tip - Did you know that you can punch through two pieces of cardstock using the Martha Steward edge punches - yep - at the same time. That way you can get your scallops to line up perfectly!

Happy Monday to you - I hope you find time to do something creative today!

KAT

The Stuff:
Stamps - (all Innovative Stamp Creations) Delicate Rose, Little Specks
Paper - (All SU) Very Vanilla, Pretty in Pink
Ink - VersaMark, Pretty in Pink (SU), Tea Dye (Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Ranger), Versafine Black
Other - Flower (Petaloo), Edge Punch (Martha Stewart), Half Pearls, thread

Colors of Spring

It’s been a very cold and snowy Winter here in NE Ohio and I am wishing for Spring! This image reminds me of much warmer weather…

Colors of Spring

Close up of the Distress Stickles
This is another new image that will be available from Innovative Stamp Creations on Feb 9th. Doesn’t she look all innocent and sweet! She was water colored using colored pencils and Goo Gone, yes Goo Gone! I find that Goo Gone works better for me than odorless mineral spirits - I can get the colored pencils to move on the paper with no effort. For this card I used both the sewing machine and needle and thread - my home-ec teachers would be proud.

The center of the sunflowers is Distress Stickles - love the stuff - it looks like broken glass!

I hope you are finding time to be creative!

KAT

The Stuff:
Stamps - She’s So Sweet (Innovative Stamp Creations)
Paper - (all SU) White, Certainly Celery, Barely Banana, Baja Breeze
Ink - Timber Brown Stazon
Other - Prismacolor Colored Pencils, Goo Gone, buttons, Cuttlebug Embossing Folders, Corner Punch (SU), Vintage Photo Distress Stickles

Pretty In Pink

Two posts in one day - what’s up with me? Well I have not participated in a challenge on SCS in some time, I browsed today’s layout challenge and thought is was perfect for the ISC new Delicate Rose set that will be available on Feb 9th. You can view the challenge here .


Pretty In Pink


Close up of the dimension


The background panel is emboss resist with the new Rose background stamp. The Rose was stamped on Pink Pirouette with Cranberry Crisp five times, cut out and bent to make it look like a real rose. The leaves have two layers on them. A little more stamping, a Martha edge punch and some half pearls finished the card.

Hope you are having a creative day!

KAT

The Stuff:
Stamps - (all Innovative Stamp Creations) Delicate Rose, Little Specks
Paper - (all SU) Very Vanilla, Pink Pirouette, True Thyme
Ink - VersaMark, Cranberry Crisp, True Thyme
Other - Clear EP (Ranger), Half Pearls (Target $1 Spot), Martha Stewart edge punch

Man Card - Father's Day

Man cards have always been hard for me to create - mostly because I have limited manly stamps and you can’t embellish them to within an inch of their life - limiting, very limiting… LOL.
Innovative Stamp Creating is launching a new release of stamps on Monday February 9th. One of the stamp sheets has great “man” images - it‘s titled Men of Wisdom.

Man Card - Father’s Day

Close up of the Cracked Glass
The automobile is cracked glass and the two printed background panels are the same stamp - one is embossed and then sponged with black and the other is stamped with black. The diamond pattern is stamped from the same background stamp with White Craft ink and then cut out.

It’s really cold here today and we still have tons of snow on the ground - sounds like a great day to stay inside and stamp!

KAT

The Stuff:
Stamps - Men of Wisdom (Innovative Stamp Creations)
Paper - Black and White cardstock
Ink - Antique Linen, Frayed Burlap (Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Ranger), Onyx Black Versafine, VersaMark
Other - UTEE, Ultra Fine Clear EP (Ranger), Spellbinder Tags