Website Update

Just a quick post to let my readers know that artfulinkables.com has been updated. There are some more sets available now like Zany Zoo, Silhouette Flowers, Cheers to You and more. Also there are some great new samples posted by some talented stampers like Michelle Kovack, Donna Baker, Lynda Benden and more. Boy it sure takes a long time to update my website! Now I understand why some people have webmasters! *grin*

Flowers for Mom

Wow, where has the time gone? It seems like the last time I looked at the calendar it was nearing the tax day and now it is the 21st and the month is just about over!! It must be all those orders I've been filling, the kids' activities I've had to attend and the celebration of my 14th wedding anniversary that has been keeping me so busy.



Also, I have been trying to get my final set of pre-exisiting Artful Inkables into production and I'm happy to say they should be ready for sale by the end of the week. That means that all the sets that say "Coming Soon" on the gallery page will be available and so will most of the zoo animals like the elephant, the monkey and the zebra. THEN, I've got to get busy designing some new sets!! I have some on the drawing board and some concepts brewing in my head but if you have any suggestions of something you'd like to see for sale as a stamp, send me an email...I'd love to hear your ideas!



And finally, I have a stamped sample for you...I know it has been awhile since you've seen anything new from me and for that I'm very sorry! I suppose one of these days soon I'm going to have to take on a design team to help me out in the samples department. :) In the mean time, I hope you enjoy this card I made for Mother's Day which is FAST approaching. I used the bell flowers from Friendship Flowers set and water-colored it on watercolor paper using my SU! ink pads and a water brush. The card stocks are all by Stampin' Up! and I believe the colors are certainly celery, pretty in pink, barely banana and so saffron, along with some decorative paper by them as well. After making the wavy cut (yes, by hand...don't shoot me! LOL), I pierced the card stock along the same line and then added some white gel pen for faux stitching. The rest is pretty self explanatory.



My oldest daughter asked me why my card had both 'my mother' and 'friend' stamped on it to which I replied: "because my mother is my best friend." Unfortunately she wasn't impressed...I guess it will be awhile before my 12 year old will feel like saying that to me! LOL But I'm holding out hope for some day!

Dont Miss It!

Just a quick reminder that there are only a few days left to take advantage of the AI Grand Opening Special! If you want to be sure you get your FREE STAMPS, you must order by April 15th. Visit our store here...Dont miss out!

Schon wieder ein Award...Arte y Pico

Our Blog was recently given an award from a reader in Germany!! Unfortunately I dont know a bit of German so it took me a few days to figure this award out but now I think I get the gist of it. It turns out we were given this award for our creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language. Thanks so much to Maulwürfchen for finding all these qualities in our blog.

Apparently, there are 5 rules attached to this award and they are:
1) You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award .
2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
3)Each award winner has to show the award that she has been given, by the one aforementioned.
4) Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte y Pico" blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5) To show these rules.

The 5 blogs that I choose are:

Inky Paper Menagerie

Thoughts of a Cardmaking Scrapbooker

Paper Pleasures

Treasure Oiler Designz

My Own Little Stamping World

Go check them all out!

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.