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05/28/2015

I've been trying hard to post every week, but this ultra busy month of May has just gotten away from me!  We are coming up on a big day at Pink Ink Stamps.  June 1st is our 2nd anniversary!  To celebrate the occasion I decided to revisit and recolor the very first stamp I ever drew for the line, no. 2203 "Birdhouse Trio".  The phrase that accompanies this stamp is "Home Tweet Home" and coloring this stamp made me think of the little haven I call home.  After several years of an "empty nest", our son has returned home to live with us while he works to repay his student loans (and us), prepares to apply for a doctorate program and gains some relevant teaching experience.  Now these are all laudable goals, but oh boy! how his presence has changed our calm, structured and settled-in little world.  TWO packages of bacon to fry and gallons of orange juice to buy.  No leftovers to count on (unless I mark them with a Post-It note) and now there's beer in the fridge door!  The dishwasher runs every day and the piles of laundry have increased dramatically.  You get the idea.  There are up sides too - first of all, I've missed the fellow - his intelligence and wit.  I like hearing the faint background music of his singing and guitar.  His dad now has someone to cheer on our San Francisco bay area sports teams with (Go Giants and Warriors!).  I've discovered my son actually likes to grocery shop and is a very good prep cook.  He is also quieter and more respectful of us than in years past and he has even planted a little garden in the back yard. So, with these two Bird House Trio cards I say, "Welcome to Pink Ink's 3rd year and welcome to my Home Tweet Home"! Note:  The bright Bird House version has been embellished by "doodling" on it with a Pilot G Tec C-4 roller point pen (my fav!).  The soft version has been drawn on with a stylus to create an embossed "woodgrain" texture.

Summer Planter

05/26/2015

Hello Pink Ink Fans!  I hope your holiday weekend was enjoyable, and you found time to do something you love.  Today I'm showing you one of the awesome flower stamps from Pink Ink.    This stamp is called Summer Planter. We're still waiting for some semblance of summer to show through in southern Colorado.  Rain, rain and some more rain with a dose of clouds is all we've seen in the month of May..boohoo for us!   You can find the fabulous stamp on-line at Ellen Hutson or if you're in Colorado at Simple Pleasures in Colorado Springs.  The sentiment called Thinking of You can also be found at Ellen Hutson. The colored image was cut out with circle dies and layered with the largest circle/layer being cut from Vellum    The image was colored up with copics and the background was created using copics, colorless blender (actually rubbing alcohol works exactly the same for this technique) and a sea sponge to create texture. Thanks for visiting today and hope the rest of your week is fantastic!

Going Places

May 20, 2015

Hello everyone!  Heidi, here and I have a fun little card to share with you using some of the newest releases from Pink Ink Stamps.  I love this Kiddie Car stamp! It is so darn cute.  Kiddie cars are a pretty hot ticket item for collectors and I know they come in all different models and colors.  I know someone who has a huge collection of these vintage kiddie cars and has been on home tours several times.  It is always so fun to see!   I stamped the image using Memento Tuxedo Black ink on to white cardstock and colored with Spectrum Noir markers.  I used Spellbinders dies to create all of the die cuts and layered them on the card front using foam tape in between some of the layers to add a little dimension.  I also used the sentiment Going Places on the cloud conversation bubble die cut.   Pink Ink stamps used: 2246H Kiddie Car, 10124C Going Places – Available online from Ellen Hutson LLC. Or visit the Pink Ink Stamp Company website to find a local retailer near you. Thanks so much for stopping by today! Heidi

Bistro Lights Flamingos

Happy Monday, everyone!  Sharon here with you today, bringing you this sweet Yard Flamingo from Pink Ink’s Spring/Summer 2015 release – isn’t s/he adorable?!!  


I couldn’t wait to try a fun stamping technique, mirror stamping with it!  The original flamingo image is the left one.  To get the mirrored right image, I just stamped the image onto an acrylic stamp block (stamp carefully on the slick surface) and then used the block to stamp onto the Neenah Solar White 110 lb. cardstock, next to the left flamingo … easy peasy!  The large flat surface of the back of an acrylic stamp (mounted “backwards” onto an acrylic block) will work just as well (and probably better) than just an acrylic block … that was all I had handy at the moment.  You may not get a perfectly stamped image -- I needed to fill in a few spots with my Copic Multiliner, but that’s fine by me!

After stamping the images with Copic-friendly Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black ink, I colored the flamingos with these Copic Sketch markers:
 

Also shown is the Copic Black Multiliner pen I used to fill in the mirror stamped right flamingo. Copic C1 was used for a few shadows. Copic’s Silver Atyou Spica Glitter Pen was used to color the flamingo beaks and the Sand (light gold) Spica was used on their legs … after all, yard flamingos should shimmer and catch your eye, right?  (grin!)

I had the wild idea to put these Yard Flamingos under some shimmery gold patio bistro lights … I don’t know why, but why not … right?!!  Now I’ll be looking for some of my own (bigger) yard flamingos, to dress up my patio this summer!

Pink Ink stamps used:

Yard Flamingo – Available online from Ellen Hutson LLC.

Or visit the Pink Ink Stamp Company website to find a local retailer near you.

Thanks so much for visiting today … I hope you have a wonderful week!
Sharon

Thinking of Butterflies!

May 12, 2015

Good Morning! Debbie Seyer here to share another project I created using my wonderful Pink Ink Stamps! Alot of the cards I create are actually used by my Mom. My mom love butterflies so with that in mind, I created this card for her to send to one of her friends or family. I used the Bitty Butterfly stamp to create this card.  I embossed the base of the card with an embossing folder.  I stamped the Bitty Butterfly 3 times.  I die cut 2 of the images and then fussy cut one image after I colored them with some Copic markers.  I really love the classic cards you can make with Pink Ink images!  Don't you? To finish this card, I stamped the sentiment - Thinking of You -  and die cut that using some oval dies.  I used a glitter pen to give my butterflies that nice sparkly look (sorry that it's hard to see in the picture).  I created 4 cards for my mom's stash!  I think she will love to send these out! Pink Ink Stamps used: - available for purchase at Ellen Hutson, LLC Bitty Butterfly Thinking of You Thanks for stopping by today!

In The Good Old Summertime!

09/05/15

Hello friends!  Kay here today to share a card that I created using some of the newest release from Pink Ink Stamp Company.  Do I need to tell you how much I love flamingos? Well I do, and here's a lovely one! I just love it! As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted it!  I actually combined two different images here. I needed something for my flamingo to stand in/on, so I used the bottom portion of the Cheery Windowbox.  I just used some tape and taped off the top portion of the stamp, inked it up with Tuxedo Black Memento ink, removed the tape and stamped. I then stamped the flamingo over that. I was not happy with the way you could see the flowers through the flamingos legs, so I colored them in with my white gel pen. Ha! I was proud of myself for figuring that one out! I then stamped the sentiment at the bottom and colored with Copic markers. I cut it out with a stitched scalloped die and mounted it on a scalloped rectangle die cut. I added the little white dots with the trusty white gel pen. Pink Ink Stamps Used: Yard Flamingo Cheery Windowbox You can find Pink Ink stamps at Ellen Hutson HERE. Or visit the Pink Ink Stamp Company website  Thanks so much for stopping by! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and a lovely Mother's day tomorrow! Hugs, Kay :)

Pencils in the Pines

May 6th, 2015

I just returned from a jam packed weekend teaching Prismacolor pencil techniques at the Great Yosemite Stamp Escape in Bass Lake, CA.  100 crafty ladies rotating through four wildly varied classes at a vintage lodge amidst the majestic pines.  Who could ask for more?  Both the teachers and the students had so much fun learning about new craft products, honing their skills and spending quality time with friends old and new.  I was privileged to have my predecessor at Pink Ink Stamps, Karen Lockhart, as my more than able assistant (and roommate).  It was like having two teachers for the price of one!  I also felt like I had a clone of myself when it came to set up and break down - she knew what to do without being told and is a very tidy packer-upper!  I couldn't have asked for a better companion...we had plenty of laughs in knotty pine cabin no. 247! Especially enjoyable was connecting with the other teachers.  I now have some new Facebook friends!  If you have the opportunity, by all means GO to Great Yosemite Stamp Escape 2016!  I certainly hope to come back again as a teacher one day.  I'm always remiss about taking photos and it's difficult to do when you are teaching the class, but here just are a few snaps of Stamp Escape 2015.  Now, it's time to catch up on "Pink" work! I started the day with a PINK (berry) bagel! The view of Bass Lake from our classroom Learning how to shade Pink Ink's "Going Buggy" stamp Some advice on shading flowers Me with my smiling students All the teachers at Yosemite Stamp Escape 2015