Art Journal Cover

Playing around with journal covers is one of my favorite things to do. This chipboard cover cost me .99 cents! What a steal! Totally unplanned but the background turned out with a watercolor effect and I LOVE it along with all the texture from the stencils and grunge paste. If you want to check out the full picture tutorial, you can find it HERE. The inside page I made for this journal is HERE.

 

The Vintage Circus: Altered Book Part 2

Le Cirque

Here is the last of my  layouts for my altered book. You can see Part 1 HERE. I know I said this before but I really enjoyed this project. I hope you are inspired to save those old books destined for the trash and start creating something fun!

Me + You = Crabby: Altered Box and Pinterest Picks

The Box

I used a recycled box that previously held a collection of small baby books. PA Hot Pick stamps embellish the lid along with lots of texture. You can see the whole process on the PaperArtsy Blog at Part 1 and Part 2.

Pinterest Picks

I thought I would share a few inspirational boxes. Links to the original artwork are below the photo.

Jack & Cat Curio for Ice Resin

Linda Cain Designs

Stephanie Rubiano

Kindred Chemistry by Rod Lathim

Old Curiosity Shop By Melanie Forbes

Time Travelers Apothecary Kit By Azirca

Butterflies and Swirls

Netflix and Blogging

My little’s are all in bed sleeping soundly while I sit here on the couch blogging and watching Netflix. We live in the mountains so there is not a lot of choices for TV. In fact, to get any channels at all we have to have basic cable. We are literally in the middle of nowhere! Since hubby and I are trying to become Debt Free via Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover, we don’t have any money to waste on cable packages. Netflix is cheap and there are no commercials! Right now we are in the middle of watching the TV series Arrow and Hawaii Five-O. We are also waiting for the new seasons of Reign, Person of Interest, Supernatural, Leverage and Once Upon a Time. What TV series are you watching?

Altered Photo Frame

I didn’t place a photo in this frame box but I had a lot of fun decorating it. Beautiful stamps, watercolors and texture paste made this a fun make. My step-by-step tutorial is here.Thank for having a look.

Kate

It’s Mayhem!

Vintage Circus Altered Book

I just loved the idea of doing a Altered book centered around the Vintage Circus Theme. My very first layout in the book was this one, created for PaperArtsy, using Lynne Perrella stamps. Her images have the perfect amount of vintage and quirky to fit with this theme. Have you ever seen the circus scene in the Phantom of the Opera movie? It is all color, sparkle, and mystery. Everything I envisioned the vintage circus to be. I had so much fun creating this altered book that I  sent it in for publication and was published in the 2016 Summer Issue of Art Journaling by Stampington and Co.

My step by step tutorial for the creation of this layout can be found here. I will be sharing the rest of this altered book in future posts so be looking for that if you enjoyed this post.

Feedback

I enjoyed all of your feedback from the recent poll that I posted. In case you didn’t notice, I have started to implement those ideas into my weekly blog schedule. I am having fun writing about other topics that interest me. Someone asked why I didn’t include mixed media and scrapbooking on my poll. To answer that, I will continue to include those types of projects as that was the initial inspiration for starting my blog.

Kate

My Man Loves Flowers

Fun Facts about Me

Ok. So I thought I would let you know a few things about me so you can get to know me better. I always love when the writer reveals information about themselves as it seems a bit more personal. Here goes…

• I love Vanilla Custard Gerber Baby Food (I know, some of you are grossed out right about now)
• I tap my teeth when I am nervous
• Jane Austin is one of my favorite authors
• My favorite color is purple, turquoise come in as a close second
• I have a thing for Egyptian history, culture and art
• I HATE being pregnant but I LOVE having babies
• I dislike going to the beach for vacation (I end up looking like a lobster, broiled and baked)
• I am a very cautious spender
• I am not a risk taker

Art Journal Cover

I love taking dollar finds and turning them into a piece of art. My art journal cover was one of those things from the dollar bin. Using stamps and paint from PaperArtsy I made an fun journal cover that inspires me to house some new art journal pages. My step-by-step tutorial is here. Please stop by and take a look.

Kate

 

Paper Doll Shadowbox

Hello! I can’t believe it has been 6 months since my last post. Time just seems to get away from me. My little one is almost 1 year! She consumes so many hours of my day but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Being a mommy is the greatest job! I am so thankful to God for the opportunity. How about a picture of my cutie. This is her a month ago. She is still adorable but just has a little more hair.

So, as many of you know I am a Guest Designer for PaperArtsy.I write for them a few times a year. At the moment that fits my busy schedule as wife and mommy have to come first. I figured I needed a boost to get back into blogging mode so I am going to share my PA projects from a few years ago. I was only able to share sneak peeks at the time but I think it is ok to share the full project now that a lot of time has lapsed.I will still link to the complete tutorial over on the PA Blog.

So, here is my first project. A paper doll style shadowbox. My favorite details of this project are the texture on the frame and the doll dress. I had a lot of fun dressing her up. Of course, now i have a real doll to dress up and let me tell you…I am having a blast.

Take a peek over at my tutorial over on the PaperArtsy blog and I would love to hear any comments you may have. I have some great pictures of details to get you inspired.

Here is to a new year of projects and consistent blogging(well, maybe)

Kate

 

Art Journaling

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Published

Hello! I really am still alive despite being gone for months. My little is now 4 months and growing like a weed. I am enjoying every precious moment I have with her, knowing it will be my last time to experience all the ‘firsts’ with a baby.

I was recently published in the Summer 2016 edition of Art Journaling by Stampington and Co. I have two articles in this magazine.One features my Grief Journal from my previous miscarriage and the second article features my Vintage Circus themed  altered book. If you get a chance to read them I would love to hear what you think. (Don’t mind the skull mug. The nurse in me finds it exciting. Not to mention it is  the perfect size for those large cups of tea!)

I thank you all for your sweet comments on the birth of our baby girl. She is taking a lot of my time up and now that her brothers are home for the summer my mommy time has diminished to a big, fat, whopping ZERO. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I am hoping to get back on the creative wagon in the next few months.Perhaps then I shall have more to share. For now I will try to be content dreaming up projects in my head!

Kate

Baby is Here!

My little sweetie arrived February 23rd, 3 weeks early after a very difficult pregnancy. We are so thankful and blessed to have her! It has been a while since we have had a baby around here but her big brothers are in love with her.

Here is a banner I made for her room. It has a paper doll theme. I used some Prima doll stamps that have been sitting around for 2 years.

And another picture of my little because I am in love!

As you can imagine we are busy so I am going to try and stop by my blog every now and then to update.

PaperArsty Guest Christmas Post

Happy 1 week until Christmas! Can you believe it? Today I am over at the PaperArtsy Blog sharing an altered December Daily album. Here is a little sneak peek of what you will see. Thanks for stopping.

Vintage Santa Shadow Box

I love the little vintage toys that are part of the Toy Emporium stamp set by Artistic Outpost. I clustered them in the lower right hand corner of the shadow box ad-mists the tulle and flowers.

The leaves were cut out using the fancy foliage die. I added some Stickles to the leaves for sparkle. The background of the box has been painted with gesso and acrylic paint before adding stamping. Thanks for looking!

Dream Big

   Welcome to this month’s product focus for Artistic Outpost . The theme is Masculine, perfect for the upcoming Father’s Day.
  

    I chose to work with the new Wander and Dream stamp set, perfect for our theme. I made a tag pouch and tag using patterned paper and paints. The vines are stamped from the Hayride set. The script stamp in the background is from the new Springtime set.
   For more masculine themed projects and inspiration please hop along to each Designer’s blog. Thank you for looking!

Tracy

Gerrie

Terry

Kate – you are here

Shari

Lisa

A Fall Bag

Tags

paper bag

     October is here! Our theme over at the I Am Roses Challenge Blog this month is Orange, Black and a Bag. I made over this brown paper bag using lots of flowers, black leaves, a doily and a lot of paint. I hope you head over to the blog to see all the beautiful creations by the design team.

   Don’t forget to join in the challenge!

PaperArtsy Guest Designer Day 1

    Hello everyone. This is my last week over at the PaperArtsy Blog as a guest designer. I hope you will head on over and have a look. Today my project is an altered frame box. Here is a sneak peek but to see the whole project you will have to visit the Blog.

Antiquated Lady Wall Hanging

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Wall hanging

    I made this wall hanging some time ago for Pink Persimmon using Lisa Pace’s Antiquated Collection.
   I cut lots of circle die cuts and rolled them up and added hat pins to each piece. I place them in a rosette fashion and added a die cut and my stamped image over the top.
    Thank you for stopping by.
Kate