Artful INKables

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Think INK Inspiration...

How FABULOUS is this coaster set by our DT member, Alicia!!!??? She made this for the current Think INK challenge of using paint swatches. You still have until Monday evening to enter the challenge for your chance to win a grab bag of AI stamps!

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Blog Hop Winner!

Well, it is time to pick our winner for our April Flowers Blog Hop! There were so many comments ladies, I am thrilled to see so many people enjoying our creations! Now on to the winner...the lucky hopper is.....

Sylvia! That's right, you won a $10.00 gift certificate to spend at the Artful INKables store!

I have already sent you an e-mail so check your inbox! Thank you to everyone who hopped along with us this month, be sure to keep stopping by, you never know what might happen next!

Friday, April 23, 2010

Featured Stamper Friday!

For today we are having our first Customer Featured Stamper Friday! I had a blast roaming though our Think INK challenge entries and online galleries to bring you some more information about one of our great customers! In my hunting I found Kelly Landers, she is a great crafter and you are going to love getting to know her a little better too!

Not only has she taken the time to answer some questions, but she is also sharing with all of us some fabulous cards she made using Artful INKables stamps! So allow me to introduce Kelly Landers!

Q ~ Married? Kids? Pets?

My name is Kelly Landers and I am a remarried mother of four children between the ages of 16 and 25. Two of my children have moved out and two remain at home. We have one cat named Quinn and a puppy named Tasha. We live in Florida where we enjoy doing things like camping and boating outdoors!

Q ~ Do you have a job outside of stamping? If so, what do you do?

To ensure a steady flow of new red rubber coming into my house, I have a full time job as a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner. I take call for two local hospitals and attend high risk deliveries or care for sick newborns when needed. Although I am on-call many days a month, I still have a lot of time in my craft room to stamp!

Q ~ What got you into stamping?

About five years ago I bought my first stamps and cardmaking supplies so I could make a homemade card for my Aunt Cindy’s 60th birthday. I caught the bug and haven’t stopped playing with paper and stamps since. Gradually I have increased my collection of stamps and have made it a part of almost every day!

Q ~ What is your favorite embellishment and why?

That is a hard one!! Not sure I should have to choose just one! LOL!! But I guess it would probably be flowers followed very closely by ribbons!! See, I really can’t just choose one!! ;-)

Q ~ What drew you towards Artful Inkables?

The first order of AI stamps I made was because I was in search of a masculine stamp. You guys were one of the few companies I could find that even had masculine stamps as a category. Then as I looked around the site, I was very impressed with the art work and drawings of the stamps. They were unique and inspiring to me!! The masculine stamp was not the only stamp that ended up in my shopping cart that order!

Q ~ Do you have a favorite stamp set from Artful Inkables?

Another hard one…but I think I still love Fairy Whimsey the best! The beautiful fairies, butterflies and flowers make this set so versatile to use for many occasions!

Q ~ How would you describe your stamping style?

I don’t think that I actually have a defined stamping style that fits me completely. But I prefer to work with open line stamps and color them to match my Designer paper. When making cards I like feminine cards that are not too frilly with the right amount of layers and embellishments to keep the creation from being cluttered and too busy. I love to rearrange my work until I find what the right balance is on my cards or layouts!

Q ~ What’s your favorite part of stamping?

Coloring in my stamped images is by far my favorite part of stamping.

Q ~ What is your favorite non-card type project?

I also love to scrapbook and used to do it a lot more. Lately I have been getting back into it and forgot how much I love it!

Q ~ Have you been published?

I have not been published to date, however I have my first submission accepted being published in May this year. A card I made will appear in the PaperCrafts special publication Card Creations, Volume 8

Q ~ What is your favorite coloring medium? Why?

Copics, Copics, Copics!!! I love Copics!! Can you tell!! LOL!! The reason I love them so much is that because of their alcohol base, they are perfect to blend with. I find it easy to match the colors in my Designer Papers and can also add depth and shadowing to my images for a more realistic look.

Q ~ Tell us about your blog… (i.e. is it all stamping, or a mix of other things?)

My blog is called My Bucket Overfloweth. The “bucket” represents my life and it is overflowing with all the things that I have been blessed with. I have a strong passion for many things, but the main thing that I blog about is my stamping and papercrafting. I do throw in a few personal tidbits here and there, but mostly share my creations with my readers! I update my blog 4- 7 times a week depending on how much my life is overflowing in any given week! I would love for you to come and visit me. The url is www.mybucketoverfloweth.blogspot.com

Q ~ Is there anything else you would like to share with us?

I am so thankful to have the honor of being chosen by Jackie to share my story and a couple of my creations with you. I love the stamping community and have made so many friends that share in this crafty passion with me. I can’t imagine my life without stamping in it and I am so grateful for companies like Artful Inkables who provide the rubber for us to create with! I would love to get to know all of you better, so I encourage you to look me up on my blog, on Facebook (Kelly Mahany Landers) or on Splitcoaststampers.com (kmahany). Thanks so much for your time, and may your bucket overflow with the happiness that stamping provides!!

Now you know all about Kelly Landers! I simply love the first card on this post, her Fairy Whimsy creations is just magical, and this masculine card is fabulous!

Kelly also created this adorable Daring card just for today's feature, isn't he too cute! Thank you so much for sharing so much of yourself with us Kelly, I know that I had a blast getting to know you better and I hope everyone else did as well! Oh, and thank you for being our first customer in our Featured Stamper Friday!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Ribbon Weaving Tutorial!

Good morning all! Jackie here, it's time for our next tutorial! I get to host the next one so I have decided to share with you a simple but really pretty way to make a great background using ribbon! Here it comes, my Ribbon Weaving Tutorial!

Materials Needed:
2 different shades of ribbon
1 - 3" x 4" piece of cardstock, I picked white
sticky strip/red line tape
scissors

You can use any size paper desired; I made mine 3” x 4” so that it would fit nicely but not cover my entire card, you can also use any color, but I went with just a piece of white scrap.

Place sticky strip on all four sides on the back side of your paper, then cut strips of the ribbons you selected so that there is at least a ¼ of an inch over ribbon extending past the paper on both sides. On the back of your paper attach your ribbon #1 along one side (pink) and then adhere your second ribbon along the perpendicular side (white). Once all your ribbon is attached done flip over your paper and attach a piece of sticky strip to the two sides across from your ribbon (in this case to the bottom and left). Now, one by one, piece by piece begin layering your ribbon, being sure to place one piece on top of the other as you make your way across the paper. Continue weaving the ribbons one by one across your cardstock, I like to work right to left in this case, not sure why but it seems easier for me, but either way will do.I use the sticky strip at the ends of the paper so that the ribbon does not move or come undone as I am weaving, that's why it looks so flat, the ribbon is lightly attached to the cardstock base. After I have finished weaving the entire piece and the ribbon is attached to the front pieces of sticky strip, I flip the piece of paper over and attach the end of each ribbon to the back with sticky strip. I also trim down the pieces so that they don’t come undone later. Your ribbon weaving is now complete! Adhere to a card as you would any background piece, something fun and different to try with your ribbon stash, you know you have one!

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

April Blog Hop - Our Fabulous Flowers

Welcome to the Artful INKables April blog hop! We are celebrating the beginning of Spring with some Flower-y inspiration. Each of us chose one of our favorite flower sets and made a spring creation to share with you.

My card was made with one of my old favorites, Blooming Beauties. I love this set because it has different flowers, stems and leaf parts to mix and match but it is an outline set so I can color to my heart's content. To see more samples from this set visit the gallery on our website. There you can look up samples from every set by set name. http://gallery.artfulinkables.com/

BLOOM by Kristin Soboloski
Stamps: Blooming Beauties by AI
Paper: Apricot and Ruby Red card stock from SU! and all dp from Basic Grey's Porcelain collection
Ink: Momento Black
Accessories: Copic Markers, Gelly Roll glitter pen, green seed beads, dimensionals and green satin ribbon.

As you hop along to enjoy the other bouquets of beauty, be sure to comment on every one's blog, because one lucky commenter will win a $10.00 gift certificate to spend at the Artful INKables store! Please leave your comments by Friday, April 23rd, 12 midnight Eastern Standard Time, one lucky winner will be chosen on Saturday, April 24th.

Thank you for participating in today’s blog hop, now hop on over to Sammi’s blog, and see what she has in store for you.