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  • Inspired by…

    Inspired by……

    Woodlands Fairy close up3424ac

    Good Morning! 

    A couple of weeks ago, my dear friend and fabulously talented paper crafting artist, Kittie Caracciolo honored me on her blog as an artist she is inspired by!  I was so thrilled and honored by her post!
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    Kittie is well known in crafting circles and on Splitcoast Stampers. She joined Splitcoast in 2004 and was inducted into the Dirty Dozen in 2007. We first became friends through the challenges on Splitcoast shortly after I joined in 2007 and I’ve always been inspired by her fabulous style and genuinely sweet personality. Kittie is a wonderful water colorist and ultra talented dimensional paper artist. She serves on the Impression Obsession design team and is a new member of the Splitcoast Featured Stamper Challenge hostesses. If you’ve never visited her blog, KittieKraft, pull up a chair and prepare to be amazed.

    Along with this honor, Kittie asked that I answer a few questions and share a couple other artists who inspire me.

    Here are the questions!

    1. What am I working on?

    Even when I’m not working on a release or a challenge (I love the challenges!), I’m always working things out in my head. Right now, I’m preparing for the Our Daily Bread designs release tomorrow and also a new release for DRS Designs. That means new Thanksgiving & Christmas images/dies! I also serve on the design teams for Serendipity Stamps, North Coast Creations and as one of the Hostesses for the Splitcoast Featured Stamper Challenge on Sundays.

    2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

    That’s a really tough question…I’m not sure it does. Friends tell me they recognize my cards before they even see the closeup but at the same time, they’re never sure what to expect… that’s it’s different every time. I love working with a lot of styles of images & I love to make my own backgrounds. My three biggies when designing are color, composition and construction. The main one being color. I adore color and especially contrasts. Most of the time I rely on my coloring skills to carry the card. And I love to try different techniques.

    Here are some of my favorites from over the years (click on any picture to make it larger or go to original post info):

     NCC Birthday Poppies 03726Blakes 8183   Anchor 04218 Beautiful Clover 01549 Hang On 9248
     Julie Warner -justwritedesigns - The Write StuffJulie Warner -https://thewritestuff.justwritedesigns.com Learning to Sail 9695
     Lighthouse 03873Watercolor Pottery 02020NCC Poppies 02605 Julie Warner -justwritedesigns - The Write Stuff LSC249 Peace 4024
     Crayon Bday 04010Get Well Teddy 02539 
     Summer Seascape comboAutumn Leaf Pears 6415Flowers on a Grid 3352a1 Delft Tile Card Deco Faces 8204Classic Red 7639Best Fishes 2929a1  Winter Eve 4161Bluebonnet Sky 9867Beautiful Geraniums 04234 FS290 Moonlit Lake 022
     Holiday Season 04088Aloha 2820a1 Cherry Blossom Umbrella  01137Hooked on You 01197Julie Warner -justwritedesigns - The Write Stuffic149-reindeer-1009aRed Checlle 03968fs84-zig-or-zag797aRuby Slippers 03030Party Candles dk 9009 Sweet Stamps Flower Frame 02911 DDIC13 Fall is in the Air 3533a2
    3. Why do I create what I do?

    I feel driven to create and since I’m just a bit impatient, I love the almost instant gratification of creating cards..my mini artworks. I started out in water color but that grew to include a lot of other mediums. As long as I’m able to color, the method or medium doesn’t really matter. Creating for me is fulfilling, frustrating (when it doesn’t work as planned), and always gives me a sense of accomplishment when the project is finished.

    4. How does your creative process work?

    Usually with something I see. It could be a magazine picture or one on the internet..or a card that has a technique that I want to try. A lot of times I look at an image I want to work with and an idea or finished design will appear in my head. Sometimes it works out just as I envisioned, but most of the time it morphs and evolves as I work on it. If I get stuck, I work on backgrounds. I find they usually get me going and sooner or later, I’ll pull one out and it will be perfect for what I need at that time. I never throw things out, lol. Even if I’m not crazy about it as a whole, parts or pieces of it will usually end up in another project.

    And now I get to nominate a couple of lovely ladies who are not only friends, but always so inspiring to me!

    Karen Dunbrook – Snippets

    photoI first met Karen when we were on the Innovative Stamp Creations design team in 2009 and our friendship continues through Splitcoast. Karen is always a favorite in the Splitcoast Challenges…her remarkable CAS (clean & simple) style is easily recognized. Karen currently does design work for Penny Black and is a regular in the SCS Challenges. From conversations/emails I know Karen has a super busy life as a caregiver for a group of little ones which doesn’t leave her a lot of extra time. If you haven’t, check out her blog Snippets and her SCS Gallery. You’ll be floored by her beautiful creations!

     

    Jenny Gropp – One Krafty Kat

    *-2

    Jenny & I first met around 2010 or 2011 (in real life, yay!). There are a group of us in the Atlanta area and we usually get together a couple of times during the year. Recently, we all went to the CHA Hobby Show in July. Jenny and I are on the Serendipity Stamps design team and we were also on the Outlines Rubber Stamps design team. Jenny is a super talented Copic colorist and super sweet lady. She also serves on the design teams for Impression Obsession, Perfect Paper Crafting and Impressive Ideas (a stamp store where she teaches classes and handles the purchasing). If you haven’t, check out her blog One Krafty Kat and you will be amazed at her creativity! 


    Thank you so much for stopping by! I hope you’ve enjoyed this post and you’ll be inspired to check out the blogs of Kittie, Karen & Jenny!

    Julie2 sig


  • Altered Book Pgs & a Love Letter

    Julie Warner – https://thewritestuff.justwritedesigns.com

    Weekly-Favorite
    Today, I’m combining a few challenges from Splitcoast…first my card is for the Free For All (F4A206), to have LOVE somewhere on your project.

    For the big LOVE letters on top, I stamped the woven plaid in a couple of directions, using a couple of pink/red colors, then stamped the stacked love image on top and fussy cut the letters.

    On the 4.25 x 5.50 card front, I stamped the heart background diagonally using the light pink ink. The  fun mailbox is a die cut and I used a metallic silver, a metallic flecked gray and shimmery red card stock to cut it and assembled them together. On the little letter, I stamped parts of a new greeting (Hug a Nurse, You’ll Heal Better…coming soon!) and I used a stamp positioner to add the L in place of the B in Better to create the word Letter. The white scallop and narrow red frames were left overs and I stacked them and arranged the LOVE on top and the mailbox thru the frames.

    Supplies:

    Stamps: DRS Designs – Stacked LoveWoven PlaidInterlocking Heart Background
    Ink:  Memento tuxedo black, love letter & angel pink, Colorbox rouge & warm red chalk inks
    Paper: white, shimmer red, metallic silver, metallic flecked gray
    Accessories:  Quickutz mailbox die, Spellbinders scallop rectangle & rectangles dies

    For a couple of the following Altered Book pages, this first one is for the MIX53 challenge, Layers.

    Julie Warner – https://thewritestuff.justwritedesigns.com
    These are all pages from an altered book I made a while back for my sister’s birthday. Since we were born and raised in Texas, I chose to start with the book “Texas” by James Michener. I used quite a bit of text from it, but also a ton of pictures from magazines, especially Texas Monthly, clip art and stamps from a whole bunch of companies. I started by removing some pages and gluing other pages together for stability, then used a variety of colors of acrylic paints to base coat the pages. Then I would use a variety of ink colors and stamped images to create the backgrounds. Then the collage work started with all of the images. This is just a few of the pages…the entire book is around 45-50 double pages with all manner of pockets, fold outs, telescoping images, tags and pull outs. Some tell the history of Texas, some are on individual cities and regions of Texas..some tell about personal family history &  experiences, recipes, music & some are just for fun.
    Julie Warner – https://thewritestuff.justwritedesigns.com

    I love all the fun images on this page..the only thing that always bothered me is the misspelling of “y’all” on the left page. I cut this out for the size, went ahead and used it, but it still bothers me. I guess the typist just had her contractions confused, since as every Texan knows, y’all is “you all” and the apostrophe goes after the y. And just to be clear, “y’all” is singular, “all y’all” is plural, lol. 
    Julie Warner – https://thewritestuff.justwritedesigns.com
    And this page is also for the Ways to Use It (WT464), Horses as well as the Mix53.Julie Warner – https://thewritestuff.justwritedesigns.com
    This is a group of pages (see the angle cuts on the right?) that have a bunch of recipes and pictures of Tex-Mex food and restaurants. 

    Julie Warner – https://thewritestuff.justwritedesigns.comThis is a couple of fun stories about Texas Rangers and since we have an ancestor who was a Ranger, it was fun to include it.

    Julie Warner – https://thewritestuff.justwritedesigns.com
    Some Texas wildflowers, state bird and postage stamps.Julie Warner – https://thewritestuff.justwritedesigns.com

    Another page with pretty pictures but I don’t know if you can still buy a little piece of Texas as this ad says.Julie Warner – https://thewritestuff.justwritedesigns.com


    Julie Warner – https://thewritestuff.justwritedesigns.com
    And here we have some Texas music! Is there anything better? I’ve been to the Kerrville Folk Festival and it was always fabulous! And just interesting to me, but one of my cousins lived down the street from one of the ZZ Top members (I won’t say which, lol) and Buddy Holly was a cousin of my dad’s (so I guess he was cousin too) and they were born on the same day, same year. How cool! 
    Julie Warner – https://thewritestuff.justwritedesigns.com

     

    Julie Warner – https://thewritestuff.justwritedesigns.com
    And this is the cover. Like I mentioned, these are just a few pages, but I hope you enjoyed them!
    Thanks so much for stopping by!
    Julie2 sig


  • Moonlit Lake

    Julie Warner - justwritedesigns https://thewritestuff.justwritedesigns.com/

    Best of 2012 –SPLITCOASTSTAMPERS!

    A BIG CONGRATS to Mary (aka jandjccc), the Splitcoast Featured Stamper (FS290)!

    And wow does Mary have a fabulous gallery and I spent quite a bit of time strolling thru the pages. I was really struck by a scenic card she had called Lonesome Bird. I love the greens (my fave!) and the bird, the moon…well I love the whole thing. So I kept those, but I used different images, made a frame around mine and added two punched birds instead of the one stamped bird.

    Julie Warner - justwritedesigns https://thewritestuff.justwritedesigns.com/

    I needed an anniversary card for my hubby, since Monday is our anniversary so I thought Mary’s card would be the perfect one to case. I pulled out a long neglected Stampscapes image for this and after placing a circle mask for the moon, I sponged on the various green inks then stamped the image on top. A few wispy clouds were sponged across the moon and some highlights added to the trees and rocks. The reflected light on the water was done by scribbling a white Distress marker and a white gel pen then going over them w/ a water brush. The white gel pen was also used to add some stronger highlights to the water. The frame was die cut as were the flourish elements, then the punched birds and sentiment were added. The finished card is 6.25 x 4.50.

    Thanks so much for stopping by! Enjoy your week, Mary!


    Supplies:

    Stamps: Stampscapes, Michael’s $ stamp (sentiment)
    Paper: Neenah white, small scrap of black
    Ink: Ancient Page coal, Kaleidacolor Caribbean Sea, Distress Inks mowed lawn, pine needles, evergreen bough
    Accessories: Spellbinders labels 8, white gel pen, Distress marker picket fence, Cheery Lynn small flourish die, bird punch