Snowman Card & a Peek into my Sketchbook!

Sweet Snowman Couple

Today I'm sharing a super simple snow-couple card I created using our Frozen Friends stamp set. This card was really simple to create. I just stamped the image of the two snowmen on the Kraft cardstock and colored them in with some colored pencils. Then I added some snowflakes with kraft-colored ink and the "baby it's cold outside sentiment" from the same set in black. I mounted the whole thing on a white background and added a blue ribbon. This would be a great card to make multiples of if you needed a bunch because it was really easy to make!

Behind the scenes of our winter stamp designs...

I thought it might be fun to share with you how I create a stamp set - I get lots of questions - do you really draw those images by hand? So I thought I'd do a little bit of sharing about my creative process!  

Mostly I just start sketching! 
Sometimes that's the hardest part - sometimes it's the easiest - it just depends. I look for inspiration in lots of places - Pinterest, fashion & home magazines, out shopping, museums, real-life experiences! You never know when something might give you an idea. Then I pull out my sketchbook and just start drawing. Sometimes I get it right on the first try - sometimes I have to draw something over and over until I get it just right. For these particular images, it ended up being almost the same as my first sketch.

Here's a couple pages I scanned in from my sketch book -- these ones are in pencil:

And here's another page - I ended up drawing these two with black drawing pens:

As you can see, I turn my sketch book as needed and sketch whichever direction I think the image will fit into! I don't like working large.  My sketchbook is usually small - I think this one was a 6x6. 

Digitize it! 

If I didn't like the first sketch I might draw it a few more times. Sometimes I use tracing paper or go over it with black drawing markers - it really just depends on how I'm feeling about it. Once I have it the way I like it it goes into my flatbed scanner and I have what you see above. Then I import that into Adobe Illustrator and "re-draw" the whole thing. That way I can get the lines perfectly smooth and make sure everything is the proportion I want it. Sometimes I "tweak" or change things a little but they're usually pretty close to the sketch. I also print it out a few times and color it too. Although this sometimes takes a long time - I want to make sure the final images are "perfect" before I have the stamps made! 

And here's what the final Frozen Friends set looks like:

And that snow bear  from the first page ended up not with the snowmen but instead in the Snow Day stamp set with the other animals! Here's how that one turned out:

What do you think? Did you like seeing "behind the scenes"? 

Have a great weekend and make sure to come back next week - Sneak Peeks for our Jan. Release start on Monday! Soooo excited!