Welcome to my blog!

Hi there!  My name is Robin.  Wow, a blog.  It's a little frightening to just plunge right in and start posting.  I've been a greeting card artist since the mid-90s, thanks to my aunt and cousins who persisted in encouraging my creativity even though I resisted in the beginning.  They all make beautiful cards and I'm very lucky that they took the time to show me the ropes, so to speak.

I've always had rubber stamps.  Always.  At first they were an alphabet set that we used to play school with (and that I really wish I still had now that I'm all grown up).  I had some art stamps that I used to use on the backs of my envelopes in my grade school pen-pals days.  When I passed the test to move from temporary to full-time clerk at the library, my present from one of my co-workers was a kangaroo stamp.  You get the point...I love my stamps.

I have only recently begun playing with projects other than just greeting cards.  My first attempt at a napkin collage was to decorate the bare wooden box my knife set came in.  I like the results.  First a thin coating of off-white acrylic paint.  Then I used three different patterns and US Art Quest's PPA matte finish adhesive.  Here are a few pictures from my project.

These are the two cards I made at the same time.

In the end, I made two boxes and two greeting cards with these same napkins.  It was easy and fun.  I've got more ideas for the napkin collage.  This is my new favorite technique.  I wonder what I'll learn to do tomorrow...