A Happy Discovery

I love it when I find new ways my stamps can work together! My sweet little snail stamp was designed over a year ago and was on my second plate of stamps...way before I ever thought of drawing fairies. But isnt that snail the perfect size for the the fairy to take him for a ride?? The snail is not part of the Enchanted Fairies set but a single stamp that sells for only $2.50 so it is a great add on for this set.

For this card I cased a layout and technique from Julie Buler's blog called thinking outside of the box. First I stamped the fairy on white card stock and then I masked it so I could stamp the snail 'under' him. The images are colored with prismacolor pencils and gamsol and then I cut out the panel according to Julie's directions. Papers used are SU! Certainly Celery and Pink Passion and striped paper from Rusty Pickle. Some swiss dot organdy ribbon and pink dew drops finish up this card.

Dont forget our sale is going on only for one more week so be sure to use code: 10%AIJUL in our store checkout and SAVE!!

First Design Team Challenge- A Color Challenge

Hello, All! My name is Beth Thomas and I am so... excited to be the first hostess for the Artful Inkables Design Team Challenge! Every other week Kristin and her DT 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! If you dont wish to post your card to SCS, feel free to add a link to your creation in the comments section of this post.

Our first challenge will be a color challenge, which, between you and me is my favorite type! I truly have a passion for color and really like to "mix-it-up" sometimes! Sounds a bit scary?? Well, don't worry! I decided to go on the more conservative side today when I chose:

Sage Shadow
Blush Blossom
Close to Cocoa

Sound like fun? Be sure to check out the cards made by Kristin, her lovely card is attached to the end of this post, and the rest of the gals on their blogs:

• Jennifer


• Julia


• Kim


• Pam
  

On my card I used the beautiful, new set- Pressed Petals- with a stampin'-off technique. This technique is a quick and simple way to add dimension to your focal image and the beautiful silhouette images from Pressed Petals is perfect for it. I teamed my image with PP from the Baby 2 Bride collection from graphics 45. The colors in this pretty paper were the inspiration for today's challenge. The ribbon slide is cardstock layered on chipboard, then embellished. Both CS and chipboard were cut using a Sizzix die. Thanks for stopping by!

Take care, Beth

Recipe for today's challenge card:
Stamps: Pressed Petals
Paper: Sage Shadow, Close to Cocoa, Neenah Classic White, PP- Graphic 45
Ink: Sage Shadow, Blush Blossom, Close to Cocoa
Supplies: Nestabilities, Sizzix dies, Cuttlebug, adhesive pearls, May Arts ribbon, Technique Tuesday Technique Tiles (flower in center of slide), Gold Zig Painty pen

Kristin's Card:
Stamps: Bloomin' Beauties & Basic Salutations

Paper: Blush Blossom, Close to Cocoa, Sage Shadow
Ink: Sage Shadow, Blush Blossom, Close to Cocoa

Supplies: Copper circle tag, dimensionals, Sakura Gelly Roll Stardust Pen, Chocolate Satin Ribbon, circle punch.

Twinkling Blossoms

Sometimes a card is a really hard time in coming! That is what happened with this card but I really like the way it finally turned out! Originally, I planned to pair the focal blossom with some Lily Kate Basic Grey paper, so I chose my color scheme to go with it. But then, I spent so much time and care painting it with my twinking H2O's, I didnt want it to get overpowered by the paper. So, I decided to make my own background. I washed a bit of white cardstock with green watercolor paint and then stamped the smaller flowers from the same stamp set over it. Then they were also painted with the same H2O's that I stamped the focal point with. Finally! Something I was happy with! And then the rest of the card just came together with the materials listed below. Hope you enjoy it!

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Bloomin' Blossoms, Basic Salutations
Ink: Stazon black, white craft ink
Paper: Elegant Eggplant, Lavendar Lace, Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue
Accessories: Twinkling H2O's. watercolor brushes and watercolor paints, slit punch, 1/8" punch, purple lollypop ribbon, dimensionals

We are still offering 10% off all Artful INKable stamp sets for the month of July. You might as well save money while you're buying some of our fun stamps, right??!! Use code: 10%AIJUL

Pomegranite Petals

Good Morning!! Boy this week is going by fast, I only have one more morning to myself this week. But I sure have enjoyed having the kids off at Bible camp all week and they have enjoyed it too. So it's all good.

Today's card uses one of my favorite color combinations, Pomegranite, Saffron and Wasabi Green. I love the SU! pomegranite because you can get so many varying colors from one pad...from dark purpley-red to a nice warm pink. All the flowers on this card are made using just the pomegrante pad. The stamp set used is our new Pressed Petals set, which is a 2-step stamp set if you choose to use it that way, but on this card, I just used the solid images to get a silhouette look. The leaves are also double stamped and I sponged on a bit of the saffron in the background to brighten it up a bit. Lots of layers are used here with the SU! ticket punch and a bit of black marker to outline and highlight the pattern of the rose romance layer. It is finished off with a greeting from the set and some black dew drops.

And dont forget, we are offering 10% off all Artful INKable stamp sets for the month of July. You might as well save money while you're buying some of our fun stamps, right??!! Use code: 10%AIJUL

From Summer to Autumn

I have another card to share today because I find myself with a bit of extra time in the morning. My kids are are attending Backyard Bible camp at my neighbor's all week so I'm looking forward to some quiet time for the rest of the week!

I seem to have moved from summer to autumn on one day..must be wishful thinking since it has been over 100 degrees here lately. I also was inspired by one of our lovely design team members, Jennifer Muraoka. I'm fascinated with her use of beads in alot of her work and since I have tons of them, I decided to add some to my card for today. The images on my card are from our new Plant Prints set. I used a pumpkin patch rainbow pad, some so saffron ink and alot of masking was involved to create this autumn scene. The small flowers at the bottom of the oval were stamped in saffron and then I rolled the edges of the image in red ink. They were then cut out and popped up with some dimensionals, with beads for centers. Some Basic Grey decorative paper and some velvet ric-rac complete the card.

And don't forget, we are offering 10% off all Artful INKable stamp sets for the month of July. You might as well save money while you're buying some of our fun stamps, right??!! Use code: 10%AIJUL

The Colors of Summer

I made a card!! It was so good to get back into the craft room, feel inspired and accomplish something Im happy with. Today I was motivated by the colors of summer...clear, crisp, white, warm inviting saffron yellow and cool, calming celery green. I used our new SUNBURST DANDIES stamp set to make the majority of this card with a few accents from the POND FRIENDS set (the grass & the textured background stamp). I stamped the globe of flowers in green and stamped the sunburst in yellow in the center. I then used a similar color marker to color in the flowers, added the leaf and stem and a bit of grass. I added a tiny dot of glue to the center of each flower and sprinkled on a bit or irredescent green glitter. The background on the white is the globe of flowers again in green and yellow and on the green I stamped the texture stamp from the Pond set. Some sponging adds interest to the white background layer and the card is rounded out with some interesting tabs, dew drops and a piece of green hemp 'ribbon'.

In other news: All website problems are fixed and working properly. International shipping is on track, we can now take money orders and you can pay directly through paypal if you choose. I am also updating the galleries for the new sets daily as I get samples from the design team. These fabulous girls are doing such a great job showcaseing the new sets, be sure to visit their blogs often to see all their new creations.

And dont forget, we are offering 10% off all Artful INKable stamp sets for the month of July. You might as well save money while you're buying some of our fun stamps, right??!! Use code: 10%AIJUL

International Shipping Calculation Problems

Ugh! New software always seems to come with new problems! It seems that my new cart is not calculating shipping for international customers. I have contacted the vendor of my store software and they are 'looking into the problem'. Hopefully, I will have this fixed as soon as I can but in the mean time, if you want to email me ( artfullyinking@comcast.net )what you wish to order, I can calculate the total, with the discount and shipping and just send you a paypal bill with the total. That way, I can get your order out quicker and we dont have to wait until the tech people fix my cart problem. I will also post here when this problem has been fixed so those who wish to use the cart can. I am sorry for any inconvenience this is causing! Please bear with us!