Live in the Sunshine!

Greetings!  Today I am sharing a card based on the new release of Kudzu Kafe by Artistic Outpost.  The background was created with various Distress Inks to create this rustic background.   All images are from Artistic Outpost and all are stamped with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink and distressed with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  A farm scene and old pick up truck are both from the Home plate . The woman, boy and girl and the "be kind" and "be honest" are all from Kudzu Kafe.  The "Live in the sunshine" sentiment is from The Outpost plate.  I love how you can tell a story by intertwining so many of the stamp images from AO!  Simple embellishments include Copper Liquid Pearls, tan and white Baker's Twine and an Idea-ology Binder Clip and a snippet of Cocoa twill ribbon.  

Thanks for dropping by. 

Yvonne Garner, Guest Design Artist

Let Freedom Ring

From all of us at Artistic Outpost - we hope you are enjoying the Memorial Day holiday!  To all those who serve or have served our country, we THANK YOU for our freedom!

Stamps - Artistic Outpost Hero plate

Designer - Lisa Somerville

I'm in Love...

Oh yeah, definitely head over heels in love with the pillow ticking stamp that is included with the Kudzu Kafe set released just this week by Artistic Outpost.  I stamped myself silly with it here for this card, all done on white CS with Faded Jeans distress ink and everything was edged with Vintage Photo DI.  I just love the fun country feel of this new set.  If you missed the blog hop, you can still see all the wonderful artwork the design team made for the May release here.

Thanks for stopping by.  Wishing all my fellow Americans a healthy and safe Memorial Day and honoring all of those who have made sacrifices so my family can live free and comfortable lives here in the U. S. A.

Linda Coughlin, Guest Designer
The Funkie Junkie

Kudzu Kafe...It's A Fun Place!

Are you loving Kudzu Kafe? I know I am! For my first May Release DT pieces, I decided to do a matching set of sorts. I just love the Lined Image on this set so much. I think there are so many uses for it...like here as the grass/road. It would be awesome as siding on a building, a design on clothing, hair, journaling lines, rows of crops on a farm, waves on a calm ocean...I could go on and on.  

Born To Stand Out: Having a comical sentiment on a vintage image like this makes me happy. I love all those cards with the older people on it with funny quotes. All the images on both cards are from Kudzu Kafe and Serenity and are stamped in Jet Black Archival onto kraft paper. They are all colored in with Distress Markers or water colored with Distress Ink. The sentiments are from Think and Wonder.

Fun Is Good: This card was done basically the same way as the first, except the sign. I wanted to create a rusted and vintage looking sign, highlighting my favorite thing...homemade ice cream. I used Antiquities Rust Embossing Powder over silver embossing on top of Tim's Hanging Sign Die. Chain and jump rings attached the stained wooden veneer sign. It was stamped in Jet Black Archival and colored in with Distress Markers. 

Anita Houston, Guest Designer

Kudzu Kafe - Mini Book

Happy Friday!  Suzz here, I am sharing my mini book inspired by the Kudzu Kafe:

The book partially opened to the center:

The first two pages:

I used the birds from the Bluebird set along with the Kudzu Kafe images. I added a little banner along the side from the Country Life plate.

The images and backgrounds are from Bluebird, The Flower Market and Kudzu Kafe.

 

The last two pages on the inside use The Outpost, The Flower Market, and the Bluebird set. 

 

The back cover is from The Outpost and I  love the contrast from the store to the scenery. 

Have a wonderful weekend! 

Suzz

Designer: Suzanne Czosek

POPPY

For my Artistic Outpost creation this week I have used the Flower Market Plate along with the Secretary Pool plate to create the POPPY text at the top of my card.

My background has been sponged with Distress Ink and the edges distressed a little with a paper distresser, with a little walnut stain ink added to the edges.

I love the poppy from the Flower Market plate and I thought they were perfect for this time of year as the poppies in my garden are just about to bloom.  I coloured my images with Distress Ink fired brick and peeled paint and added a little dimension to the flowers. For a little more interest I added a bird brass charm.  This card would be perfect for a SPRING birthday.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Guest Artist: Tracy Evans

Artistic Outpost Releases Kudzu Kafe

Just in time for summer stamping, Artistic Outpost is happy to release Kudzu Kafe, a Southern inspired collection that pays homage to lazy days of summer.  This collection was inspired by a vintage kudzu seed packet that we picked up from a flea market.  It's kind of ironic to us because kudzu is like the plague to many of us that live in the Southern part of the US.  It grows in the fields along most country roads and it covers EVERYTHING.

Visit the Kudzu Kafe Gallery!

The nostalgic images featuring a roadside cafe, children from the early 1900's, and Thoreau sentiments that will easily mix and stylistically go with so many of our other collections including: The Outpost, Home, and Old Grist Mill.  This collection is now available in our store, in both unmounted rubber sheets or pre-mounted on EZMount cling foam and hand trimmed on a clear cling storage card!

Be sure to stop by and see what our talented Design Team Members created with the new Kudzu Kafe release:

Gerrie Johnnic * Lisa Somerville * Suzanne Czosek * Anita Houston * Linda Coughlin * Yvonne Garner


We hope you enjoy the inspiration and have a wonderful and safe summer!

Robyn, Shelley, Steven and the Artistic Outpost Design Team

Loving the Red, White and Blue!

Hello!  I have a patriotic card to share with you today in Red, White and Blue!  I worked with images from She-roes and Heroes.  When these two sets came out, I was immediately smitten.  The images work so well when sending cards to family and friends who have served or who are currently serving in the U.S. Military.  For this card, I chose to color the background with Festive Berry and Faded Jeans Distress Inks.  The Statue of Liberty and Wings were added next with London Fog Memento Ink.  The focal images were also created with Festive Berry and Faded Jeans Distress Inks.  To give my card a vintage feel, I distressed everything with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  Snippets of patriotic ribbon and Baker's Twine and some Chrome Liquid Pearls complete my card.  Wishing those who celebrate Memorial Day a wonderful Holiday weekend with your family.

Thanks for dropping by today.

Yvonne, Guest Design Artist

Explore With Huck Finn

Greetings and Happy Sunday everyone.  I'm back here with you today to share my card that I made for the Artistic Outpost blog hop that I shared on my blog earlier in this week.  I chose to work with the Huck Finn plate and a marbled stains background featuring Picket Fence, Faded Jeans and Weathered Wood.   I stamped the background with some of the images from the set in sepia archival ink.  The sentiment was stamped one letter at a time by bending the unmounted stamp, inking and stamping each letter individually   onto the embossed honeycomb sections.   The tiny ship was inked with a marker, stamped, cut with a circle die cut, then embossed several times with UTEE and cracked. It was then mounted on a rusted bottle cap.  

I hope you have had a chance to hop with us this week.  If not, you can still visit us for the hop here.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

Linda Coughlin, Guest Designer

The Funkie Junkie

A Route 66 Road Trip

Happy stamping Saturday to all of you! This week marked the Design Team's monthly blog hop, of either using  the Huck Finn or Route 66 stamp sets. I choose the latter, and decided to do a postcard, which is a little different. This stamp set is so much fun, and I really see a ton of themed uses for it on projects.

I stamped the map image with Pumice Stone Distress Ink several times on to Specialty Stamping Paper.  Next, I stamped the other images onto this map paper using Jet Black Archival Ink, colored them in with Distress Markers, and then cut them out. I used thinned out Gesso to tone down the background images a little, so the stamped images would not be lost against them. I stamped the other images from the plate onto the background paper with Jet Black Archival. I adhered this to white cardstock, giving it a border. Last, I added back a little color when I stamped my last image from the plate, a Saguaro Cactus, in Lettuce Adirondack Pigment Ink. 

I wish you a fun and creative weekend!

Anita Houston, Guest Designer

The Movies

Happy Friday!  Suzz here...

This card was inspired by the movies. The images made me think of old  movies that I used to watch and enjoy.

The images and sentiment are all from the Diesel Punk plate.  The filmstrip is from the Graphics 45 paper collection. 

Have a great weekend!

Suzz

Designer: Suzanne Czosek

Let's Go on an Adventure - May DT Blog Hop

Welcome to the Artistic Outpost Design Team Blog Hop!  Going along with this months Travel Referral Theme, the Design Team is showcasing projects using the Route 66 or Huck Finn plates.

Be sure to stop by the Designers Blogs to read more details about the projects they created using the Route 66 and Huck Finn plates:

Gerrie Johnnic * Lisa Somerville * Suzanne Czosek * Anita Houston * Linda Coughlin * Tracy Evans * Yvonne Garner

Treasured Memories

Greetings! Sharing a card with you that I made using elements from the Flower Market plate and the sheet music image from the Ephemera Backgrounds plate.  Working with the Spring Seasonal Distress Inks, I watercolored the various elements to coordinate with the backgound panel.  Simple embellishments include cheese cloth, vintage seam binding, pearls, a lace applique and a snippet of lace.  The sentiment, included in the Flower Market plate, is wonderful to have on hand for those hard-to-express moments in life. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Yvonne Garner, Guest Design Artist

London Time

I have another travel card to share with you this week that fits in with the travel theme of our May customer referral challenge.  All the images are from either the London Elements or Loverly London plates.   I also used the ledger paper stamp from Ephemera Backgrounds, stamped in white craft ink.  The background was sponged with Peeled Paint and dragged through a puddle of Vintage Photo ink wash.  There's still time to join in our May customer referral program.  Just make something with a travel theme with the many Artistic Outpost sets that have travel elements and link it up here.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Linda Coughin, Guest Designer
The Funkie Junkie

Travel With Artistic Outpost

Happy Saturday AO lovers! As you know, this month's theme for the Referral Challenge is "travel". There are so many sets and images from AO that you can use for this (I used seven). The possibilities are endless.  Make something with this theme and link it up for a chance to win a fabulous prize package. You have until May 31st to enter.

I decided I wanted to use several images from AO that depict travel, so I needed a larger foundation. I went with a jumbo tag, which are my favorite. I colored my background with Sailboat Blue Color Wash and Picket Fence Distress Stain and water. The propellers from Industrial Chic are stamped in Picket Fence Stain, which gave them a wonderful almost watermark quality. I stamped all my travel images (Huck Finn, Diesel Punk, Steampunk, Paris Exposition, Industrial Chic, French Flight) in Jet Black Archival onto Specialty Stamping Paper (which really shows every detail) and then cut them out. I colored them all in with Distress Markers. All of my sentiments (A Lovely Day, Huck Finn) are also stamped in Jet Black Archival.

Here's hoping you travel with Artistic Outpost soon!

Anita Houston, Guest Designer

Sail My Ship

Happy Friday.  Suzz here.

The beautiful quote from Louisa May Alcott on the new Quote and Quotables plate inspired me to create a nautical card.

The card mixes in the lighthouse from the Beyond the Sea plate along with the ship from Huck Finn with a little texture from the music in Ephemera Backgrounds. 

This month's referral challenge is all about travel and I hope this inspires you to play along!

Suzz

Designer: Suzanne Czosek

BLESSINGS

Time for my weekly post for Artistic Outpost and this week I am showcasing the FLOWER MARKET plate.

I have used the vintage cabinet card die and the mini cabinet die to cut out the centre.  I have added two layers to give more dimension and to frame my stamped floral images.

My flowers have been stamped and embossed with white embossing powder and then the same image stamped with Archival Ink adding more layers of interest.  I have added white highlights to the flowers in the background with a gel pen. I have stamped the butterfly and coloured with broken china ink and added FLY to jump rings and added to the butterflies body. For more dimension I have cut the mini tattered florals from an old book and coloured with broken china ink, adding buttons to the centre. I have stamped the sentiment with Archival Ink, cut out, sponged the edges with vintage photo and added to the top centre of my aperture.

Don't forget this months REFERRAL PROGRAM, our theme this month is TRAVEL.

Thanks for stopping by.

Guest Artist: Tracy Evans

Batter Up

Watching a ball game is a very enjoyable part of American life......fun, friends, excitement and eating! The f&e's of baseball I'll call it.


The vintage Artistic Outpost, Cracker Jack stamp set has everything you need to make beautiful cards and projects.

Gerrie Johnnic

Take Me Home Country Road!

Greetings everyone!  Sharing a card with you today that I made using images from two Artistic Outpost plates: Home and The Outpost.  The background was simply stamped onto card stock in Black StazOn Ink and distressed with Old Page Distress Ink. To really make the pickup truck pop, it was stamped in Fired Brick Distress Ink and mounted it to the card front with foam squares.  To give more prominence to the sentiment at the top of the card, the top of the background was torn away.  The sentiment was layered over a snippet of burlap.  An Idea-ology binder clip, repurposed ribbon, red Scrappers Floss, a vintage button and more ribbon complete my card.  Just a reminder:  There's still time to submit a project to Artistic Outpost's May Referral Program with a Travel theme.  We hope you will join in the fun! 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Yvonne Garner, Guest Artist
Journey into Artistry

Off to Paris

Hi Lisa here today, taking you on a trip to Paris using images from the Artistic Outpost Birds of a Feather and the Paris Exposition sets.  All images are stamped in Black Archival, to add color to the girls, I used STAEDTLER Mars Graphic Watercolor Markers and a Waterbrush. After cutting, I sponged all edges with Ranger Gathered Twigs Distress Ink. I collaged the Eiffel Tower and Hot Air Balloon from the Paris Exposition plate, coloring the images with STAEDTLER Karat Aquarell Watercolor Pencils, blending with Gamsol, then cutting with Spellbinders Labels Twenty Five. Clouds were sponged in Blue ink to fill in the open space. For the offset Black panel, I traced the die on Black card stock, and distressed the edges. A second balloon was stamped, water colored and popped up for added dimension.

Why not travel along with us this month at Artistic Outpost and play along with our May Referral Program using the Travel Theme, for your chance to win an Artistic Outpost Prize Package.  For more details click here.

Designer - Lisa Somerville