A Little Spring Sprite

Well, the warmth thing just didnt work out...it snowed last night and today, big time! During rush hour it was almost white-out conditions. Luckily alot of it melted as the day went on but I still spent most of the day inside. On the plus side though, I got to do some stamping!

I still keep finding fun things I can do with my fairies...the scale of them is so perfect for alot of my other images. (Sadly, this was only a happy accident and not intentional, lol) Today, I paired a fairy with the sprout from the 'Thought I'd bug you" set. as I made this card though, I thought through some other possiblities like, a fairy riding on the "Pond Friends" turtle's back, or a fairy flying with the dragonfly from that same set. The lizard, the ducky and the snail also hold possibilities as companions for the fairies. Anyway, here is the card I came up with today:

First, I colored the fairy (with pencils & gamsol), added a bit of shine to the wings with a clear Sakura gel glitter pen and cut him out. Then, I stamped the sprout on River Rock card stock from SU! and added texture and grass using the 2 pieces from the Pond Friends set meant for background detail. I stamped the sprout image again on Caramel stock this time, colored it a bit, cut it out and layered it over the image on the River Rock stock. The same was done with the lady bug...stamped on red, cut out and layered, but then covered with a bit of crystal effects to make the shell shine. When I attached the fairy to the piece, I left the wings loose, to give a bit of a 3D look. To finish it all off, I layered the piece on Artichoke and Blush Blossom and bordered the main piece with a line of turquoise stickles glitter.

Looking for Warmth

As I was watching my son's first soccer game of the season this morning, the inspiration for this card came to me. You see, it was quite windy and a "balmy" 41 degrees here in Utah for the start of the spring soccer season...the girls and I were cheering the team on while sitting on the sidelines under our blankets and I was dreaming of being warm! Warm...or hot, as in the African plains, seemed wonderful at the time and so I came up with this card.


I made the sunset background in the same manner as I did the one in my Tutorial here. The colors are a bit different but the technique is the same. And instead of blue for the sea, I tore a piece of black cardstock and layered it along the bottom with another on top for the ground. The tree image is from our Lion's Pride set...I colored in the tree tops to make the tree look like it is all in shadow. I kept this card simple, just finishing it off with a greeting (from a zoo set, coming soon) and a black organdy ribbon. I like how it ended up looking rather postcard-ish. Unfortunately, I smeared a bit of black ink just over the sun but since my creative time for the day was up...I decided to let it go and share with you anyway.

Dragon Designs

Do you love dragons? I do, I seem to have an affinity for fantasy creatures. Maybe it is because since they are imaginary, the possibilities are endless...there is no right or wrong. It seems to free my creativity somehow. I suppose that is why my dragon in this card is blue! Or maybe it is because it is a get well card and to be "blue" is to be down or sad. I suppose you can decide.

All stamps on this card and the next one come from our new Darling Dragons set. The cardstock is from SU! It was colored using Stampin' Up Markers on watercolor paper and blended using a aqua brush. I swear this technique by Julie Bulher totally eliminates my desire for coptic markers...this blending technique is great!!

I made this card before I discovered Julie's technique. I tried blending my markers on plain card stock with blenders pens and didnt get nearly as good results. But even though the blending isnt as good as I would have liked, the bright colors work great with this card design.

I love the greeting for his image, it totally cracks me up! So much so I had to make a hot dog for my dragon.

Thanks!

Here is another fun sample to share with my stamping blog friends:

WOW! Thanks for a great opening day!! I cannot tell you what a great feeling it is to be able to create something only to find that, not only does it appeal to you, others like it enough to pay for it as well! LOL THANK YOU ALL!

Opening Tomorrow!

Well, tomorrow is the big day! Come to http://www.artfulinkables.com/ and check out the new stamps, the new samples and the great grand opening special! As I promised yesterday, here is what you will get if you order from us between March 17 and April 17, 2008.

GRAND OPENING SPECIAL

Spend $30 and get 3 FREE stamps!

Spend $50 and get 5 FREE stamps!

Spend $65 and get 5 FREE stamps and FREE shipping!

Free stamps will be picked by us from our current stock and it will be a nice surprise what you get! Dont worry we wont put in anything lame or junky, only the good stuff! Size of stamps range from 1" all the way to 6 1/2".

So come and join the party! Now, how about another sneak peek?

These stamps are from our new Darling Dragons set, paper and hardware are SU! and the ribbon is unknown. I colored the dragon using SU! markers on wc paper and blended them with a aqua brush using Julie's technique found on her blog here: No Copics? No Problem! The balloons were then covered in diamond glaze to make them shiny and "balloon-y" :D

News, News and More News

Boy have I got news! So much is going on right now!!


First of all, our new images have finally arrived!


And do you know what that means??

It means that it is almost time for our GRAND OPENING!!


Yep, that is right! On Monday March 17 Artful Inkables will be fully open and ready for business with both Awesome Old and Nifty New Images available.


Now, do you want to see a sneak peek? I have a card that I just made using an adorable image that I'm dying to share with ya'll! And do you know what? It's my company so I can do what I want! *grin* So here it is...I hope you like it!

The main picture is actually 2 separate images (fairy and mushrooms), masked together. The set is called Enchanted Fairies and has 4 other stamps in the set besides these 2. The card stock in this sample is by Stampin' Up! and the patterned paper is by Basic Grey. The images are colored with prismacolor pencils and blended with gamsol. The origin of the wide satin ribbon is, unfortunately, unknown.

And finally, a bit of a tease...

We will, of course, be having a grand opening special that will be running for our entire first month. But I think I'll save that bit of news until tomorrow.

A question from the 'mailbag'

There was a question posed to me today that I feel needs answered here so that all may understand. Here is the question:

I just have a question I have ordered from you before. Was Pond Friends a set before I have the turtle and the fish and the cattails but not the rest of those in the set. Just curious if maybe I missed something before??? Thanks Kim

First and formost, this is a new company that just opened on the first of March. My designs were previously produced and sold by Starving Artistamps but as of January 2008, I have separated from that company and opened my own store. In doing so, I have made some different choices than Starving Artistamps. Over there, my images were sold individually in both wood mounted format and unmounted (just the rubber piece). As the designer of the images I felt that since they were designed to go together, they should be sold together in a set. So my stamps are now sold in sets, already mounted on cling foam and conveniently stored in a cd jewel case.

As for those who ordered from SA prior to my split with them, I cannot give any refunds or make any adjustment since I never received the payment in the first place. However, If you already own parts of a set I sell and would like to purchase the remainder of the set, please email me at artfullyinking@comcast.net and I will quote you a price based on just the pieces you need. (This offer is subject to the availability of the images requested.)