SLMPetersen

We are surrounded by inspiration in our day-to-day lives and in the environment we live in. The graphics used on a restaurant menu, the architecture of a building, the landscaping of a park, and even the tile in a public restroom can all be inspiring for an artist. I have a board on Pinterest dedicated to things I find inspiring. This board includes everything from tattoos to tiles to fingernail polish. I might be inspired by the colors, the textures, or the patterns. I think it’s an unconscious part of my being that seeks out the beauty in my surroundings. I see things that others might walk right past. This pic on the right, of a flower on the sidewalk, is one of those examples. I snapped this pic while on vacation one year in Hawaii. Gobs of people were walking this section of sidewalk, yet here laid this perfectly fallen flower untrampled. I stopped and snapped a quick shot from a bird’s eye point of view. It's one of my favorite shots from that trip. There's somet...

As an artist, I love hearing how much someone admires, enjoys, and appreciates my work. As an artist, I can also say I never enjoy the addition of validation that some feel is necessary for explaining why they aren't a customer. The most important takeaway of this article is this - Support doesn't equal customer. I don't care if you forget all the other things I say, just remember that support doesn't equal customer. Let's break that down. Support can be shown in a number of ways. Offering an honest compliment to the artist. Telling your friends about the work of the artist you've been admiring. Sharing the artist's work on social media. Recommending the artist to others in search of the art said artist creates. You do not have to be a customer to support anyone. Support is being kind. The flip side is that as a customer, you are supporting an artist. You're putting your money into the backing of the work that an artist does, whether that be i...

Color swatching is fairly new to me. I've only recently found the value in color swatching markers, paints, pencils, inks, etc. Up until a couple of years ago I never really saw value in this practice. So what changed? Honestly, joining the Copic marker cult. Yes, I said cult, because well these markers do kind of have a cult following.   Copic markers are alcohol markers, the medium I turn to most often when creating my hand-colored cards. These markers are designed to blend and create depth when coloring. They're transparent and layering the colors creates a lot of definition. About a year ago I actually started keeping track of color combinations for blending. Color swatching is about more than just a patch of color on a substrate. While trying colors on the substrate you'll be using is very helpful, I find more value in swatching when it comes to mixing or blending colors. This gives me a chance to try the combination to see if I get magic or mud out of it. ...

I'm often asked what inspires me. I often laughed and say everything, which usually returns a puzzled look. When I say everything inspires me I'm not really lying. Think about that is what brought to mind the idea for a bit of a mini-series, Inspiration Found where I could go a bit more in-depth to answer the question "What inspires me?" I thought I'd kick off the series with color. I find color inspiration in my everyday life, everywhere. My color choices are inspired the most by nature, especially colors that paint the sky. The skies in Alaska during the winter months produce some of the most amazing pale shades of blue, pink, and purple. I've learned that the pale colors I've never been able to capture on film can be captured with ink on paper. Ink blending is a bit of a magical thing. Through this technique, I can blend the most spectacular skies, recreating some of the same striking combinations I've seen in the evening sunset or early m...

Abandoned Cart Syndrome is a real thing, right? Well, it may not be a real syndrome, but it is a real phenomenon that happens to every online shop. Don't pretend like you haven't done it. I'm pretty sure we're all guilty of it at some point. So what is Abandoned Card Syndrome? Abandoned Card Syndrome is the art of filling an online shopping cart and then leaving the site, never to return and complete the purchase. Is that really a bad thing? I'm not gonna say it's a bad thing, but from a shop owner's perspective, it's a bit frustrating. Would you go to a big box store, fill a cart, and then leave the cart and walk out of the store? I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. As an online shop owner, I can see every sale that wasn't completed. If I'm lucky the shopper went far enough through the checkout process to leave an email address. If an email address was entered and then the cart was abandoned an automated email is sent out to ...

Today I thought I'd share a bit of a run-through on what the process looks like when I start an idea with a sketch. Not every idea starts as a sketch, but it should. I find value in getting my design ideas down on paper, no matter how rough the sketch is. To be honest, sketching is a practice I should form into a habit. It would be especially helpful during those times when I’m loaded with ideas and don’t have enough time to create what's floating in my head. Card sketches start, usually when I find a design that inspires me, but I want to use different products or a different theme. It can also start with me revisiting one of my older designs with a bit of a plan to refresh something. In this example, I was working on some samples for the 4-H thank you card presale I talked about a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to roughly sketch out the clover thank you card before I went to work one morning. Before the idea was lost to the dozens of other thoughts in the day. When I ...

Let's pull back the curtain and address some of the most frequently asked questions, or in some cases offhanded comments. Everyone is always curious about where I find time to create so many cards, especially while working, running a household, and still finding time for friends and family. It's no secret that I make a crazy amount of cards, but maybe it seems a little secretive about my creative habits and routine.   The most frequently asked question I get is - Where do I find the time? The short answer is - I don't find it, I make it! I don't watch TV. We don't have children. And to be frank, I'll pick card-making over housekeeping any day. Making cards allows me the luxury of escape and the ability to unwind from the everyday craziness. Making and creating is a stress release for me. I dive into a pile of paper and embellishments for a daily swim. Yes, I said daily. It's a rare day if I don't create anything or work on Inked Inspirations in some ...

What made me create a new line of cards around my photography? It seems a big shift from my more artistic cards, but honestly, it's not that far of a shift. It's all in the eye, literally. I was asked a few years ago for recommendations on starting a photography hobby/side hustle. Honestly, my biggest recommendation is not about the gear, you can learn to use any camera if you have a passion and an eye for it. My advice is to find your artistic eye and use it. I won't lie not everyone has an eye. Can you learn to be a photographer, absolutely, but I don't believe you'll ever have an eye for it if you don't have the passion. I was a photographer before I was a card maker. My first camera was a 110 box camera and I took a ton of photos of my dogs and cat. When I was in Junior High my grandma gave me a 35mm point-and-shoot for Christmas and I used that for years. I was a Junior in High School when I got my first 35mm, it was a Mamyia NC1000. I wore it ou...

What's your superpower? Mine? I make cards. Food and cards are my love language and they're how I show the people in my life that I love them. When someone we care about is tossed a big storm in life we generally step in and offer something to let them know we care and that we're there for them. Some take food to the family, others send flowers and notes of love, but I usually make cards. Thank You cards to be more specific. When something unexpected happens in someone's life and the world rushes in to help, there are always thank yous to send after the storm recedes. I create those cards and give them with love, often with the postage to mail them. When I need to make a lot of cards in a short amount of time I always turn to ink blending. I cut a few masks from full stick post-it notes using some dies. The masking creates a simple way to spotlight the stamped sentiment. Using white cardstock for the panels and a variety of stencils makes the ink blended colo...

This was an enormous project of love that I spearheaded in 2017. In June of that year, my friend Lindsay had a freak accident that broke her C5 and C6 vertebrae, leaving her partially paralyzed. She spent a year in the lower 48, going through rehab and being separated from her family and the community that loves her so much. This project was hatched after I kept seeing updates on her progress that included a reoccurring theme, They kept talking about not knowing how to begin to thank everyone who's shared support, love, and prayers during her journey. I couldn't' help but think - "I can help with that" and so began the Love for Lindsay Project. This project was intended to be a thank you card campaign to get her a bunch of thank you cards to start being able to thank those supporting her, but it became so much more. It blossomed into something so much more than the 140 thank you cards we made for Lindsay to send out. I created a dropbox for the community to drop c...

When I was building a name for my handmade card business I was looking for a name that would encompass my cards, art, and photography. What did these three things have in common? How could I tie them all together under one brand? I'm a list maker. I sat and made lists of words and combinations of words until I hit on something that really struck a chord with me. My art, my card, and my photography all had ink in common. It's kind of obvious with the art and cards that there is ink involved, but how did it tie into photography. While I realize traditional photography is developed, the way I was going to be using it, as a card medium, it would be printed with ink. The inspirations came along kind of naturally as a bit of alliteration of sorts. Serendipitous really, because I wanted to inspire people to put art in their lives and in their mailboxes. I wanted my customers to feel inspired to share my work with other people in their lives. While Inked Inspirations had nothing to do ...