Hello Inky Admirer, New adventures are beginning.  I’ve talked off and on about creating art in my little corner of the universe.  I’m venturing into a new commitment of developing an art practice.  I’ve had some false starts in this direction, but I feel like I’m finally ready to commit.  If you follow me on Instagram you might have noticed a bit of a shift in card style. Through my exploration of abstract art, I’ve created several collections of cards using Yana Smakula’s one sheet dry brush technique . Using this technique, I create several 9 x 12 or 11 x 14 inch sheets at a time.  Once my sheets are dry I cut them into panels to use for card creation similar to the one at the left. Prints using a gelli plate are another magic way I’ve been exploring new card styles.   The card at the right was created by applying acrylic paint to the plate and pulling the print with an old book page.  Once the print was dry, I used Archival Ink to stamp th...

Hello Inky Admirer, In my last post, I talked about making changes in the new year. If you're a newsletter subscriber, then you already have the inside scoop. My plan each month is to walk though my thoughts and decisions while sharing them with you. To get the news fist, become a subscriber . Stick around, you might be surprised where this journey takes us. I have new ideas brewing. The toughest change isn't a decision I made lightly. I mulled this around for months and have finally settled on it. In August of this year I will be closing the online shop. In an effort to be transparent about this decision, I'm going to wade into the weeds of it a bit. Don’t worry we won’t go to deep. It will just make more sense if I share some extra bits. The online shop has never taken off like I hoped it would or honestly should for that matter. I have the traffic, but not the sales. Translation, there are a lot of window shoppers. The reality is that I can no longer justify the cost of ...

It's been a hot minute since I dropped a post here.  Welcome to the land of life got in the way.  Yesterday I released an update to my subscribers and felt that it would be good to share the info here as well.  If you'd like to become a newsletter subscriber you can do so by visiting this link .  Ok, let's get to the updates: Hello Inky Admirer, I thought I’d stop by your inbox and share an update. It’s been a fantastic New Year so far. I started a new job, which I’m loving! I’ve begun setting some new goals for the card business and exploring the ideas I have for changes in the New Year. In January, I chose to start donating more of my handmade cards. I sent 96 cards to Cards for Kindness. Cards for Kindness  is part of the  Creative Kindness Foundation . Once a donation is made, cards are distributed to the many organization that use them to spread kindness. For more info you can check out their site -  Cards for Kindness . In October of 2022, my mom...

I have fond memories of decorating a box every year in grade school and getting to pick out the little cards to give to each of my classmates. Maybe that's where my love affair with happy mail stems from. Valentine's Day is only two weeks away, but there's still time to snag your valentines to send your friends and family. No need to decorate a box. Here are this year's new releases, but don't forget to check out the Valentine's Day section to see all the designs available. You might even find a few cards on sale. Don't forget to subscribe to receive Happy Mail in your inbox and receive exclusive subscriber discounts, giveaways, site updates, and other cool stuff. If you share your birthday when you sign up, you'll also receive an Annual Birthday Coupon!

New Newsletter format, including new articles, links, and of course discount codes. Wanna make sure you get every issue? Subscribe now, the first edition of 2022 will drop on New Year's Day! I have some fun new card designs coming, including some fancy new folds and different sizes. There might even be a few shaker cards and cards that light up coming in the new year. If you're a maker peeping the shop for inspiration I have great news! I'm planning to do a weekly posting here in the Artist's Journal, with details and affiliate links for the products used to create a featured card. The Shop will be getting a little facelift as well. I'll be rephotographing all the cards to create a more uniform look. I'll also be adding additional shots of each card to showcase more of the details. I'm also working on a schedule for consistent Instagram posting. I played with this a bit in Fall and I'll be returning to it in 2022. I won't lie, this kind of co...

It just doesn't seem possible that it's December already. Christmas is racing in as we close out the 2021 year. Here's a quick update on what's happening for the Month of December.   Today, December 1st, you might notice Christmas and Holiday cards are no longer available on the website. For the second year in a row, I'm taking all of my holiday card inventory to Smiling Moose for their big open house. This portion of inventory will only be available there for the remainder of the season. Now is the time to shop locally and pick up a few handmade cards. If you're looking for a great gift that is consumable and will bring joy throughout the year, might I suggest a package of handmade cards? There's still time to order handmade cards for gift-giving, but don't wait. Orders need to be shipped by December 13, 2021, in order to receive them in time for gift giving. Want to stay up to date with news and receive discount codes for your birthday? Consider subscr...

Changes can be exciting and scary. Not everything I envision works out. When this happens I make adjustments and refocus my creative energy into the areas that I enjoy more and are more successful. It's taken me a long time to find my niche, or maybe accept my niche. I started my handmade sales journey years ago with the usual craft bazaars. Then in 2007, I hopped on the Etsy train, way back when it was a baby learning to walk. I tried sewing, crocheting, and knitting all to find my way and build my own business. I stumbled through several more years of trial and error before arriving where I am now. I had to try all of those other things to bring myself full circle to the thing I love the most, card making. I had to go through all the excitement and burnout of all the things to find my own way back to the card making I'd fallen in love with over two decades ago. So why am I telling you all of this? I wanted to give a snippet of the back story to share my journey throu...

It's officially October and the holidays will be upon us before we know it. Much like the foot of snow we got over the past weekend here in Interior Alaska. Fall flown south with the geese, bring on the cocoa and sweaters! There's nothing like the first official snow to put me in the mood to create holiday and winter-themed cards. How cute is this guy? On that note, it's time to start thinking about ordering your custom holiday cards. While holiday cards cover the gamete from Valentine's Day to Christmas and everything in between, the most common orders are for the winter holidays, which are quickly approaching. As I write this, Thanksgiving is 52 days away and Christmas is only 82 days away. What? 2021 seems to be rushing by us. I know, no one wants to rush the season, but there are a couple of deadlines for ordering this year: Thanksgiving Order Deadline - November 1, 2021 Christmas Order Deadline - November 26, 2021 Not sure about design ideas? Check out my ...

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 ...

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...

For the last four years, I've created custom thank you cards for a couple of 4-Hers. The first year, I was eager to make them, but really had no farm or animal-themed supplies. I created some very basic cute cards with a few background stamps and I used a heart to create a clover. They turned out really cute, but I knew I'd need to add some farm animals to my stamp collection for the next year. In year two, I had cute animals to stamp and hand-color. There was a small challenge of needing a turkey, which ended with me coloring a chicken stamp to try and pass it off as a turkey. I think it worked pretty well. I also created cute pig and sheep cards. The animals were hand-colored with Copic markers and I created layers with die cuts on some fun plaid paper. I was upping my game. In the third year, I snagged a few more stamp sets and received two orders. I had three orders in the third year. I did the same hand coloring with Copic markers this go-round, but I fussy cut the animals...

This summer you'll be able to find my line of photography cards at Rika's Roadhouse Gift shop.  I stocked 110 cards for opening weekend, with more to come.   The photography is all original and all mine.  Photographs have been printed with a Cannon Selph printer that uses thermal dye-sublimation to print images on heat-sensitive paper. The images are touted by Canon to have an extremely long 100-year print longevity when stored properly.   The selection of cards at Rika's will be exclusively Alaskan, taken during our 9 years of living in Alaska.   I plan to expand this line into the online shop soon.  I'll be including more locations with the online photo cards.  I've been a scenic photographer since high school and will be including shots from our travels and other states we've lived in.

New arrivals to the online shop this morning. The Fabric and Mixed Media card styles are new lines of cards this year. Vintage Chicken Mixed Media - $7 With Sympathy & Love - Floral - $6 Hugs & Love - Cork & Fabric Hearts - $7 Sending Love - Double Floral Fabric Heart - $7 Sending Love - Large Floral Fabric Heart - $7

What's new in the Inked Inspirations shop ?  Wait?  What?  You didn't know there was a shop ?  Well, there is and you should totally stop by and check things out! I spent some time this week listing some stunning Blank Note Cards. Bay at the Moon - Handmade Card Through Kindness Art Butterfly - Handmade Card  I've added new sections of Mixed Media Cards. Wish - Mixed Media Handmade Card Hello - Mixed Media Handmade Card  There's also a new section of Handmade Postcards.   Blessed Sunflowers - Handmade Postcard These are just a few of the cards and postcards available.  Over the next week, I'll be working to add Card Sets to the shop as well.  If you're looking for a great handmade card I hope you'll stop by my shop and check out what's available.