Saturday Stampin' with the Polished Stone and Bleach Techniques

QKD Bloggers, this Saturday still finds many of us in the USA covered in ice and snow.  I'm almost done with my Valentines and already thinking of spring and projects in pastel colors adorned with pretty butterflies and birds. But it seems appropriate for today to take one last look at these icy snowpeople. This card was on my blog back in mid-December.  Today I'm showing it on the QKD blog as a featured technique.

This background technique is called polished stone. I put drops of dye reinker onto a cotton ball and dabbed the cotton ball onto glossy cardstock (not to be confused with glossy photo paper). The inks I used are two shades of blue and also metallic silver.  Then I stamped the snow people from the QKD Northern Exposure stamp set with VersaMark and heat embossed with black embossing powder. Next I took a cotton swab dipped in bleach and removed the background ink from the images. I discovered that metallic ink doesn't want to cooperate with bleach removal. But the overall effect looks like more realistic icy snowballs.

I encourage you to try this technique. Just keep in mind a couple of things: 1) give yourself plenty of time to finish your project as it took more than one day for the ink to dry; 2) if you use metallic ink, it rubs off when you polish the background with a cloth yet is harder to remove with alcohol than regular dye ink. I always suggest making several backgrounds in one sitting.  You'll have them ready to go when you need them.

Until next Saturday, I hope you have time to stamp a lot!  Helene aka 2amscrapper at  LOTSA SCRAP

Spotlight Thursday - Monarch Mia

Were you beginning to wonder when I was going to feature a mermaid? Yeah like I could possibly neglect these beauties!! There's just so many to choose from, how can you choose just one? Do you one one yet? Do you have a favorite? Don't know how you can't because they are awesome to color, if you don't believe me check out the one we have in spotlight this week.

It's Ms. Monarch Mia. And with that I won't keep you away from all the gorgeous inspiration from the gallery this week.

Tuesday blogging

Good morning everyone and welcome to another Tuesday of blog hopping here at Kat stamps. Check out this photo - so warm and inviting - then see what the team has created for you with Queen Kat's stamps:



Here's the full blog list for today. Now head on over to Shannon's blog and see her wonderful creation.

QKD blog
Shannon's blog
Alex's blog
Whimsical Ink Sorority
Meredith's blog
Sara's blog
Anita's blog
Queen Kat Designs Store

And don't forget there is a sale this month:

Tuesday Twenty
It's gonna be Tuesday for the rest of the month!
Take 20% off everything!
That makes all clearance items 75% off

(Good today through 01/31/10 - use coupon code: TT20)

Inspiration Monday

Welcome to Royal Kat Monday! This week, we have an inspiration challenge: use this picture as an inspiration for your project.

And here's what I came up with:

I was really inspired by the warm tones in the picture. I used Kitchen Goddess. I colored her in with Copics and I paper pieced her Apron. I used my slice to cut the label shape, and my threading water punch for the border. I used papers from Crate and Hambly, and a little distress ink in Tea Dye.

Thanks for stopping by! Now hop on over to Jules to see what she has done with the inspiration challenge.

Don't forget about our sale:

Tuesday Twenty

It's gonna be Tuesday for the rest of the month!
Take 20% off everything!
That makes all clearance items 75% off
(Good today through 01/31/10)
use coupon code: TT20

And here is the rest of the list:

QKD blog
Jules
Helene
Penny
Lara
Wynneth
Steph
Queen Kat Designs Store

Stampin' Saturday For Non-Traditional Valentines

Valentine's Day will be here before we know it! Time to order some stamps from Queen Kat Designs and create some non-traditional Valentines. How about a photo holder or bookmark? If you're making sweet treats, what about a little recipe card to go with them? A mini-album or notebook cover would make a great little gift. Something for everyone:  modern, cute, sophisticated. These inspirational photos are in the gallery, thanks to designers Queen Kat, Steph and Julie. And the stamps showcased below are in the store: Rocker Kat, Kitchen Goddess, and Friends. Links to the gallery and store are in the left sidebar.

 

 

Until next Saturday, I hope you have time to stamp a lot!  Helene aka 2amscrapper at  LOTSA SCRAP

Spotlight Thursday - Dino & Gweedo

Are you looking for a set that can be used for anything? Can be used for friendship to missing you to little boys? Well who isn't right when it comes to us stampers? If I told you it was a dinosaur set would you think I was nuts...probably. I would have if you had told me all of that. However when I went looking in the gallery for this week's spotlight set this is what I found on how people used this set and it made me really start thinking on how to break out of my stamp boxes on certain sets. How about you? Do you put your stamp sets in ruts too?

Our stamp set this week is Dino & Gweedo and I think with them I'm going to issue a challenge to take a stamp set that you would normally use one way totally use it an opposite direction. Like these stampers in our spotlight did.Remember if you play in our challenge using Queen Kat's stamps, upload your cards in the gallery and link back here. I'll send out a prize if you play along even if you don't have Queen Kat Stamps but you get an extra entry if you do and upload it to the gallery.

Tuesday blogging

Hi everyone and welcome to another Tuesday blog hop here at Kat Stamps. Today's challenge is to use any of Kat Stamps with the following colors on a card:

Purple, Blue, Lime, Pink (black and white allowed as well)

Going through my collection of papers, I found this great Imaginisce birthday paper which I paired with a Happy Birthday stamp from Kat stamps. Just so you know, this stamp was one of those from the grab bag collection, so definitely go check them out - you never know what you will get, but it will be worth it!




Supplies:
Prism and American Crafts cardstock
Imaginisce pattern papers
Kat stamps
Memento ink
Spellbinders Nestabilities die


Here's the full blog list for today. Now head on over to Shannon's blog and see her wonderful creation.

QKD blog
Shannon's blog
Alex's blog
Whimsical Ink Sorority
Meredith's blog
Sara's blog
Anita's blog
Queen Kat Designs Store

And don't forget there is a sale this month:

Tuesday Twenty
It's gonna be Tuesday for the rest of the month!
Take 20% off everything!
That makes all clearance items 75% off

(Good today through 01/31/10 - use coupon code: TT20)

What's black and white and red all over?

Our hop for today's Royal Monday! Haha.

This week, we have a color challenge for you! Use the colors red, white, and black on a card or layout.

So, here's what I came up with:

I used some black cardstock and I covered it with an overlay. Then I used my Slice machine to cut out a label shape. On the pictures, I used a color pop action in photo shop. The circles were made using the stars from the  Over the Moon set. Then I added a rub on number to the center. I punched a red border strip and printed out some journaling strips.

Thanks for stopping by! Now hop on over to Jules to see what she has done with the color challenge.

Don't forget about our sale:

Tuesday Twenty

It's gonna be Tuesday for the rest of the month!

Take 20% off everything!

That makes all clearance items 75% off

(Good today through 01/31/10)

use coupon code: TT20

And here is the rest of the list:

QKD blog

Jules

Helene

Penny

Lara

Wynneth

Steph

Queen Kat Designs Store

Welcome the new 2010 Royal Court....

I'm pleased and honored to announce the new members of my Royal Court.

Keely Yowler: WIS Sister
Kimme Leach: Royal Stamping Maid
Kyra Sanders: Royal Stamping Maid
Erika Taylor: Royal Kit Kat
Terri Sproul: The Findings Kitty

Thank you so much to Kim H, Shana, Giovana, Jenn and Sally. I had a very hard time deciding what to do. I hope you will all apply again next time!!! Please email me your addresses so I can send you a little something for playing. info @ katstamps . com

Now for our awesome returning court members:

Senior Royal Designers:
Juliet D- Court Coordinator
Penny H
Shannon B- WIS Sister
Lara B
Alex L- WIS Sister
Meredith W- WIS Sister

Royal Stamping Maids:
Nina P
Nancy S
Helene H
Sara H
Anita M
Stephanie A
Wynneth H- WIS Sister

I think this is an awesome team and we are all very excited to bring you our latest and greatest!!! Thank you somuch for visiting today. Please help me welcome the new and returning members of the Royal court.

*STICKY*Phase #2-- Stamping Contest

SCROLL DOWN FOR RECENT POSTS

Thank you to all who entered the stamping contest to become the next Royal Court member. I'm so excited and happy to see the enthusiasm in the entries we received. It was a hard decision.... The 10 people moving on to phase #2 are.....

1. Sally MacDonald
2. Shana
3. Keely
4. Jenn K
5. Terri Sproul
6. Kyra Sanders
7. Kim Howard
8. Kimmie Leach
9. Erika Taylor
10. Giovana

Congrats to all of you. Here are the details for the next phase of the Royal Court Stamping Contest...

• Make 1 hand stamped card and 1 altered project (can be anything: 2 ATCs, a book, a mini book, etc.)

• These two items MUST be fresh and new. They can not be something you've blogged or posted before. Create these items JUST for this contest. Show me what you have up your sleeves that you can bring to the Royal Court to complete our family.

• Only the 10 people chosen to move on will post their links.

• All entries will be due January 16th by midnight MST.

• If your entries are not liked and you were chosen to move on we will disqualify you from the running.
  
  
• Winners will be notified by midnight on January 17 MST.
  

Ok.. here's a fun twist!! I'm looking for not one but a couple-few people to join the court! So that means we will not have a phase 3 unless there needs to be a "run off" between a couple people. Here are the areas I'm looking for people in at the moment:

1. 1 or 2 Whimsical Ink Sorority Sister(s)- This person will create with the fantasy mermaids by Maigan Lynn that are featured on the WIS blog.

2. 1 Royal Kit Kat (which is what this contest started out looking for) This person will create with the monthly Royal kits from QKD.

3. 1 Findings Kat. This person will create with our every other month Findings Kit (vintage). The next kit is in March so it's a purrrrfect time for me to find someone. :)

so... lets see those projects!!!! Tip... using QKD stamps can't hurt!!! and using images that you need to color are a plus too. It shows me where you're coloring skills are at.

As before, link us here to your creations. Make sure you blog them!! Tell all your friends that you've entered the koolest contest around and you made it to phase 2!!! Share the love and excitement.

Stampin' Saturday For Distressing Backgrounds

Create a smooth distressed background for your tags. Make several for your stash to save time later.

Start with a craft sheet for the artsy mess you will make.  Select three different colors of dye ink.  You also will need a water mister. Note I used Ranger Distress Inks created by Tim Holtz who has a video on his website that demonstrates this technique.  Here is my shortened version in words. I didn't follow his directions completely.  I did only one layer of ink.  I didn't dry my tags with a heat tool. This is what I did to create the tags that you see here.  There are many ways to use ink to make backgrounds.  The examples  you see here are made with dye ink, specifically Ranger Distress Ink .  I also have made tags with Liquid Chalk Ink.  The look and feel is entirely different.

  

Take an ink pad and swipe across the craft sheet. Repeat the process with a second color, swiping directly below the first color.  Repeat again with the third color below the second color.  (Your three swipes of color should resemble three horizontal stripes or a rainbow.)  Spray a fine water mist on top of the ink that you swiped onto your craft sheet  (use a craft mister designed for this purpose).  You will see the three colors travel and blend where they meet.  Place your tag on top of the inky mixture, pressing down on the tag so that it absorbs the ink.  If you have a specific plan for your tag design, place the tag accordingly.  (You will note in the tag above, I wanted enough brown on the bottom of the tag to anchor my trees from the Paradise Found stamp set.) Remove the tag and lay tag flat to dry. You probably will have enough ink left on the craft sheet to make another tag.  You will see in the photo, some areas of the tags didn't get covered.  I did go back and touch them up.  Note:  after the tag dried, I sprayed it with Perfect Pearls mixed with water in a second mister.  Once thoroughly dry, you are ready to use your tags and/or store the extras for future projects.

When I used the William vintage stamp to design my interpretation of the Disney/Pixar film, UP, I had another tag in the ready.

Both of these QKD  stamps are available in the store. A link to the QKD store is on the left sidebar. And while you're at the sidebar, please click on the Gallery for more ideas.
Until next Saturday, I hope you have time to stamp a lot!  Helene aka 2amscrapper at  LOTSA SCRAP

Spotlight Thursday - Give Me Coffee

If you're weeks have been anything like mine I think we will appreciate the stamp that's in this week's spotlight. A little caffeine pickup is always in order, it's just too bad I don't like coffee. Love the smell, just not the taste. The good thing about this set is that's it's versatile to make any kind of ring stain.

We are spotlighting Give Me Coffee/Coffee Stain Stamp. I have to tell you when I saw the gallery entries for this one I was totally inspired and can't wait to try some of them myself.Please remember to join us next week for our next installment of Spotlight Thursday where you too can be our inspiration.

Royal Kat Tuesday Blog Hop

Welcome to another Royal Tuesday blog hop. We are showcasing more NEW stamps!! That's right, this is the second week of stamp releases for Queen Kat Designs. All of the new stamps are in the store here.

There's lots of fun new things to see on this blog hop but remember, we have a huge gallery that's loaded with fun samples and things. It's sorted by stamp set.

This week, Queen Kat has asked us to work with the following sketch:

Thanks for stopping by. Here's the full blog hop for today. Now head on over to Shannon's blog and see what she has created this week.

QKD blog
Shannon's blog
Alex's blog
Whimsical Ink Sorority
Meredith's blog
Sara's blog
Anita's blog
Queen Kat Designs Store

Tuesday Twenty
Take 20% off everything!
That makes all clearance items 75% off
(Good today through 01/31/10)
use coupon code: TT20

Royal Monday Blog Hop

Welcome to Queen Kat's Royal Monday blog hop! This week, we have another sketch for you:

This is one of the Forrest Pixies. She is brand new this month. She reminds me a little of one of the Flintstones, but I love her with her pretty dress and flower. I colored her in with Copics, and I used some October Afternoon paper and Stickles.

Thanks for stopping by! Now hop on over to Jules to see her take on the sketch and another new release!

Here's the list:

QKD blog

Jules

Helene

Penny

Lara

Wynneth

Steph

Queen Kat Designs Store

1 More Day!!

Hey guys.. remember we have a stamping contest going on!! There's only 1 more day.. A little over 24 hours to get your cards submitted for the contest. Click here for Deets!!

Saturday Stampin' with Sponge Applicators

Applying your background by sponging provides a soft, fluid look.  The QKD Gallery offers lots of inspiration for you to try this technique.  Dye ink, fluid chalk, and craft decorating chalk all can be sponged on using crafting applicators.  Can you tell it's freezing cold where I'm sitting?  I selected photos from the gallery that remind me of warmth and sunshine!

Hula Girl

                                                 Puffy Bugs

                                                 Paradise Found
All of these QKD  stamps are available in the store. A link to the QKD store is on the left sidebar. And while you're at the sidebar, please click on the Gallery for more ideas.
Until next Saturday, I hope you have time to stamp a lot!  Helene aka 2amscrapper at  LOTSA SCRAP

Spotlight Thursday - Build A Snowman

Welcome back to another week of Spotlight Thursday. Thank you for joining us. Hope you enjoyed last week's inspiration.

This week's set in the spotlight is Build a Snowman. I figured with everyone in the throes of winter this would be the perfect set. And now for our gallery entries...If your card is used on Spotlight Thursday please feel free to use the badge at the top of the post on your blog. We'd love to see more of your entries in the gallery.

NEW stamps!!!

Yahoooooooo!!! There's new stamps in the store!! You just have to come over and get them. I am happy to announce the arrival of 6 new stamp sets and 2 new mermaid stamps.

Check them out.... How exciting?? It's the first release of the year. Happy New Year!!!

Remember use coupon code BL10 at check out and get 10% off your purchase.

We have some Royal Kits left this month..

You should pick one up with the new stamps. That way you'll have lots of goodies to use with your stamps. :) Check out the gallery for some fun ideas.

The following kits have sold out for January if you'd like to get on the list for February's kits please email us at info @ katstamps . com

January Get Inked! Kit--SOLD OUT
W.I. Sorority Kit-- SOLD OUT
January/February Findings Kit-- SOLD OUT

All kits are starting to ship tomorrow!! So stalk your postman. :)

*Make sure to shovel your walk way and clear off all the snow and ice so they can get to your door with your box. :) We dont want any broken post people* lol

Tuesday blog hop

It's the start of 2010 and Queen Kat has some exciting stuff in store for the new year. We hope you can join us on our Monday and Tuesday blog hops. Using Queen Kat stamps, we hope to inspire you with everyone's creations.

This week is RELEASE WEEK!!!! This is day #2 of our release hop. I'm happy you could join us. There's exciting things to see. Tomorrow is release day and the store will be beeming with new stamps!

Today's challenge was to use this sketch:

















Each of the participants on this hop will feature a new stamp that's going to be in the store tomorrow!! Make sure you get in line for your new stamps.

Now head on over to Shannon's blog and see her wonderful creation.

QKD blog
Shannon's blog
Alex's blog
Whimsical Ink Sorority
Meredith's blog
Sara's blog
Anita's blog
Ashley
Queen Kat Designs Store

Welcome to Queen Kat's Royal Monday Blog Hop! This week, we have a sketch for you:

This sweet little girl is called the Kitchen Goddess. She is a brand new release and will be available in the store this Wednesday.  I colored her in with Copics and I used pink glittery paper for a very girly look!

This week, we are also having a sale, so don't forget to stop by the store when you are all finished.

Take 10% off everything!

That makes all clearance items 65% off

Thanks for stopping by! Hop on over to Jules to see her take on the sketch and another new release!

Here's the list:

QKD blog

Jules

Helene

Penny

Wynneth

Steph

Queen Kat Designs Store

The New Findings Kit- Jan/Feb

Hey everyone!! How's it going?? Did you see?? The new Jan/Feb Findings Kit is in the store. It's almost sold out!! there's only 1 left. The stamps for this kit are the bestest!! There's an old rotary phone dial. How many things can you do with that??? Got your mind going didn't it?? I can't wait to dive into my kit this month. How about you?

If you dont have your findings kit, get it now!! Remember it's an every other month thing. So the next kit won't come until March!! Don't wait. Grab the last one today! The kits are ready and will start shipping this coming Wednesday!

Also.. don't forget the awesome stamping contest we are having. Click here for details.

Saturday Stamping with QKD Background Stamps

Happy New Year QKD Bloggers!  And welcome to a new feature on the official QKD blog.  Queen Kat has asked me to feature a technique each Saturday.  Sometimes it will be an art technique and sometimes it will be a usage technique.  Today we're going to think outside the box and show you some uses for those QKD background stamps. 
Let's start with the basics.  Here are some examples of using background stamps as actual backgrounds.  You can use one stamp, plain and simple, or you can use more than one for a collage effect 

            Tire Tread Background Stamp                              

                              Box It and Harliquin Background Stamps

Think outside the box and have the background show through your images.

Let's move on to designing your own paper. Here the paper is used as another background layer.
                                Heart It Background Stamp

Now let's use those background stamps as the actual focal point of the card. 

                    Vintage Time Background Stamp                                            

                   Retro Background Stamp

Let's step it up by stamping embellishments to make unique flowers and alphas.

Coffee Background Stamp

                                        Fairy Background Stamp                                                                                                

 Let's not stop here.  How about using background stamps on altered art such as album covers, paper decorations, scrapbook layouts, and tags?

Dot It Background Stamp

                               Fairy Background Stamp

                                    Harliquin Background Stamp

                             Random Text Background Stamp

All of these QKD background stamps are available in the store. A link to the QKD store is on the left sidebar. And while you're at the sidebar, please click on the Gallery for more ideas.
Until next Saturday, I hope you have time to stamp a lot!  Helene aka 2amscrapper at  LOTSA SCRAP