Getting Sketchy Up in Here

When I break things down to my true Internet identity, it's summarized in one word: "Sketchy" I'm tickled pink we're sponsoring this week's Get Sketchy Challenge #80!!!
Take a look at this beauty of sketchiness:

Doesn't that beat all?! It makes me want to grab um...
a couple talented friends :)
Mission Complete:

This enchanting bit of bidness is straight from the brilliant mind of Mandi!

It's coming up spring over at Anita's! Isn't this the bee's knees?!



The girls over at Get Sketchy are really creating a storm of beauty. Run on over and PLAY!

WOYWW - Something's Fishy

A few years ago I got a taste of the fun that can be had when a party is for stamping chickies!

This little company we're building (hopefully to be a big company) is meant to be fun.

Sometimes it is overwhelming. Sometimes it is exhausting. Sometimes it is exhilarating and magical.

Mom (aka incredimobo/Pam) is my business partner and with her help, I've realized that the times when it is fun is when it involves people who are not us. (K..I have serious fun w/my mom...but y.K.w.i.m)

Last month I joyfully made a set in collaboration with Lynne Phelps.

This resulted in a truly exciting collection, the inaugural stamps in our new "More to Love" line.  Check out this "real-woman" in our Amber Ink. shop.

That went so very swimmingly (aqua jks) that we were overwhelmingly excited to create our next challenge-win set. Wendy Price won last month's challenge. I love hearing Wendy's adventures in stamping and parenting on her blog Paper Ink and Smiles. It really is a smiley kind of place.

I've developed a kind of Justin Beiber obsession with Wendy's youngest son, six-year old, Willem.

His antics often give me laugh-out-loud thrills. Willem is my youngest co-art director to date. So far things are going well. Here were some of his initial ideas (with Wendy edits)

• someone fishing in a canoe
• realistic fish (I nixed that idea and told him they have to be cute)
  but more fish to go with the Mermaids would be cool!
• kid fishing with a fish skeleton on his t-shirt
• a cityscape with monsters in all the windows (i warned you his ideas were all over the place, lol)

Tonight my desk is covered in sketches for my Double W set (Wendy and Willem)

Notice the fish glass on my desk.

Willem and I have more than our vivacious personalities in common...

So far I'm sketching in my book and on some fun comp pages, in preparation for this celebration fishies set. Of course that's a working title ;)

I've tried to satisfy Willem's 'realistic fishes' whim.

This is for the monster lover in all of us:

There's still 19 hours left to enter this month's INK-redible 21-day challenge!

(man how much do I wish I'd finished this blog entry 2 hours ago?!)

Use any Amber Ink product to create a thank you card, blog about it, and enter your link.

As always, our iPapers are only $1.

You can win yourself your very own custom designed set by entering and crossing your fingers

and whatever other rituals you have

(seriously, what other rituals do you have?)

So that's my desk.

Skirt over to Julia's to see everyone else's uber fab lifestyles as reflected in the table they sit at ;)

 Happy Wednesday!

WOYWW - A Change of Pace

My creative energy is my life force, when it wains I'm left without much breath to take a breather.

Luckily years at fancy art school, and then years at job-job and various other 'live or die' gigs have taught me that sometimes a dip in creativity is flat out not an option. I've learned that for me, the best thing when I'm just not feeling it is to do something else. As long as I'm being creative, the dip will usually take care of itself.

This week I've been working on some new layouts, new texture maps and new life paths. Did you know we're staring down the barrel at 11 weeks 'til Christmas? I can't quite think about it with my full brain, because it's hard for me to think about snow. Who wants snow?! If you say you do I'm using my favorite modified GLEE phrase of all time. "Snow!?! KILL YOURSELF!"

Incidentally you're looking at barrettes I've been crocheting for one of my favorite fans, albeit one of my littlest.

I'm counting down the holidays by being more resourceful and more Little Woman-like' than I've had the leisure to do as of late. Nicest side effect, other than having some cutesy barrettes ready to wrap, is that I'm itching to get back to my other gigs, the ones that require my 2D skills ;)

What do you do to get back your 'creative mojo' when you feel it packing for holiday?

Don't forget to check out Julia's magical Stamping Ground, where you can share what's on your workdesk too!

P.S. It's voting time for Amber Ink's INK-redible challenge! Please vote for your favorite, and don't forget to participate when we go for it again on the 20th!

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!

My Workdesk - Balancing act

It's been a hectic week in my personal/work/emotional life. Friends and friends and people in and people out and sometimes it seems like a house of cards - but then I remember... "I am more a brick house than a stick house." Everything seems to come back together and I brush the NYC dust off my clothes (literally) and get back up on that proverbial horse.

Amber Ink. had another first on Monday. We ended the voting on our very first ever INKredible 21-day Challenge at http://amberinkchallenges.blogspot.com !!!
It was an exhilarating challenge and the entries were truly brilliant!

Congratulations to our top 3 girlies! We'll be announcing the winners on the 20th!! I am so excited about the prize, because I think it's kinda awesome and I hope you guys like it too.

With the challenge wrapping up and life going on, there have been a lot of things to keep in the air. Challenge blog was our amazing (th)Ink Tank Babe, Pinky's idea. My business partner, aka Incredimombo (just mom to me) took it up as her torch and has been running with it for the last three weeks. We're so excited about next months' challenge. We'll announce it on release day (the 20th) and it might even have a celebrity hostess!!! (shhh...)

When the idea for the challenge was brought up, Incredimombo might have said "I need another thing to do like I need a hole in my head." We came up with the compromise of making it a nice long challenge, for more people to play and more brilliance to happen. We like letting the magic sit. Plus we know you all have a toppling pile of demands on your plate too!

I'm designing some new art for the blog's redesign and reveal this month! Keeping to the 'like a hole in my head' concept.....we're designing a girl who's just got so much going on and SO much to juggle. Here are very early concept designs:

They are what is on my workdesk today

I would LOVE for you to stop by and see the end results next week when our INKredible challenge kicks off all over again

What are you juggling this week? I'd love to know. If your workdesk is a telling one, pop over to Julia's because it's the pick up you NEED.

P.S. One of the fun things that happened this week was brunch with the phenomenal Tanny P.! This girl is even fresher than that blithe face would lead you to believe! Tanny's carrying the torch for Amber Ink. this month and she ran it over to this side of the border for a NYC dream vacation. Seriously, after ten years of life in this state, I think we might be tied for fantastic experiences. Check it out on her blog and remember, be inspired, not pea green with envy :)

P.P.S. Three cheers for life imitating art.

Back to the balance board ?

On Watching Our Growing Pains

THE BUGS ARE GONE!

Two days ago, when we realized our shopping cart wasn't working (thanks to you letting us know!) , my best friend told me 'You are like Miley Cyrus." I did a spit take. "I AM NOT!" I emphatically let her know while I mopped water off the table.

"Well, everyone has to watch you grow up at Amber Ink. It's like you immediately had SO many people watching you, and now every mistake you make is in the public eye. Just don't go dating a Jonas Brother, OK?" -- I make no promises.

This week has been BUGGY. We think we're through it. Between our shopping cart not working, and sometimes a random file not getting through, you have all been Cinderella-kind. It seems like we finally got going at a good clip and we figured out the obscure techie problem that has been only letting very random payments get through our shopping cart. The tech guy at PayPal let us know that a ton of your payments were attempted to be made but not actually happening. As a result we have realized that maybe we were meant to make more that $9 in the last two weeks, and that is heartening.

Now that these bugs are gone we're going to get to put up some inventory!

We are so thankful that we've had such an amazing send off. It makes us giddy every time we show up on your blogs. We are SO SO SO thankful that you have had patience with us, even though that's not the platform we're running on

Thank you for supporting us through our growing pains.

Now that these bugs are gone we get to put up some inventory!

Keep your eye out this weekend!!!

Hippity, Hoppity,

Easter's on Its Way!
Yesterday at church when this fact was brought to my attention, I decided I'd draw a bunny.

That seemed to go pretty well. So I decided I'd draw another.

And another.

Then this bunny seemed to be looking for something....

I figured with Spring (allegedly) right around the corner he was pr'olly looking for love.
Sometimes this goes well.

Sometimes it does not.

Sometimes it is frustrating.

Sometimes it is simple.

Sometimes it is passionate.

Sometimes it is shy.

Sometimes it is centered on tradition.

I thought maybe these Love Bunnies were pretty serious about one another.

They'd probably want their own little families.

Bunny Babies!

Then I made myself stop.

Happy Almost Easter.

Hey, Bag Lady ;)

Today is my kid sister's birthday! When I think about April B. or Prilly, or the Apie, as she is sometimes called, Her particular passion for purses has not gone unnoticed.

When she was little she used to lug these gigantic bags around. She was BoHo Chic before the Olsen Twins had stopped saying "No Way, DUDE!" It was a common occurrence for her to drag a bag or two to the car, carefully climb into the car, reach down to grab the bag and fall back out of the car because the bag was so heavy it pulled her down. She might have been in diapers but she was stylish.

On one trip to Vegas when April was about four she lagged far behind us, again with more bags than we would have needed for a beach picnic. The bags just seemed so heavy and she was so small. Taking pity on her my mom and I went back to help her carry a few. When we picked them up we almost fell over too! She'd been walking along the Las Vegas strip picking up decorative landscape rocks and filling up her bags! That was the day we officially started calling her bag lady.

Now that she's all grown up her sense of style has changed a hundred times. She's always throwing together this or that, but the bags remain a staple of my April.

This set is straight from my sketchbook, and in just under the wire. My mom reported that my sissie tore open the presents I'd sent at the stroke of midnight last night, when she had just barely turned 23. When I asked April about it she defended herself by saying "Well, it is MY birthday and my birthday starts at midnight!" So this post happened on her birthday, March 9th and that is what counts ;)

Happy Birthday, kiddo. I love you. I think you're the tops.

Bears Need People

People need bears.

coming soon to a certain special stamping site near you ;)