Happy 176th Birthday, Mark Twain

As Google reminded me this morning, today is Mark Twain's 176th birthday.  In his honor, I thought I would post this beeswax collage I created using our Huck Finn stamps and one of my favorite quotes from his "autobiographical" book "Life on the Mississippi".  "Now and then we had a HOPE that if we lived and were good, GOD would permit us to be PIRATES."  I know my five year-old thinks it would indeed be divine to be a pirate.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Samuel Langhorne Clemens!

Have a great Wednesday,
Robyn

Dare Devils

I love these three dashing gentlemen from the new French Flight plate ... so awesome for a masculine card.

I combined them with other images from French Flight & Paris Exposition. Paper is from 7Gypsies.

Designer ~ Stephanie Severin

French Flight Matchbook

I loved creating this matchbox mini book from the French Flight stamp set.    A lot of cool stamps for collaging!

Designed by:  Louise Granlund

Man in Motion

 The French Flight plate is all about man and his attempt to fly. I used the daredevil in his hot air balloon to create a collage of the fun images.

I stamped the images using black ink on a variety of pattern papers. Cut out  the images. Distress the edges with distressing tool and sponge.  The main in the hot air balloon was stamped onto the background first and on a separate pattern paper. Cut out the second image and pop dot on top of the background image.  The balloon is hand drawn and accented with lace and twine.

Have a wonderful weekend.  Don't forget about the special going on now until November 30th!

For every $25 you spend, we'll send you a special gift code for $5 (GC must be used by March of 2012).  Better yet!  These gift codes stack! If you spend $50 you will get a $10 certificate, spend $100 get a $20 certificate!  Remember, in the US you get free shipping when your order totals $50 ($250 internationally).  Offer ends November 30th, 2011.

**Gift Codes will be emailed to you in December.

***Please note if you order more than 6 sheets of EZMount cling foam, free shipping will not apply. These items are bulkier and require extra shipping costs.

Happy Shopping!

Suzz

Designer: Suzanne Czosek

Deer Greetings

I've been busy trying to get my Christmas tags done for the year.

My how time is flying by.

Today I'm sharing a tag I made using stamps from Frosty & Friends.

The little Retro deer image brings back memories of Christmas's long long ago.

Wishing all who celebrate a most Wonderful Thanksgiving

filled with family and friends.

Designed by Lynn Stevens



Thanks and giving!

Recently, I read an article about how small companies should compete with the big Black Friday sales from the BIG stores.  The gist of the message was that we shouldn't as it's a David and Goliath battle. (Give me my sling shot!!!)

It's not our low low prices that make you shop with us. It's our stamps. It's the inspiration of our Design Team.

Ok, and yes, sometimes it's a sale!

This year we will again provide you with an opportunity to shop with us, and reward you with a "gift code" to be used next year!  On the freshest stamps of 2012!

For every $25 you spend, we'll send you a special gift code for $5 (GC must be used by March of 2012).  Better yet!  These gift codes stack! If you spend $50 you will get a $10 certificate, spend $100 get a $20 certificate!  Remember, in the US you get free shipping when your order totals $50 ($250 internationally).  Offer ends November 30th, 2011.

**Gift Codes will be emailed to you in December.

***Please note if you order more than 6 sheets of EZMount cling foam, free shipping will not apply. These items are bulkier and require extra shipping costs.

THANK YOU for shopping the small businesses of the crafting community. Thank you for shopping our retail partners! Many local scrapbooking and stamping stores carry our stamps, and we would love for more to pick up our lines.

We are truly thankful for a wonderful 2011. We love our customers, and we love this creative community of which we are grateful to be a part!!!

- Robyn, Steven, and Shelley 

Creme de la Creme

This is another wonderful image and sentiment from the newly released French Flight. I used the stacked nesties technique as background panels and then adhered the nesties to Cuttlebug embossed background. I think these handsome gentlemen deserve a refined background, don't you!
Barbara Washington -- Designer

Par Avion

I had so much fun creating single-layer stamped collages with the new French Flight stamps.

I started with paper from the 7 Gysies Lille Collection began stamping in black, red and golden yellow. I added additional images from Paris Exposition and Whimsical Melange to complete m collage.

Designer ~ Stephanie Severin

French Flight Mini Book

A little mini book I made from French Flight.

So easy to create collaged pages with these stamps.

My book includes a pull out tag as well.

C'est Magnifique! Tag

This balloon image from French Flight is stamped on a #8 manilla tag. 

I stamped and cut a mask to put over the image so I could stamp the background.

I used Distress inks on it, too.  The main image is colored with

Copic markers.  It looks like a separate piece added to the tag but it's not!

The verse is from Paris Exposition.

Thanks for visiting!

Judy

Designer:  Judy Hayes

Why Fit in When you Were Born to Stand Out?

When I saw the three adventurers and inventors in French Flight I thought it would be fun to create a crowd using them and then make one of them pop out.  I stamped two masks of the men to use when creating my crowd.

And the sentiment from Think and Wonder is the perfect sentiment that works with my gentlemen who stands out.  I thought what a great card for a person graduating or getting a promotion!

Have a Wonderful Weekend!

Suzz

Designer: Suzanne Czosek

French Flight

You know I can't decide if I like playing with lace or rust better!

My Rusty things hanging was inspired by the Newest stamp release

French Flight

I used an old book cover for the base, rusted up some hardware, wings,

a frame and even some lace. yes you can rust lace!

A french tag from my blog friend Liz and some book pages.

Designed by Lynn Stevens

Artistic Outpost Releases French Flight

French Flight is the newest addition to Artistic Outpost's catalogue of unique vintage inspired stamp collections.

In the late 1700's , two French brothers, Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier launched the first manned balloon from the from the center of Paris and flew for a period of 20 minutes.  In 1793, Jean Pierre Blanchard became the first to fly a hot air balloon in North America, yet another French adventurer!

This stamp collection pays homage to these adventurers. Fun and quirky, with a little bit of steampunk thrown in for good measure, French Flight is pure creative delight.

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 visit our talented Design Team Members Blogs for inspiration using this newest release:

Gerrie Johnnic  * Lisa Somerville * Judy Hayes * Lynn Stevens * Barbara Washington * Stephanie Severin * Suzanne Czosek * Louise Granlund

What Makes You Happy

I love this smiling little farm boy from Country Life paired with this sentiment from Typography.

I added a bit of colored pencil to highlight the image ... he reminds me of what my Granddad would have looked like when he was young.

Designer ~ Stephanie Severin

We Remember

Hi , Lisa here today sharing a card created with one of the wonderful images from the Artistic Outpost Hero plate.  The image is stamped in Black Archival on Watercolor paper. To create the background, I used the Watercolor Distress Technique, then colored the image with Distress Inks and an H20 brush.  The fab coordinating paper is from Bo Bunny - just perfect for this image!

Be sure to stop back  here on Wednesday, as Artistic Outpost will be releasing our last plate for the year.

Designer - Lisa Somerville

Life is Good

Here's an all purpose card created with stamps

from Typography (verse) and Think and Wonder (image).

These kids with alphabet are one of my favorite stamps!

I simply stamped them in black, added a touch of color to their faces,

cap and shirt with Copic markers and also added red to the alphabet.

The verse is stamped in black and clear heat embossed.

I added dots of dimensional black paint to accent the shaped label.

Life is good!

Happy Creating!

Judy

Designer: Judy Hayes

A Bundle of ATC's

When I create I go through a process of trying different images in my design. This results in many images that don't get used.   A few weeks ago I decided to go through my scraps and create ATCs.  Here are a few using some wonderful Artistic Outpost images:

These sweet girls from the Birds of a Feather plate are lovely.  The clock and time flies are rub-ons and the family sentiment is a sticker. The sisters are stamped using black archival ink.  They are colored with distress inks.  The ribbon is seam binding died with glimmer mist.

The next image is from the beautiful Bluebird plate. 

Stamp the image on white cardstock using black ink. Color with color pencils and glimmer mist. Emboss with clear embossing powder to create the cracked glass effect.

The last ATC uses the Lovely Day plate with a computer generated sentiment.

Beautiful image of the lighthouse and the field of poppies. I layered the windmill using acetate. A little fluff for the clouds to create a beautiful spring day.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Suzz

Designer: Suzanne Czosek

Relax and Read

This week my card features a stamp I just love from Favorite Book. She reminds me of me when I was growing up. I'd find a comfy chair and spend hours with my nose in a book. The background of the card is made up of ticket shapes. The word tickets go so well with the reading theme and the designer paper tickets are just pretty to look at. Hmmm, now that I've shared my card with you, maybe I'll find a nice place to relax and read a good book.
Barbara Washington -- designer

Be A Good One

I combined sentiments from Typography & Adventure with the cool banner from Whimsical Melange for this fun birthday card.

I used a stylus to punch holes in the pennant flags, and then stringed them on brown cord before attaching to the card.

Designer ~ Stephanie Severin

Born to Stand Out

Don't you just love the Daisy image from the Artistic Outpost Gatsby plate!  Here I've paired up sweet Daisy with some wonderful papers from Prima and a Mojo Monday Sketch, stamping the image and sentiment in Black Archival on scraps of the Prima paper.  I know what your thinking, the sentiment from Think and Wonder doesn't come like that, and you are right!  I simply snipped the words apart and used a Stamp-a-ma-jig so that the text would fit with the sketch!  To embellish and a bit of color, I added some flowers and pearls.

Designer - Lisa Somerville

London Postcard

How about a postcard from London?  The images from Loverly London, London Underground and Ephemeral Backgrounds blend together perfectly to create a fun postcard from London.

The background was stamped using the ledger stamp and a grey dye ink.  Then I added in the Postcard stamp across the top using black ink.   I hand drew the line using a ruler to separate the sections. 

The tower was stamped in black ink and lightly colored with a light coppery brown.  The London was stamped in red ink.  The red lines on the bottom and side are from the Underground stamp. I masked them off. I smeared a light coat of white paint which pulled some of the red into the postcard for a distressed effect.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Suzz

Designer: Suzanne Czosek

Christmas Tag

Lynn here and I don't know about you but I've barely started my Christmas cards yet.

This year I'm going to be concentrating on doing some tags.

Here's one I created with the Frosty Friends stamps

a bit of lace and those yummy fabric flowers.

Let the season begin!!!

Puttin' on the Ritz

Around where I live, November seems to be the month of fashion shows. In fact, at our church, my daughter will be participating in one very soon. I think that's what inspired me to pull out my flappers and create this card. The stamps in Flapper Fashions are so chic and stylish. They are a lot of fun to work with. I thought these ladies looked so at home in the Tim Holtz artful dwellings die cuts. The background was colored using Pan Pastels and then embossed in embossing folders.
Barbara Washington - Designer

Glowing Bluebird Birthday

I love how this image from the Bluebird Plate works with this lovely Pleasant paper from Authentique's Glowing Collection.

I added a Happy Birthday sentiment from Adventure together with champagne pearl flourishes and a little blue colored pencil to highlight the sweet little birthday birds.

Designer ~ Stephanie Severin

Artistic Outpost November Referral Program

When you create artwork with Artistic Outpost images and upload to an online gallery/album/or blog - you could win a $14.00 Gift Certificate to the Artistic Outpost Store . To be eligible for the Artistic Outpost Referral Program, each time you upload a creation using Artistic Outpost images, include stamp credits with an active link to www.artisticoutpost.com/ then leave a direct link to your creation using Link Tool feature on the months Referral Program post here on the Artistic Outpost Blog to be entered into our monthly drawing. Please try to limit your projects to Artistic Outpost images only.

Note, links left here on the Artistic Outpost Blog need to include a direct link to the project you have uploaded. Projects can be posted on blogs or online galleries, but links left on the Referral Program post must be direct links to your projects. Links left with general links to galleries/albums/blogs will not qualify as our time is limited and we cannot search through pages of entries to see which upload uses Artistic Outpost images.

Please use this post to leave your links for November, all links must be posted by 11/30, 11:59PM CST to be eligible for the November Referral Program. The winner will be chosen through a random drawing and will be posted here on the Artistic Outpost Blog, be sure to check back in December to see if you've won. Remember entries must be for the current month in which you are posting. We're looking forward to seeing your creations using Artistic Outpost images.

**Artistic Outpost reserves the right to remove non direct blog links

Artistic Outpost October Referral Winner

Thanks so much to those who played along with the October Referral Program here at Artistic Outpost, we love to see what our customers are creating with our images!  We had the Random Number Generator pick this winner....

Congrats Miss Iowa!  Please email me to claim your Artistic Outpost Gift Certificate!

The November Referral Post will be up shortly!  Thank you for your support of Artistic Outpost!