Bittersweet Ketto

Hello all! I hope that today is a great day for you. We're cooling down a bit in the Bay Area but overall it's still pretty nice out. School starts in less than 2 weeks now--can you believe it?

Here's a card I made for a birthday party dd went to recently. She's in a button phase and asks me to use "lots and lots of buttons" when I make cards so I decided to oblige her.

Here are the details on the card. Cardstocks used were SU Soft Suede, & Melon Mambo as well as Neenah Classic Cream. Patterned paper is from BasicGrey's Bittersweet collection. Buttons are Making Memories.

Tatiana Ketto is stamped onto Neenah Classic Cream in Memento Tuxedo Black and colored in with Copics and Spica glitter pens. I have a lot of trouble when I use reds and pinks while coloring with Copics--they inevitably bleed outside of the lines so I use a lot of colorless blender to try to push it back. Any idea why it happens with those 2 colors? I grounded her with an Amuse Oval that was stamped in Memento Desert Sand. The sentiment is from SU's Amazing to Zany and stamped with Melon Mambo ink. Everything else should be straightforward but feel free to contact me if you have any other questions.

Thanks for visiting and come back soon!

Wisteria Tulips

I made this one for one of dh's coworkers. I hope that she finds comfort in it and knows that he's thinking about her and her family.

Sympathy cards are always really hard for me to make. I want them to be elegant but tasteful and not over the top. I think this one does the trick.

Cardstocks used were SU Soft Sky (retired) and Neenah Solar White. Patterned paper is from BasicGrey's Wisteria collection--this paper is simply beautiful and I didn't want to cover too much of it up. I stamped the tulips from PTI's Wishing You onto Neenah Solar White with Versamagic Purple Hydrangea, Aspen Mist, and Aloe Vera. The sentiment from the same set is stamped over one of the stems in PTI's True Black. I then cut and embossed it with one of the Labels One Nestabilities and attached it to the cardfront with Soft Sky striped grosgrain and dimensionals. I finished it off with three purple dewdrops and that's it.

Thanks for visiting and be sure to come by again soon!

Colorful Monsters

As soon as I finished this card, I had a JanTink moment and had to exclaim "YILM!" ( also known as yes, I love myself in JanTink speak). I think this is my favorite card that I have made in quite some time and wish the pic actually showed just how awesome it really is. This is going to one of my 7 yo's friends for his birthday. I hope he likes it :-)

Here are the details on the card. Cardstocks used are SU Bermuda Bay, Green Galore, and Neenah Solar White. Patterned Paper and brads are from BasicGrey's Lime Rickey collection. Stamps are from October Afternoon's Nite Lite clear set. Inks used are Memento Tuxedo Black, Brilliance Sunflower Yellow, and Brilliance Lightning Black. Copics and Spica glitter pens were used to color in the monsters. The corners were rounded with my SU corner rounder and the holes on the green layer were punched with an EK Success Swiss Cheese border punch.

I stamped the monsters on the Neenah Solar White in Memento Tuxedo Black and then colored them in with Copics. After matting it on the Green Galore layer and adding the brads, I fiddled with how I wanted it on the card front since if it was straight, it would be a little too long. I decided to angle it slightly and then added the brads and popped it up on dimensionals. It was still missing a little something so I stamped the arrow onto Neenah Solar White with Brilliance Sunflower Yellow and then stamped the word over it in Brilliance Lightning Black, cut it out, and popped it up on dimensionals as well.

When I was finished, I was bouncing with excitement since it turned out pretty stinking cute! My 7 yo keeps asking to look at it and I'm fairly certain he wants to keep it for himself instead of giving it to his friend.

Thanks for visiting and be sure to come by again soon!

Cupcake invites

My daughter turns 5 at the end of the month and here are the invitations I made for her party. I had to do 2 different colors because she wanted the boys to have blue ones and the girls to have pink ones. I kept them fairly simple since I had to make a bunch of them but I do like how they turned out.

Here are the details. Cardstocks used were SU Bermuda Bay, Melon Mambo, Basic Black, and Naturals White. Patterned paper is from BasicGrey's Lemonade collection. Ink is Versafine Onyx Black. I did a few in Memento Tuxedo Black and didn't get as rich and crisp of a black as I did with the Versafine so I'm wondering if I need to reink my Memento pad or if the Versafine is just a deeper black color.

I used my Hero Arts cupcake set for this one and stamped the cupcake onto both Naturals White and the patterned paper. I paper pieced the cupcake wrapper since I knew that I wasn't going to color in 24 cupcakes. The tops of the cupcakes are colored in with a combination of Pearlescent Watercolors and Smooch so they're nice and shimmery. The cupcakes are cut out and popped up on top of dimensionals on Naturals White which is matted with Basic Black for a little pop. It's hard to see but I stamped a row of circles from PTI's Background Basics: Retro on the cardfront in Versamark Frost Dazzle before I popped up the focal piece on dimensionals. It's pretty subtle but adds a nice effect.

So there you have it--something pretty easy to mass produce but still packs a nice wow since it's got the shimmer :-)

Thanks for visiting and come by again soon.

Button Trees

Here's another card I made with PTI's Everyday Button Bits. The images in this set are so darn cute! I made this for my boss who recently injured himself--hope he's feeling better soon.

Here are the deets on the card: Cardstocks used are PTI's New Leaf, Scarlet Jewel, and Dark Chocolate Bitty Dots as well as SU Naturals White. Inks used are PTI New Leaf, Dark Chocolate, and Fresh Snow. Buttons are New Leaf Vintage Buttons and ribbon is Satin Scarlet Jewel. If you like buttons, I recommend that you get some from PTI--there are so many different gorgeous buttons in each bag that they send you. The main image is popped up on dimensionals but other than that, it should all be self explanatory.

Thanks for visiting and come back soon!

Cherry Buttons

Today's my first day back to work but I just wanted to share a little of what I did over my summer break. Fortunately, I got some card making done and was able to preschedule some blog posts since I know my free time is going to be much more limited now. This card is going to a really super sweet person who RAK'ed me recently.


I love, love, love PTI's Everyday Button Bits! I will be reaching for this set alot! I saved my last piece of the Cherry paper from BasicGrey's Lemonade collection just for this card :-)

Here are the deets: Cardstocks used are PTI New Leaf, Berry Sorbet, and Scarlet Jewel along with SU Naturals White. Patterned Paper comes from BasicGrey's Lemonade collection. Inks used are PTI New Leaf, True Black, and Scarlet Jewel. Buttons are PTI Berry Sorbet and ribbon is PTI New Leaf Top Notch Twill. After stamping the stem/leaves and sentiment on Naturals White, I cut and embossed it with a Labels Three Nestability and then mounted it on a piece of Scarlet Jewel which is also cut and embossed with anothe die from the set. The buttons are attached with mini glue dots and this piece is popped up on the cardfront with dimensionals.

I know that I already said that I love this set but one of the things I love the most is the sentiments in this set--I love the fonts used and think they're super cute when they're inked up in different colors. Since most of my PTI inks are the cubes and I have many different dewdrops (Memento, Versamagic, Brilliance) I see many multicolored sentiments coming in the future. I also love that I have an excuse to use more buttons on my cards!!!!! I love the PTI Vintage Buttons and think my dd does as well--she takes them from the little baggies and puts them in containers for me and does NOT want my help :-) Here's a little snippet of my buttons. I do admit that it bothers me that all of my jars don't match and I'm going to change the containers that have the colored lid and put those buttons into containers that match so that they're all pretty and coordinated for me to look at when I'm stamping. You can see a teeny bit of my messy area since I had just finished doing some marathon stamping before I snapped this pic.

Thanks for visiting and come back soon!

Blue Monster

I really, really love these little monsters from October Afternoon! They are so much fun to color and with 2 boys, they're going to get a lot of use in this household.

This is another pretty simple and straightforward card but you know that's my style. Here are the deets: Cardstocks used are SU Pacific Point and Tangerine Tango (both retired) and Neenah Solar White. Patterned paper is from BasicGrey's Marrakech collection. Inks used were Memento Tuxedo Black and PTI Fresh Snow.

The little guy is stamped on Neenah Solar White with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored in with Copics and Spica Glitter pens. I went over his eyes and teeth with a white Souffle pen and in hindisght, I probably wouldn't have done it again since it didn't turn out exactly like I was thinking it would when I did it. He's cut out with one of the Nesties from the Labels Four set and mounted on another cut and embossed piece in Tangerine Tango. The sentiment from the same set is stamped on the bottom of the card in PTI Fresh Snow--love that white!

Since this is a kid card, I kept it fairly simple and didn't use too many embellishments since I know it probably won't be saved.

Thanks for visiting!

Domain Name issues

Hi all,
I'm going back to the blogspot domain name: www.kathatstamps.blogspot.com

Even though I'd registered it without the blogspot, it's pointing to a different site.

Weird, since it's not like I have thousands of readers/followers. Hopefully, it's just a mistake.

Boys will be boys

Yes, I do stamp! I've just been pretty busy and haven't blogged much lately but plan to rectify that right now. I've got a bunch of stuff photographed and will preschedule some blog posts for your viewing pleasure :-) That is if all of my readers haven't disappeared since it's been forever since I've shared with all of you.

I made this card for my 10 yo. He really liked how it turned out. The image and sentiment are from Elzybells Boys will be boys stamp set and are both stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black on Neenah Solar White. The little guy is colored in with Copics and Spica Glitter pens--I added the DGK to his shirt since it's my son's favorite skateboard company. He's cut out and embossed with a circle Nestability and mounted on SU Basic Gray which is cut out with my Nesties. Other cardstocks used are SU Tangerine Tango (retired) and Summer Sun. Patterned paper is from BasicGrey's Ambrosia collection. I think everything else is pretty self explanatory but leave me a message if you've got some questions.

Easy Peasy and just my style! Thanks for visiting!