It’s All In the Neutrals: Index Card Art

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The Neutral Zone

Speaking of the neutral zone, my hubby and I watched the newest Star Trek ‘Beyond’ movie. If you haven’t seen Star Trek than you probably have no idea how ‘Neutral’ fits into this paragraph. But that’s alright because I am not going to dwell on Star Trek but on the ‘movies’.

We usually wait for movies to come out on dvd before watching them. Not only is it difficult to find time for a date, but there is something exciting about saving $10 a ticket, $6 on supersized artery- clogging popcorn and most importantly being able to watch the movie in non-approved movie theater clothing. And I admit, I am a talker. I like to as questions, gasp, laugh and cry with however the emotional roller coaster plays out. My husband, on the other hand, loves to go to the movies because he is all about the huge screen and the surround sound. It must be a guy thing. Sure, I like to be able to see the picture but I can see it just fine if not better from my comfy spot on the couch. And if I may add, I will never have to worry about sitting behind a tall person that takes up part of the screen. Or giggling teenagers that laugh every time the leading man and lady kiss. Which, by the way, totally destroys the mood and obscures the following dialogue. (Yeah, I watched Twilight in the theaters.)

So, what do your think? Team Movies, Team Couch or Team Neutral?

Ok, onto the neutral index card.

Creating the Index Art

I pulled out my pack of index cards to create a portfolio card recently and decided to try out index card art. I have been seeing a lot of the ICAD’s which seems to be the new craze. While I don’t have time to craft every day (gasp), I have been trying to make more time in my schedule than before.

Let me just say that index cards used to be cards. Now they are thin, flabby pieces of paper being passed off as cards. So disappointing! Because of this, I had to add bulk to provide more support. I added a piece of vintage paper, followed burlap trim, coffee stained muslin and another layer of stamped muslin.

I cut a chipboard tile and stamped it with and Asian lotus, wound black thread around the card, affixed a few UmWow chipboard circles and splattered the finished piece with gesso and coffee.

I am usually all about color but I thought I would try something different for this piece.

If you enjoyed this post, check out a few of my other Asian themed pieces: A Little Asian Box, PaperArtsy Asian Tag Trio, Bird Song Canvas, Konnichiwa Pop-Up Card, The Chinese Tea House

Are there any great TV series or movies that you have watched recently? I need more suggestions.

Thank your for reading!

Kate

Challenges Entered:

A Inky Mess: Challenge # 13 Anything Goes

Aall and Create ITAC 2017: Challenge 2 Asia #itac17 #AALLtournament2017 #aallandcreate

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes

That’s Crafty: Only Cards

 Frilly And Funkie: A Little Rusty (Coffee Stained)

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Memories Make You Rich : Mixed Media Art Assemblage

Memories Make you Rich

My hubby is a financial blogger over at CYInnovations so we discuss money all the time with our children present. In fact, my boys love Dave Ramsey. They have his slogan and the radio show theme song memorized. That is usually what my youngest boy is humming while he washes dishes. So, last evening my 9 year old asked my husband if we were rich. The conversation went a little like this-

9 y.o.- “Daddy, are you rich?”

Daddy– “Yes,” Pause “I have a warm house, a job, plenty of food and 3 beautiful children.”

I was sitting at my craft table and I just teared up. How true these words are! It is not necessarily money that can define wealth but that our basic needs are met and the people that we love and make memories with are around us on a daily basis.

It is good to teach our kids that money isn’t everything. My hubby has the kids writing a upcoming blog post on their money views and they both drew pictures to illustrate their ideas. I’ll let you know when it goes up so you can check it out.

Meanwhile, I’ll give you the short version of my assemblage process.

 

Creating the Assemblage

Getting Started

To start off, my box is recycled from a Christmas present. I liked the shallow depth and the rectangular shape of the box. For some reason I struggle with layout in square shaped boxes.  I added a layer of gesso and then Black Soot Distress Paint. I covered the inside with patterned paper and then started adding texture.

The Texture

I applied texture paste through my favorite Stencil Girl Eye Lattice Stencil. I mixed paint into my texture paste and came out with a peach color. Not what I was going for but oh well. After the paste dried, I went over some of the texture and the box with blue paint.

The Inside

Using a smaller box as a platform I covered it in paper using the same texture paste/stencil method as the side of the box. I chose a vintage jewelry pendant as the focal point. Patina Paints were used to color a few of the metal objects.

A tag is in the background framing the box along with some black gauze-like fabric.

Products Used:

Challenges Entered:

Altered Eclectics: Anything Goes

Scrapi-Wyzwaniowo: Home Decor

13arts: Abstract Art

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

Tags

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!