New Release Blog Hop ~ First of 2010~

So did Joy's "Sneak Peeks" whet your whistle for today's New Release Blog Hop? I sure hope so because I know the INKgirls and I have been dying to share our samples with you! This is our first release of the new year and we think it's one of the best releases EVER!

The 4 new sets being released are called Sexy and Sweet, Newborn Blessings, Fanciful Flowers and Any Birdy Home. Be sure to check them all out on the store site to enjoy each and every stamp in these new sets. I have used the Sexy and Sweet set for my Blog Hop sample. I just love how this set can be used either in a 'racey' or a more demure way for those significant others in our lives!

Sexy Kitten Card by Kristin Soboloski

Stamps: Sexy and Sweet by AI

Paper: All from SU

Other: Circle punches, Dew Drops, Copic Markers, Momento Black ink

This release marks the beginning of a few changes here at AI. The most significant is that this it the last release for our current Design Team. Though a few will stay on in a Senior capacity, we will really be feeling the loss of these talented ladies! Be sure to give them some appreciation this next month before they leave us to make room for the next crop of INK girls. (BTW if you are interested in becoming a member of the new team please visit this post HERE for details.) We will also be gradually changing how our sets are sold. Though we have taken pride in offering hand cut 'ready to use' sets in the past we are finding ourselves getting further and further behind on our shipping times, so over the next 6 months or so, we will be modifying our plates. How? Well if you purchase one of these new sets you will see first hand, as these are the first of the sets to show the change. Basically, they have been arranged so that each set is a sheet of uncut rubber, mounted on ez-mount cling foam, that can fit in the box without the extra labor. (Same boxes and packaging as we currently carry.) You will have to cut them from the rubber sheet at home before you use them...unless you want to stamp a collage, lol! This should greatly decrease the wait for your orders and allow us to expand to larger sales venues such as stamp conventions and retail stores. We will also be introducing a mini set size with some great new stamps for a smaller price.

Well, I hope you've enjoyed my samples but it is time to move on and see what the INKgirls have to share with you. Hop on over to HOLLY'S blog next and be sure to hop and comment all the way to the end...as usual there will be prizes! You could be the winner of all 4 new stamp sets if we draw your name! Cool huh?

October Release Blog Hop

I'm here and I'm Hoppin'! (I feel like I've been 'hoppin' for the last month or so but that is another story. ) As Artful INKables grows, I find myself with less time to do what made me start the company in the first place...STAMP! So as I made this card today, I found myself falling in love with the craft all over again and I resolve to MAKE and SHARE more cards with you very soon! In the meantime, I want to send out a big thanks to both Holly and Joy for keeping it all together for me!! You both rock!

Two new sets are being released today, the one I will be showing is called Down on the Farm and the other set, being showcased by some of the DT, is named A Bird's Song. Both of these sets can be viewed over in our store under the "animals" category and will be featured on the front page there for the remainder of the release month.

I had fun with the design for this card...I've always been fond of framed farm scenes and though I didn't want to limit the images in the set by framing any of them in, I knew I would be framing some in my own work to share with you.

To create this scene, I stamped the farm and the tractor on white card stock, cut it down to the size I thought would work and then drew a black line frame (with a ruler) around the edges with a #3 black pen. Then I added little hatch marks to the line...I think they kinda look like barbed wire, don't you? I have to admit, I extended some of the lines for the fields to the line I drew but, in hindsight, it really wasn't necessary. Then I took the fence stamp in the set and stamped it on white 2 times, cut them both out and layered one on the other so I could extend it a bit further off the page. I colored the scene and the fence pieces with my Copic markers, assembled it and added the cork flower to the corner.

Now as you move on to Julie's blog, then the rest of the team's blogs after hers, you may see that there is a vast difference in the styles achieved with the Down on the Farm stamp set, which is something I'm quite proud of. This set is so versatile, that it can go from cutsie all the way to P. Buckley Moss style depending on what your needs are at the time.

Now, be sure to go check out both new sets in the store after you've hopped all the way through our blog hop. And be sure to comment on each and every blog in order to be eligible to win our BLOG HOP PRIZE DRAWING of both new sets. (winner will be announced Sunday October 18th) And remember, if you enter and win the blog hop prize for the month but have already placed an order, your original payment will be refunded. So no waiting necessary!

Blog Hop With Artful INKables today!

So did Joy's "Sneak Peeks" whet your whistle for today's New Release Blog Hop? I sure hope so because I know the INKgirls and I have been dying to share our samples with you! This is our first release that feature sets for specific up and coming Holidays. In the past I've been a bit wary to make sets with a limited time appeal but if these are popular, I'm sure there will be more!

The sets being released are called Halloween Hauntings, and Holiday Treats and Tails. Though they are holiday specific, I hope you are excited by the different elements in these sets. For instance, I'm so excited about the Little Reaper and the Evil Cat in the Halloween set...they are just a bit off the norm to be really fun. And as the INKgirls said after seeing the Christmas set...Holiday Beavers? Who'd have thought...but they are so adorable! Please visit the home page here http://www.artfulinkables.com/ to see all the elements of these 2 new sets.

For my samples today, I used the Halloween Hauntings set:

I had no Halloween themed paper so, for the first time, I DL'ed some from the net! I did a google search and found a site last week...and now, of course, I cant find where I got it from! *rolling my eyes*

The little Jr Reaper is featured in this card, along with the 'batty moon' and the "Reap Well..." sentiment. I stamped him with black Momento ink on Old Olive card stock and then colored his face and feet in with a white gelly roll pen. I outlined him a bit with a green marker to make him stand out from the background and gave him a hill to stand on. The moon was stamped on white, colored, cut out and glued onto the cs with the reaper. Sponging was added, along with the little tag and some paper layering. The cute ribbon I used is one of the new styles we are now carrying from May Arts. It has a beautiful metallic shine on some parts and comes in 8 different colors. We also have a fun new skull charm but we didn't get them until after I made the cards, so I couldn't use one.

The main image on this card was stamped on white card stock with black ink and then I stippled on some grey ink to give it a hazy, spooky look. The windows were colored in with yellow and the fog swirls were added using a white Galaxy Marker. The moon was stamped over the gnarled tree and shaded using copic markers. The rest is pretty obvious but it was all tied together using some black velvet rick-rack I found in my ribbon basket.

Hope you've enjoyed my samples but it is time to move on and see what the INKgirls have to share with you. Hop on over to Joy's blog next and be sure to hop and comment all the way to the end...as usual there will be prizes!

Blog Hop Candy Winners

Is it Wednesday already?? WOW, time seems to move a bit faster in the Summer. I had to pick 2 winners for the blog hop candy today, didn't I? Well it is a good thing the day isn't over yet! *grin* I collected all of the names of every person who commented on all 10 blogs last Friday, wrote them down and tossed them all in a hat...then my daughter drew 2 names. The winner of the tin of Twi-cards that I made goes to Terriavidreader and the stamp set, A Friendly Light was won by Stampin' Cathy. Congratulations Ladies! Please email me your full names and addresses so I can get these out to you ASAP.

I would also like to mention that the girls over at Twilight Tuesday are STILL on a roll with their new stamp sets we sent them. Be sure to visit http://www.twilighttuesday.com/ everyday until Monday to see all the GREAT projects they are sharing!

Do Vampires Blog Hop?

It's New Release Day! Ready for something a bit different? My sneak peek card from last week might have been a clue for many of you what direction our creativity led us this month. A certain vampire romance series has become a pop-culture obsession for many Stampers out there over the last few years...this stamper included! So much so that 2 of this month's release sets were inspired by the saga. To those who share my love of this special series, I hope you find fun & inspiration in these sets & the co-ordinating charm package. I see many possibilities for these sets that go beyond the simple card and I hope we can share some of those ideas over the next few weeks.

For today's Blog Hop, I have a fun little creation that uses both the new sets, Into The Moonlight and Fictionally Inspired. (See the store for full views of these sets.) This decorated tin holds five 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 inch cards.





I don't really feel any explanation is necessary for this fun little gift but if you have any questions on how they were made, just email or leave a comment. Here are some detail pictures of each card:







This set of cards and the tin will be one of the 2 prizes we are giving away today for the New Release Blog Candy. More about that in a minute...

To those of you who don't share this vamp-book-love, I really apologize! Sometimes, an idea takes hold and wont let go. I hope the new set, A Friendly Light, will tickle your fancy until the next release. I know many of the INK Girls have some beautiful samples they have created with this set and they are dying to share them with you.

Plus this set will be the second piece of blog candy for today's give-a-way. So, how can you win either the Tin of Cards or the set A Friendly Light? Well, you must follow the hop all the way through to the end, commenting on each and every blog in the hop (11 in all). Then , next Wednesday, June 24, I will choose 2 winners from all the names that commented on all of our Blog Hop posts. So, if you are done here, H-O-P on over to Joy's blog and see her fantastic creations! And be sure to check back with us next Tuesday for more surprises and free-bees.

Edit: Due to technical difficulties, I had to post this early. The rest of the hop isnt due to be posted until 6am MDT.

Cute Card Thursday

This week Artful INKables is sponsoring the the challenge over at Cute Card Thursday. The challenge for the week is fun and easy...it is 'Tag You're It'. Follow the link above for the details but basically you make a card using a tag or made of a tag. Enter on the CCT blog and you could win 3 AI stamp sets and 3 coordinating charms!

To represent Artful INKable in today's challenge, I decided to make my own tag card and share it with you here. What I came up with became rather involved...big surprise there...but I really love it!

It is a simple pocket made of 2 sided decorative paper from Deja Views (The Sharon Ann 'Delightful' Collection), with 2 tags in it. This view shows all the tags inserted into the pocket.

Here, the front tag is removed. I glued the baby fairy only partially onto the white tag so it could be taken on and off of the mushrooms when you removed the tag.




In this final view, all of the tags are removed. The second tag is also made of 2 sided dp and can be opened up to write your message inside. The fairy and mushrooms come from our Enchanted Fairies set and they were colored using Copic markers. A decorative flower button, a bit of tulle and some magic mesh were used as embellishments.

Please visit the Cute Card Thursday site to view our fabulous prize, and to participate in the challenge. And then join us tomorrow for our NEW RELEASE BLOG HOP!

A Birthday Best Sample

First of all, I want to thank both our readers and all of the new INK Girls for a fabulous Blog Hop! Many readers said they had a great time hopping from one blog to the next and viewing the beautiful variety of samples made with our new release sets. Didnt everyone do a wonderful job? Im just floored by the talent we have on our DT. (If you missed the hop just follow the links in the post below.)

Next, I want to remind you that anyone is eligible to enter the drawing for the blog candy we are giving away on Dawn's blog until February 24th. Dawn will choose a winner on the next day, Feb 25th. So if you havent yet entered, be sure to visit her blog and leave a comment under the blog hop post. The prize is all 4 of our new release sets and a sampling of May Arts Ribbons. Good Luck!

And finally, I want to share another card I've made using another of our new release sets. I made this card using the 3 tiered cake from the Birthday Best set. I just masked a border around the edge of my vanilla card stock and stamped the cake at an angle. Then I colored it using prismacolr pencils and gamsol.

At the edge of the masked area, I drew a thick line in brown to frame the image...in retrospect, I suppose I could have just layered card stock and achieved the same framed effect. :-) The brown card stock is Chocolate Chip by SU! and the decorative paper is also by SU! but for the life of me, I cant remember the name...it is discontinued anyway, so I suppose it doesnt matter. To finish it all off I added 2 pink dew drops. What do you think?

We Have A WINNER!

CONGRATULATIONS TO: Yvonne W!!!! You have won our WCMD Prize Drawing!!! Her winning post said: "I have ordered a number of stamp sets and have loved the designs, service, and price! Thanks so much for the chance to win." Thank you to all who participated and for all the great comments!

The winner was chosen at random by my 2 birthday kids. Dont forget, since they are celebrating this week, so can you! Our GRAB BAG OFFER is still going...if you place an order of $25 or more between now and October 12th I will add a special grab bag of stamps to your order. This grab bag will include a minimum of 5 unmounted stamps designed by Artful INKables. (See previous post for more details.)

Yvonne W, PLEASE EMAIL ME ASAP with your address and set choice, SO THAT YOU CAN RECEIVE YOUR FREE STAMP SET SOON!!!
My email address is: artfullyinking@comcast.net
Thank you all again,
Kristin

World Cardmaking Day Drawing..and An Offer!

Today is World Card Making Day and so to kick off this day for all you stampers out there, we are offering a prize drawing. All you have to do is post a comment on today's post letting us know your thoughts. It can be about our stamps, our service, what you'd like to see us create in the future, how you came to hear about our company...anything at all.

You have the weekend to post. At noon on Monday the 6th I will randomly choose 1 winner to receive a stamp set of their choice.

ALSO in honor of 2 of my children's birthdays being this week, I will throw in one more offer...if you place an order of $25 or more between now and October 12th (one week) I will add a special grab bag of stamps to your order. This grab bag will include a minimum of 5 unmounted stamps designed by Artful INKables. What stamps will be included? Well, that is a surprise!! But I promise they will be good quality, fun stamps...not tiny throw-aways. Dont worry if your order does not reflect the grab bag, I will manually keep track and be sure that all orders (of $25 or more) placed between Oct 4 and Oct 12 will get a grab bag. Fun, Fun a present for everyone!

Congratulations!

The winner of our Challenge prize from last week is Amy from Tethered to Home (blog). She is the winner of an Artful INKables stamp of her choice. Please visit her blogfor a peek at her creation: http://tethered2home.com/?p=1556 and Amy, please contact me with your choice and your address!

Artful INKables Challenge #5

It's Challenge Day and today, I have a special surprize for you. Since it is my turn to host the challenge, I am throwing in a CHALLENGE PRIZE. Anyone who participates in the Artful INKables challenge this week will be eligible for ONE FREE AI STAMP SET OF THEIR CHOICE!! Dont be nervous though...this is NOT a talent contest! If you wish to participate, please post a link to your creation either here or in your SCS gallery. (Include ARTINK [all capitals] in the keywords when you upload on SCS so we can find your card.) I will then randomly draw the winner from the names of those who participated. Artful INKables Stamps are not required, but if you've got 'em, why not give 'em some lovin'? The most important rule is to have fun.

I've named today's challenge "The Doodle MASKquerade Challenge"

This technique challenge will require that you use masking and also add some doodling to your card. The doodling can be a doodled border, corners, some swirls or even added grass, a cloud or other hand drawn image. Dont stress over it, it can pretty much be anything! For the masking, stamp an image onto your card stock and then again onto a post it note. Cut it out and 'mask' the stamped image on the card stock. Now you can either work on a background for the image or stamp another image over the masked image. Masking it will make the background or other images look like they are behind the first image.

Here is the card I've created for this challenge:

This card uses the bear from the AI 'Stay Cool' set, which I stamped on plain white card stock and masked. I also masked the area at his feet with a piece of torn post it note. I then sponged on some Almost Amethyst ink around the masked bear and the torn edge. Next I sponged with Going Grey a little further from the image and finally I sponged with Vintage Violet ink...getting darker as I progressed out from the image. I removed the torn 'ground mask', while leaving the bear mask in place, and moved it down a bit. Here, I sponged lightly with Amethyst ink again. This I repeated a few more times until I got the look of an uneven snowy ground. Next, I added my doodles (yes, the bear mask is still in place, lol). I hand drew the swirls randomly using a Milky Way White Galaxy Marker and shadowed the swirls with a grayish violet copic marker (BV25). Finally, I removed the mask over the bear and added some shadows with a toner gray #3 copic marker. To finish off this card, I mounted the bear scene on silver cs and then used dimensionals to put it on the Amethyst card that I had added doodled glitter swirls to. The amethyst organdy ribbon, silver cord and snowflake charm complete this creation.

About Artful INKables bi-weekly challenges:
Every other week My design team and I will post a challenge with rotating themes onto the store blog. We would be so pleased to have you play along! If you should decide to join us, please, include ARTINK (all capitals) in the keywords when you upload on SCS. By having consistent keywords, we will be sure not to miss anyone's wonderful creations! As an alternative, feel free to add a link to your creation in the comments section of this post. All the design team members (aka INK girls) will be participating in these challenges. Please take a minute, if you have the time, to see what they have created. Their links can be found at the top of the column to the right.

Drawing for one free Artful INKables stamp set (of your choice) Prize Info Recap:
* Participate in today's challenge
*Post your entry on SCS using Keyword ARTINK or post a link to your creation in the comments section of this post.
*This is a Non-vendor specific Challenge.

* DEADLINE: Have your post/entry up by noon Mountain Daylight Time on September 18th.

*Prize winner will randomly be chosen to receive one FREE set of his or her choice. I will post the name here on the company blog and the winner must contact me via email to collect their prize.

Good LUCK...and Have fun!!

Contest Winner

CONGRATULATIONS to DINA KOWAL for winning my Logo contest!! She is the lucky winner of FIVE Artful INKables stamp sets of her choice. She created a Beautiful logo for me and I hope to use her services some more in the future!! Here is her entry, isnt it wonderful??



Thanks so much to all who entered, all the work was lovely and I appreciate all of you for participating and working so hard to help me out. The response was overwhelming and it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling to know so many of you are reading my blog and cheering my design efforts on.

Logo Contest

Well, things seem to be coming together nicely here. Some of the rubber has already arrived and Im getting busy with the packaging, pricing and marketing ideas. The one thing I've decided I really need though is a LOGO!! Something graphic that I can use on all of my packaging and ads. Hand drawing is easy for me but computer graphics...well THAT is a whole other ball of wax. Plus I probably dont even have the right programs I need to create what I need.

So a thought occurred to me...I could host a contest!

Create a logo for Artful Inkables and submit it to me by February 20th 2008. The winner will recieve 5 free stamp sets of their choice!! Specifics: I want the logo to be somewhat triangular so it will fit in the corner of a web page or stamp box, I want the words Artful Inkables to be the main focus and I want the colors to be compatible with those I have used on my e-store web pages: HERE . (Browns, golds, blues and greens) Also I need the file in a format I can use on my computer. Please email your entries to artfullyinking@comcast.net by 12:00am on Feb 20 to qualify. The winner's name and logo will be posted on the site on Feb 22nd. You dont have to be a graphic artist to apply just be handy with your computer software and creative!

Disclaimer: If I dont get a minimum of 5 entries, I may have to suspend the contest...however I will compensate those who took the time to enter with a free stamp.