WOYWW - Something I Should Have Started Earlier In the Day

This is part of an epic undertaking as inspired by Baker at Man Vs. Debt.

It started off as an innocent ploy to get my bookshelf back to his former magazine photo-shoot ready glory, but now everything is more gory than glory....ish

Here's where I started the evening. UGH! What a MESS! I have been obsessing over my despising of the clutter for weeks now. So I set out to attack it...

What my workdesk currently looks like at 12:52 am...

Now I think I'm going to figure out some place to sleep....

I am sure that Julia and the Crew are doing much better. Run along and cheer them on!

xo and heavy dreams of books, Amber

p.s. also there was an earthquake today and when I came home two books were on the floor, which might have been what started this bout of insanity this evening.

Let's Hear It For The Girls!

Not those girls... although, let's face it, they're pretty spectacular. I'm talking about these girls:

Next week, on January 20th, Amber Ink. will reach a significant milestone. We'll have been open for business for six months! WOOOOOT Can you say party?
I can.

The hands-down best part has been our marvelous (th)INK Tank, Amber Ink.'s version of a Design Team. Last year, pam and I sat down with a list of nominees she had compiled. From that list we chose five women to run the first Amber Ink. torches. Every time I have praise for one of our inaugural torchbearers, mom reminds me "i found her"! Hehe.

Our first torchbearers hit the ground running on July 20th, 2010. At the end of their month long sprint they passed their torch! Now as we reach the half way point in our first year of business, we've grown a brilliant family of women who make our lives so creative and full. Our girls keep that fire burning bright.

After a lot of planning and some programming you can finally keep tabs on the course of their marathon. We are thrilled to finally have a place to remind you how brilliant they really are, we're reminded every freakin' day. You can see our family tree here, or get to it by clicking the "girls on fire" tab at the top of our homepage, http://www.amberink.com/

Hip. Hip. Hip.

WOYWW - Prizes and Pumpkins

My desk is pretty busy this week. I'm working on all our goodies for our next release at Amber Ink.com

I'm also having the absolute joy of working with Lynne Phelps at Savvy Sisters Studio! Lynne was the grand prize winner of our first ever Amber Ink. INK-redible Challenge and she won a custom set! We're designing it together. I take Lynne's ideas and we chit chat and then I sketch them!


My mom and business partner have LOVED working with Lynne. We call her our straight shooter. It's incredibly fitting that Lynne would come up with such an exciting concept for her custom set (unveiled and up for sale October 20th)

This set's theme is 'Let's Communicate'. Lynne's been a die-hard fan of my skinny mini - Amber Girls, but was longing for someone with a little bit more to love on her bones.



Lynne and I discussed her great ideas. I did some initial sketching and then we went back and forth. Talk a bit, sketch a bit. This is really close to final time! I'm excited we get to show it today! Lynne's come up with some ultimate stamper sayings for our girl with curves to chat about.

Be sure to be 'first in line' to snatch her up when we release her on the 20th of this month!

Speaking of releases, and sneak peeks... I've had a pretty craptastic week. Sunday night found me trying to plan a run across the Brooklyn Bridge with a friend. It turned out Monday was going to be raining.... So I decided to download the 10 day forecast. DON'T DO IT! It'll break your heart!!!

Anyway, I've been a grump. The only thing that's cheered me up was an afternoon jaunt to Trader Joe's yesterday. They had a bevvy of Pumpkins to greet me at the door.

They were so bright they brightened me up too.

I bottled up this particular bliss and our newest digiStamp, Happy Pumpkin was born!
Happy Pumpkin will be released on the 20th of this month.

Since I look forward to WOYWW SO much, and because everything ELSE has been sucking enough here to probably be sucking there (wherever you are) too. We're offering him today for FREEEEEEEE to our WOYWWers! I hope he cheers your day.

Add him to your cart and check out and pay nothing until midnight tonight! If you miss him he'll be back for mere dollars on the 20th. We'd love for you to check our our iPaper too. You can buy it, download it, and print it immediately. So it's ready to go for all your brilliant ideas.

If anything in our newly released Halloween images catches your eye, they're $1 to $3. If you buy something Halloweeny from Amber Ink. and make something in the next few days you can enter our latest Amber Ink. INKcredible Challenge, making you eligible to win your own custom set just like Lynne did!!!

I hope we'll see you there!

Run on over to Julia's to see her always inspiring desk and desks!

Bahama(zing)

In case you were wondering,

It's a there and back again kind of morning.

The view from our hotel room:

A quick walk to the pool:

The view of said pool:

SHUT UP!
(I know, right?)

The view of the beach.

Five days of sand and saltwater beats any NYC pedicure.

The view of the streets:

I was shocked to find the Bahamas prettier than I pictured it, and tickled to find that a majority of the buildings are pink.

View of historical natural, national beauty:

Gorge(ous):


The view from the jungle:

A panoramic view south:


A view of the most relaxed I get (hopefully also the reddest):

After a lot of thinking and planning I decided to leave my laptop stateside. This face is the face of a girl who has abandoned the internet for the first time since the 90s.

See? Happy face:

(Ignore creepy kinda-winky eye.)

View from the boat!

What? You've never seen a dolphin before?

So here's the stats:

• I swam with dolphins.
• Ate infinate carbs for breakfast, every morning.
• Spent less than five minutes on the internet.
• Didn't have access to a phone.
• Got burnt to a crisp
• Hid from the sun under a hat, a first for sure.
• Spent every day with some of the people I love best.
• Ran from smoke INDOORS (what?! people have their Cubans hanging out of their mouths everywhere!)
• Ate ice cream when I felt like it.
• Won $8 at the slots
• Sipped pretty drinks, shore side
• I woke up when I wanted
• I fell asleep when I wanted
• I took my time doing whatever I wanted
• Spent as much time in the water as the days of my youth.
• I had a week of bliss, despite the sunburn and the HEAT! Bahamas is hot, mon.
  

Now I'm home, and luckily for me, home is one of the places I love best.
Still, you have to admit, "It's better in the Bahamas" ;)

This is On My Workdesk Wednesday

So it's Wednesday.

Here is some stuff on my desk.

By this time next week www.Amber Ink.com will be up and running for a full 24 hours!
It's hard for me to imagine it. I want to pinch myself - both because I cannot believe it is almost here and also to keep myself awake. Building a business, working a fulltime job and maintaining my normal NYC social calander is not for the faint at heart (aka me). Put cleaning in that category too. :)

I spent this morning testing some new iPaper we're launching next week at our Grand Opening. Once I design the paper I print it. That dolphin paisley up at the top is totally reject, too big when it's actually on paper. I'll reduce it and test it again. Everything sitting in the printer tray is good to go and double and tripple checked. We're go for launch on those.

It's so fun and exciting and I wish I could just play with paper all day long.

Run by and check out the women who do at Julia's Stamping Ground!
I am loving WOYWW. It's so fun to see what everyone else does to get over this middle of the week funk.

So far my favorite desk this week is Jozarty's warm crafting room - mainly because the colors are to die for and that orginization wall makes me JEALOUS.

I promise that I'll break out my camera next week! Cell phone does her job, but I'm starting to get the hang of this WOYWW and I want to play at the top of my game ;)

Cow Country

Dearest Amber Inkers,

Some days I steal away from the hustle of New York City to an oasis of healing and relaxing and calm. I then make it as chaotic as possible;) Here are some of my favorite shots from the last couple of weeks I've spent whiling away in Montana.

We have managed to use the down time to put together a year long plan for the Grand Opening of Amber Ink. and beyond. You are going to swoon at the art (that I haven't made yet)!

xoxo,

Amber

Happy Earth Day!

We've got a brand new Amber Ink. Amber Girls Release!
'
Grow Green' is a 17 stamp set. It's uber fun and chic.
I think it's perfect for your favorite gardner.
I'd squeal to see it as packaging for those special treats from your own garden!

The Plot Thickens...

Hi everyone, it may seem quiet around these here parts, but we're still a busy hive of activity.

For starters, we're finishing up designs on our new clear stamps packaging. Amber Ink. will be selling our stamp sets as physical clear stamps too. I know some of you prefer to do it old school. Plus, there is something so fun about sticking up those clear blocks!

We're working on getting you more iPaper to match our digiStamps and keep you in crafting goodies. This week we added some fun 'more masculine' iPaper to go with our "We Are Punny" line.



I'm finishing preliminary sketches for our next 'Amber Stamps' release!

We're catching up on the paper train. You rampant fans keep Amber Ink. in the email ;) As always, we love love LOVE hearing from you.

We're programming our very own Amber Ink. gallery so you can show off your brilliance.

So that's what's going on here.

What's new with you?