Twilight Inspired....

Don't forget to sign up for our DT and Customer Twilight Blog Hop! See the details in this post!


Card by DT member, Jackie Rakoski

using Pick a Pocket Piece and Into the Moonlight

Think INK inspiration...

Using Pick a Pocket Piece, here is some inspiration for the current Think INK Challenge- you don't have to use this set, but it is PERFECT for it, wink wink!

Michelle


Alicia


Patti


Be sure to play along for your chance to win a grab bag of AI stamps!

Think INK Challenge #21

This week your challenge is brought to you by our DT member, Kim Nath, and she wants you to THINK POCKETS. It can be any type of pocket, pockets on a scrapbook page or card, our new Pick a Pocket Piece is PERFECT for this challenge, or here are some links for inspiration:

pocket cards: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/pocket_card/

crimped envelope pocket card: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/crimpedenvelope/

criss cross card: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/criss_cross_card/

Diagonal double pocket card: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/diagonal_double_pocket_card/

double pocket card: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/doublepocketcard/

mini photo book: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/mini_photo_book/

tea bag holder: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/teabagholder/

Trifold pocket card: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/trifold_pocket_card/

For Inspiration Kim used the new set, Pick a Pocket Piece to come up with this gorgeous card:



* You are not required to use AI stamps, but if you have them, we'd love to see you use them! **IF YOU USE AI STAMPS, YOU GET 2 ENTRIES FOR YOUR CREATION! JUST ENTER YOUR NAME/LINK TWICE ON MR. LINKY!!!

* You have until Monday, June 7 , 2010, midnight Pacific Standard Time to link your creation to this post. A winner will be chosen Tuesday, June 8, 2010 to win a GRAB BAG of AI STAMPS!

* When posting your link, please post the link directly to your creation- so if it's on your blog, please link it directly to the specific post with your creation.

* If uploading to SCS or PCP, please add the keyword AIC21

Can't wait to see what you come up with! Tell your friends!

Think INK Inspiration!

It's that time again, time to share some fabulous Design Team Inspiration for the current Think INK challenge! The current Think INK Challenge is to create a card that has 3 buttons, 2 ribbons and 1 circle, it really is as simple as 1, 2, 3!

Cheryl used our spunky Steampunk Sarah for her creation!

Marti pulled out her Greek Gardens set for her 3, 2, 1 challenge!

Joy went wild with Rodeo Rodent!

I hope that these creations are giving you some ideas, they certainly inspired me! Hope to see your creations too, you never know, it could be your name drawn this week!

Twilight Challenge Month...

In addition to our Twlight themed blog hop at the end of June to celebrate the release of Eclipse, we're having a MONTH LONG Twilight themed CHALLENGE FOR OUR BELOVED CUSTOMERS!

What can you win? How about a $25 Gift Certificate to the store, as well as being our featured Customer on the Blog ALL MONTH LONG!!

Deets: We'll be starting Weekly Challenges starting June 3rd. We will have 4 challenges, one per week, each will be posted on a Thursday. You will have one week to complete your challenge piece. You will be required to participated in each challenge, each week, to be eligible to win. An overall winner will be chosen on July 1st.

To participate, you can use any of our fantastic Twilight Themed Stamp sets....

Epic Tales
Fictionally Inspired
Into the Moonlight
Vampire/Romance Themed Charms

or you can use ANY Artful INKables stamp set to create a Twilight themed card/project. You MUST use AI stamps as the main focus of your cards/projects. You have plenty of time to get some fabulous stamps in order to participate in the challenges and the HOP!

Blog Hop Winners!

Can you believe that it is already Friday?! Well I hope everyone had a fabulous week, and it is time to pick the winners from our May Release Blog Hop! Here are the lucky two ladies!

Beryl

AND

Teela

Huge congrats ladies! You both will receive one of the newly released stamp sets of your choice PLUS you will get a one time use only 10% off coupon at Artful Inkables! Now that is a prize or what?! I am sending your e-mails out now, I can't wait to see what everyone creates with these fabulous new stamp stets! Keep sticking around the AI Blog, you never know what you might see next!

Eclipse Blog Hop....

Who's ready for the June 30th release of Eclipse??? To celebrate, we're having a Twilight themed Blog Hop for the DT and our beloved customers! We loved it so much for the New Moon release last year, we wanted to do it again!

You can use any of our fantastic Twilight Themed Stamp sets....

Epic Tales

Fictionally Inspired

Into the Moonlight

Vampire/Romance Themed Charms

or you can use ANY Artful INKables stamp set to create a Twilight themed card/project (you must use AI stamps as the main focus of your card/project). For example, our DT, Joy Stagg, used the stamp Greek Gardens to make this card (sentiment is from Fictionally Inspired):

To sign up for the hop, please email your name and blog address to Jackie at: babitoons@gmail.com

...when you sign up, Jackie will put your name down and we will get more information to you regarding specifics of the hop closer to June 30th. She will be sending you a confirmation email, so if you don't get it, leave us a post on the blog and let us know! You have until Thursday, June 24th to sign up, this gives us the weekend to make the final preparations and to send out the email and blog hop order.

One lucky participant of the hop will receive a set of the Twilight Themed Charms, and one lucky commentor will receive a $10 gift certificate code to AI !

If you're participating, grab the badge on the top of this post and post it on your blog! Feel free to link it back to this post so that others can join in!

May Release Blog Hop

Welcome! Today's blog hop celebrates the release of 4 NEW Stamp sets that we hope you are going to love. We are releasing 3 full size stamp sets and a new mini this month that should get you in the mood for the care-free days of Summer. Please visit the front page of our store site HERE for a full view of each new set.

Today, I’m showing you a card made with a new set called Bug and Blossom Mandalas. I love the fun of coloring Mandalas, the are so complex and intricate. This one has fun little ladybugs hidden in it's layers, or you could just make it look like a flower.



Hexagonal Ladybug Card by Kristin Soboloski
Stamps: Bug and Blossom Mandalas
Paper: Real Red and Whisper White cardstock
Ink: Tuxedo Black Momento Ink
Accessories: small pink jewel, 3d crystal laquer, copic markers and LOTS of pop dots.



This picture show in detail the four layers I popped up to give the card dimension. Also, I used the 3d laquer only on the ladybugs to make them stand out a bit more.

So now it is time to move on and see all the fun and inspiring projects the DT has posted to get you excited about our new stamp sets. Be sure to follow us all the way to the end and make sure to leave a comment on everyone’s blog, because as usual, we will be giving away blog hop candy! This time we will be giving away a free new release set of your choice to 2 lucky winners! These gals will also get a coupon code for 10% off their next order from Artful INKables. You never know which blog we’ll be choosing a winner from, so be sure to leave some love for everyone. You will have until Thursday, May 20th at midnight Eastern Standard Time to comment on all the design team blogs for a chance at the blog hop goodies!


Dawn Knight's Blog is the next stop on the hop. And in case you get lost along the way, here is a listing of the Blog Hop order:

Ann
Alicia
Marti
Michelle
Kim
Jackie
Joy
Sammi
Tanya
Patti
Cheryl

Good Luck! And thanks for stopping by!

One More peek....

Ok, I can't help it, one more peek! You will love these releases!

Sneek Peek, Day 2

Who's ready for the blog hop and new releases tomorrow? We're so excited about the release this month! Here's a sneek peek of parts of one of the sets being released....wait until you see this set, the possibilities for this set are ENDLESS....





Be sure and come back tomorrow to hop with us!

Sneek Peek, Day 1

Here's your first sneek peek of the new releases, our blog hop is on Monday, so stay tuned!

We Have A Winner!

It's that time again, a new Think INK Challenge has been posted and now all that is left to do is announce the winner of our 19th Challenge. Thank you to everyone who played along, your cover inspirations were fabulous! So, Random.org picked #3...

Congrats t Sheila D! A PM via SCS is heading your way!

If you didn't win this week, no worries, there are plenty more opportunities to come! Be sure to play along with our new challenge, I can’t wait to see what you create or should I say re-create! Have a fabulous day all!

Think INK Challenge #20

This week your challenge is brought to you by Dawn Knight. She wants you to use this

Recipe challenge: USE 3 BUTTONS, 2 Pieces of RIBBON, 1 CIRCLE

For Inspiration she used the AI set, Holiday Treats and Tails:


* You are not required to use AI stamps, but if you have them, we'd love to see you use them! **IF YOU USE AI STAMPS, YOU GET 2 ENTRIES FOR YOUR CREATION! JUST ENTER YOUR NAME/LINK TWICE ON MR. LINKY!!!

* You have until Monday, May 24, 2010, midnight Pacific Standard Time to link your creation to this post. A winner will be chosen Tuesday, May 25, 2010 to win a GRAB BAG of AI STAMPS!

* When posting your link, please post the link directly to your creation- so if it's on your blog, please link it directly to the specific post with your creation.

* If uploading to SCS or PCP, please add the keyword AIC20

Can't wait to see what you come up with! Tell your friends!

Think INK Inspiration!

Hello everyone, a huge Happy Mother's Day to all the Mother's out there! Today I thought it would be nice to share some inspiration for the current Think INK Challenge! You still have a few days left to play along, so pull up a chair and lets see what the Design Team has been creating for this one!
Michelle created this wonderful 'update' of an older Paint Prints card she made, I love the colors on this one!Patti created an 'update' and ended with this brightly colors In My Garden creation!Kim really stepped it up and created this 'updated' acetate box featuring the stamp set Celestial Bodies

I know these creations have to be giving you some ideas, they certainly inspired me! Hope to see your creations too, you never know, it could be your name drawn this week! I also have some Artful INKables news for you! Our next Blog Hop and New Stamp Set Release will be taking place on the 17th of May, so get ready! These sets will knock your socks off!

Featured Stamper Friday!

For today we our Featured Stamper is Kim Nath! She is not only an amazing stamper, but she is super sweet and so creative, her cards always make me smile! So without further ado, here is more about Kim!
Q ~ Married? Kids? Pets?
I am married to a great guy and have two awesome kids, a 15 yo girl and 9 yo boy. Oh yeah and one chubby, lazy, adorable beagle.

Q ~ Do you have a job outside of stamping? If so, what do you do?
I am a research biologist. Our lab studies development using various frog species. I love my job and am so lucky to be able to be happy to go to work everyday!

Q ~ What got you into stamping?
I bought a teddy bear stamp and embossing powder from Joann's and made some Valentine's day cards (which weren't very good) I was hooked when I saw that embossing powder bubble into life!

Q ~ What is your favorite embellishment and why?
Probably ribbon because it is the easiest way to give a little extra pizazz to most cards. I also couldn't live without pop dots, not sure if that is an embellishment but my projects are not complete without at least one pop dot and more than likely a whole boat load.

Q ~ What drew you towards Artful Inkables?
The whimsical, adorable style of the stamps completely matches my style of crafting. I love doing things that are fun and fanciful (cute doesn't hurt either) and AI stamps are perfect for that.

Q ~ Do you have a favorite stamp set from Artful Inkables?
For some reason I am into birdhouses right now and I love the Any Birdy Home set. Also, our family loves nature and birding so it is going to get a lot of use!

Q ~ How would you describe your stamping style?
Fun! I really like making things that are fun to look at and I love adding interactive elements like pop-ups and sliders. It is always fun to get a card but it is even better to get something you can play with!

Q ~ What’s you favorite part of stamping?
Giving the finished product away, especially to someone who isn't expecting it!

Q ~ What is your favorite non-card type project?
Any type of three D project.

Q ~ Have you been published?
Well, I am a published author in scientific journals, but I am guessing you mean papercrafts. No paper magazines, but I have had a couple projects in on-line magazines.

Q ~ What is your favorite coloring medium? Why?
Prismacolor pencils and oderless mineral spirits. I find that I have more control over the blending of colors using this medium better than any other.

Q ~ Tell us about your blog.. (ie..is it all stamping, or a mix of other things?)
I have a couple of blogs. One is pretty much stamping and papercrafting though I sometimes throw in random stuff. I also recently started a 3D crafting challenge blog.

Q ~ What is your favorite part of being on a design team?Sharing my love of crafting with so many wonderful people. Both design team members and those who just enjoy crafting are some of the most amazingly talented, generous and sweet people I have ever met. I am so grateful to be part of such a wonderful crafting community!

This feature is quickly becoming my favorite part of the week! Isn't it fabulous getting to know these ladies! Here are some of Kim'sa> amazing creations!
Kim thank you so much for sharing all these things with us! It's been a total joy getting to know you better then we already do! Keep on the look out for great creations from Kim, you never know what she will create next!

Distressed Inking Tutorial

Cheryl Walker is giving us a wonderful tutorial today on Distressed Inking using alcohol inks...you'll get gorgeous results with this technique!

Materials Needed:

Distressed Inks(choose your colors)
Tim Holtz Dabbing tool
Alcohol Blending Solution
Pearl Mixative
white cardstock
Memento black ink
Stamps - she used Paisleys and Peacocks from AI

Step 1- stamp your image!


Step 2-add your colors to your dabbing tool then add Alcohol solution

Step 3-Dab your colors around the feathers


Step 4-Add your mixative pearl around the feathers, and color the peacock with blue copic, and add dots to the feathers with the same blue copic


Step 5-color his legs and now you can cut out the peacock


Step 6-start cutting out the image


Step 7- take your cut image and adhere to card/project and

VIOLA....a gorgeous card!


We hope you enjoyed today's tutorial!

Floral frenzy.....

Wanted to showcase some more fab work by the DT to highlight some of the fantastic floral sets from AI!

Joy made this card using text paper as dp and bg using Sunburst Dandies


Cheryl used Fairy Whimsey for this super sweet card


Patti made this card using Fanciful Flowers


Make sure to check out all of the other fantastic floral sets available at AI!