KaterArt

Button Rings, the next installment

2011-01-21T12:28:00.002-05:00

Here are some more button rings I did recently.
These turned out a little differently than my previous rings...a bit more sophisticated with a more neutral color palette.
The one on the far left has been designated as my MSU ring ;)

Save the Date for Em

2011-01-21T12:24:00.003-05:00

I recently created a save the date for my friends Emily and Rich who are getting married this August at a winery in Michigan. I love this style...kind of vintage with a slightly modern twist. I am also creating their wedding invitations, and I can't wait to get started!

More Button Rings

2010-10-04T14:07:00.002-04:00

Created some more button rings this weekend while watching a marathon of football games. I used epoxy this time around, and I think it worked a lot better than the adhesive I used previously.

I got a lot of good feedback after posting the images on facebook, but those comments were from friends, who I expect positive responses from ;) I'd like to try and sell some, but I think I need to give them out as gifts first and see how they fare in the real world.

So far I love wearing them!

Rock Star

2010-07-19T16:50:00.002-04:00

I do marketing and design for a fine jewelry store, and we tend to have pretty awesome events for our customers.

Last year for our holiday party, our theme was "Party like a rock star", and it was a great party! We had DJ Rekka flown in from Miami to take care of the music, we had a girl swinging from the ceiling and two other girls dancing behind silhouetted screens, and a ridiculously cool tent with white couches, purple lights, and light-up palm trees. The night was a complete success.

I designed the invitation for this rock star event, and I had so much fun with it. Sometimes work can be fun and rewarding :)

Love Coasters

2010-07-16T09:52:00.002-04:00

I saw this and thought it was a great idea for a wedding reception!

This couple got married at one of my favorite places in Indy (the Indianapolis Art Center), and provided coasters for guests with sweet little quotes and sayings about each other. Such a cute idea, and probably pretty inexpensive.

The wedding was photographed by Indianapolis wedding photographer Jessika Feltz...I love her stuff :)

Stupendous Stationery

2010-07-08T10:50:00.002-04:00

My friends Emily and Rich are getting married sometime next year and Emily has asked me to design their wedding invites and save-the-dates! I couldn't be more excited (and more flattered), so I started the ball rolling right away, searching for inspiration.

I came across Minted, a great website for stationery, invitations, and other little odds and ends. In addition to selling some great stuff, they also hold design contests. Anyone can enter, and I plan on submitting some stuff myself ;)

The invite above would be great for an outdoor Summer wedding.

Button Rings!

2010-06-29T20:22:00.003-04:00

So I have been pretty bummed out lately because I haven't been using any of my quasi-creative skills to do anything artistic.

I purchased some buttons on Etsy, bought some supplies, and wa-la! I made button rings! I still have to make sure they are durable enough before I start giving them to friends (or possibly selling them), but for my first attempt I am pretty happy with how they turned out :)

First stop: button rings. Next stop: fancy sock puppets?

Time to Get Creative!

2010-06-09T16:24:00.003-04:00

I have been creatively dormant for way too long and I need to get some things going!

I just purchased a ton of buttons on Etsy, so when we get back from Cancun I plan on designing some fabulous things. I think I'll start with some button rings. I found this great tutorial on the blog Style Crush, and it seems easy enough.

I also found this amazing Etsy site with button rings I will aspire to create :)
DBJewelryDesigns

My friend (and sister-in-law!) Becky and I want to start our own Etsy page so we can create rad things and sell them to the masses. I am pretty jazzed just thinking about it! But first we need an incredibly awesome name for our site...oh yeah, and some product to sell.

I Love This City...

2010-05-18T09:52:00.003-04:00

It's hard to believe that Adam and I moved to Indianapolis just 3 years ago. It feels like we've been here forever, making this city a home for ourselves. We live right downtown, in the heart of it all, and I wouldn't ever want to change that. Some amazing memories have been made here, and we have definitely become big city folks.

The outlook of the future is uncertain...we have no idea where we will be living in the next 3-6 months, but I am so excited for the next adventure, wherever it may take us.

One thing is for sure, I will always hold a special place in my heart for the city of Indy.

Mother's Day

2010-04-29T09:33:00.002-04:00

I know it's a little early, but I just designed this little Mother's Day card. I figured the best way to get back into personal design projects is to do some cards for friends and family.

I think my mom will like it, although she tends to like everything I create. Moms are sweet like that :)

Give Thanks

2010-03-05T11:28:00.002-05:00

I just finished designing 3 different cards for Reis-Nichols Jewelers (my place of employment). Nothing too intense, but I particularly liked how the Thank You note came out.

That's just my style...simple yet sophisticated. I love white space :)

The Perfect Drug

2010-01-08T08:45:00.002-05:00

With winter in full force, it seems as if my motivation has hit an all-time low. All I want to do is wear hooded sweatshirts, crawl under covers, and take long cat naps. But alas, such is life.

This photo was taken by my husband Adam on New Year's Eve. I'd love to say that it was posed and that we had this whole freaky, poisoned-in-bed concept, but I was actually passed out from the excitement and activities of NYE.

Nevertheless, I love this photo and I plan on using this as inspiration for getting out there and taking more photos. Even if it's just shooting some still life in my apartment, I need to learn how to use cameras better and I need to feel creative again.

So with this I am truly going to take on an assignment. An assignment that Adam and I were supposed to do a few weeks ago, but it just never came to fruition.

Assignment: shoes
We'll see what happens.

Go Colts!

2009-10-19T14:14:00.003-04:00

A fellow employee needed a flier for her Colts tailgate party. I was happy to oblige because:

A) I love football!
B) I love the Colts!
C) It's just good practice and a fun activity

Here's what I came up with. I took the photo when Adam and I went on a tour of Lucas Oil Stadium when it first opened.

Blog Action Day

2009-10-15T15:36:00.003-04:00

Read about this http://www.blogactionday.org/en/blogs/new So I decided to participate in my own little way :)

This photo was taken at my friend Emily's house on Woodburn Lake in Gregory, MI. My husband and I love to go there and hang out, it's always a good time!

Floating Florals

2009-09-28T16:02:00.002-04:00

Here's a little tribute to completing my first event at my new job. I was the official/unofficial photographer for the evening. Trying to get better!

A little VooDoo

2009-09-11T11:15:00.004-04:00

I love comic strips and comic books, always have. One of my pipe dreams is to become a comic book artist and have my own series of comics along with a weekly comic strip.

I was toying with the idea of starting my own strip and came up with this little character. Not sure of her name yet, but she is a little voodoo doll made of string. My strip would follow her daily adventures of running into sticky situations and getting out of them by using her unraveling bits of string. She doesn't have a mouth because I sort of wanted the comic to be strictly illustration-based, no words. Unraveled was a possible name for the comic strip.

I think she's cute :)

Celtic Pride?

2009-08-06T15:08:00.002-04:00

I am attempting to do the Celtic themed wedding invitation in deep blues and greens and I am a little stuck. Not quite sure what I need to change. Perhaps the text is a little off or I should use a different font.
I am liking the simplicity of it, yet disliking it at the same time. Hmmm, maybe if I leave it alone for a couple days and come back to it.
If you have any suggestions let me know!

Latest Invite

2009-08-05T09:31:00.003-04:00

I have started working on a few more wedding invite designs, thanks to Becky for giving me plenty of ideas ;)
This particular design is an Asian theme using pastel colors. I think it needs a little more tweaking, but I am pretty satisfied with it nonetheless.
Next up, Celtic theme with deep blues and greens!

Ah, Nostalgia

2009-07-23T13:34:00.003-04:00

I recently came across this poster that I made in college for William Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' (my fave Shakespeare play).
My husband was brave enough to be my model for the photo shoot.
It's one of my personal favorites :)

Words to Live by

2009-07-15T13:05:00.003-04:00

I created this little logo on my lunch break at work, just having some fun.
I feel everyone should celebrate once they create :)

Fun with Corn

2009-05-27T13:56:00.003-04:00

A friend of mine at work asked me to design a postcard for the Midwest "Back to School" Demo Days. Basically a conference where computer buffs can band together and talk about virtualization and whatever else their little hearts desire.

I incorporated the VMware logo into a theme of corn. Get it? Midwest....corn....virtualization? Fun stuff I tell ya.

The first one is the actual design they decided to use. The second one is our favorite, but of course there are logo restrictions you have to watch out for, so we couldn't use it :(

Autumn

2009-05-08T10:37:00.002-04:00

Just finished the outdoor fall theme with fall colors invite.

Typography is not my strong point, so this could perhaps use a little more variety.
But the simplicity of it makes me happy.

Diamonds and Glam finished product

2009-05-06T12:37:00.002-04:00

Here is the final product! Now on to number 2.....I am going to try and finish one of these a day.

Diamonds and Glam

2009-05-05T15:55:00.002-04:00

I reached out to friends for ideas of color schemes and themes for some wedding invites. I received some interesting ideas, which is always fun.

One from my good friend Mike happened to be orange and coral for the colors, with a diamonds and glam theme.

Here is what I have so far....I am thinking I need a lot more glam.

Wedding Design

2009-04-09T09:45:00.002-04:00

I have been on a wedding kick lately, considering this year I have been in two weddings and have my own wedding coming up in June.

When I decide to quit my job and start a wedding business with other colleagues and friends, I want to design wedding stationary. I have been messing around with different designs and it's so much fun :) Keeps me entertained for the time being anyways.

Wedding Logo

2009-02-24T16:50:00.003-05:00

I worked a little more on our wedding stationery, and this logo was a result.
I would love to use this as a tattoo design.....if only I could find a good spot on my body to put it and take back my promise to my mother that I wouldn't get another tattoo.

Oh I Wish....

2009-02-12T08:29:00.003-05:00

Ok, so this isn't related to my artwork, but I came across these photos on the Offbeat Bride web site and I absolutely love it! If only I had the guts to do a totally different and alternative wedding, this is the type of thing I would do. The rest of the pictures are amazing too, the fun atmosphere created by the color palette and the compositions of the photos are great.
I only hope that my wedding is this much fun ;)

Spelling with Photos

2009-02-09T15:23:00.002-05:00

I love when people use photos as the shapes of letters in order to spell something out.
I used images from our photo shoots at various sporting events to spell out the names of my co-workers.
Here is mine.
I definitely want to spend more time on this and make it better.

statue interpretation

2009-01-22T14:44:00.003-05:00

A while ago I recruited my friend Melissa to give me art assignments on a weekly basis, mostly to stimulate my creative habits and get me back to doing something productive. Most of the assignments were with photography, but for this assignment she asked me to create a drawing based on one of the photographs I had taken.

Here is the photo and the drawing of a statue in University Park downtown.

business card fun

2009-01-22T14:33:00.002-05:00

Today at work Shane from IT asked me to design a business card for an event they are having. I pretty much just based it off of a web site they already had, but it was still a fun activity for the day.

Wedding Fever

2009-01-16T10:36:00.004-05:00

So I am getting married in June and I decided to design the invitations myself. I also designed the save the dates, menus, and programs. It was a lot of fun, I saved some big bucks, and it was a great way to flex my invitation and stationary design skills.

I used these web sites for inspiration. Excellent choices for more modern and simple designs.
http://www.weddingpaperdivas.com/
http://www.pioneercolor.com/

College Photography

2009-01-15T14:49:00.002-05:00

Some of my favorite photos I took for my college photography class. A series of photos featuring mannequins and my good friend Kelley.
Creepy? Perhaps. But I love them <3

New tricks with photos

2009-01-15T12:18:00.003-05:00

Today at work we messed around with Color Efex Pro 3.0. Some really cool features and ways to edit your photos.
Here are a few of my own photos that I modified. Good times!

You can download a free 15 day trial:
http://www.niksoftware.com/colorefexpro/usa/entry.php

I'm new at this....

2009-01-13T09:24:00.002-05:00

So I just created this blog and I am hoping in time that it will showcase artwork that I am currently working on.
I am sure it will also showcase the random thoughts that are rolling around in my head, so beware! But also, enjoy :)