Stamps by Artist

Jill PENNEY and Daniel TORRENTE met at art college, married (on Halloween, of course!) and are both professional artists who display their art at galleries across the United States. Their drawings are a perfect pairing for our rubber stamp line. Jill has drawn images such as the Quasimoto group, Moonbelly, and Babycakes.

Her style is sweet, clean and open; great for applying colored pencils or watercolors.  Daniel images, on the otherhand, are very detailed and intricate.  We love both styles as they lend themselves to being a bit ‘edgy.’ You can find their other works of art at www.imdeadthanksforasking.us.vu   Check out Jill’s adorable and cuddly troglodytes, as well as her exquisitely hand sculpted dolls.
 
Amy Wilson Wellenstein began drawing her incredible underwater sea creatures for us out of her love, as well as her husband’s love, of scuba diving. She has a wonderful eye for color as well as collage work. Amy is also an amazing jewelry artist, enjoying working with silver and metals, as well as polymer clay!  But she doesn’t stop there!

For years she has been a first class seamstress, making her very own wedding gown, as well as creating the most interactive and dimensional scrapbook pages!! Her altered books are brilliant too!  Amy has been published in most all industry magazines, as well as Tweety Jill Publications books. Amy shares her home with her beloved husband George and stout kitty, Twitch.

Janet Klein has been drawing all her life.  She is a grammar school art teacher who has done some of the most incredible work with her students.  Janet is the art teacher that we all wish we had had when we were in school.  Not only is she great with children, but she also teaches intermittent art classes to teachers and she taught for us when we had the retail shop.

Janet works FAST and is good at whatever she attempts, be it handmade books or firing ceramics that have been stamped into. She has two “sides” to her rubber stamp images; the ‘flower girl’ images that she drew for us, which are tongue and cheek and her beautiful vintage photographic images of her family and her husband’s family.  Janet’s work has been published in most of the industry magazines as well as in Tweety Jill Publications books. Janet resides with her husband Jess, and their adorable canine, Hobbes. Janet can be reached at maniacarta@cox.net.

Olivia Thomas started drawing when she was old enough to hold a crayon and also began sewing at about the same time; Barbie doll clothes with scrap fabric from her Grandmother. Olivia was one of my first customers after opening our retail shop.

After seeing some of her work with rubber stamps incorporated into her art, I PLEADED that she teach classes for us.  That was just the beginning.  Olivia is an inspiring artist as anyone who has taken classes from her will attest.  Her collages have multi-layers and depth.  Her colored pencil work has a special soft touch.  Olivia’s first love, however, is textiles and primitive cloth dolls. Her work has been in all of the industry magazines, plus some specialty publications by Stampington  and  the magazine, Cloth, Paper, Scissors. 

You can find more of her work at www.oliverose.com   Olivia definitely lives the artist’s life; as her home is her studio; her atelier.  She shares her home with Zulu, the canine Zulu prince, who is full of life!

Kylie D’Orio is a student attending art college at this writing.  She is young, enthusiastic, energetic and drawing comes second nature to her.  We met Kylie at her parents’ bird shop; thus her drawings of our feathered friends.  Although Kylie can draw anything, we asked her to draw exotic birds.  We love her work and know that there are others out there that love handling birds; love sharing their home with a feathered friend or two!  Kylie’s art will speak to those people.  She has captured the spirit of the individual breeds.  We wish Kylie a long and wonderful life in the arts!!!

Susan Mahoney is a mom of two beautiful girls and Susan says she draws at night to unwind.  Her images are unusual, curious and atypical; outlandish, but have a special softness to them. Do be sure to take a look at them!  They are great for children, as well as those adults that want the uncommon.  Her images are quite intricate and are so nicely done that they look good in luscious black ink on a lovely white vellum surfaced paper!  They speak for themselves.  Susan’s images are clean and crisp.  We love them!  Susan resides with her husband and two daughters.

Kristen Powers. I have loved Kristen’s work forever.  When I first began stamping, I was drawn to her small, petite images. After seeing her use colored pencils with her images on paper, shrink plastic or covered with glass and solder, I was sold. Her images lend themselves to all of those fun ideas.

Josie Cirincione first walked into my shop a few years ago and I thought she was just darling.  Her long, dark hair was done up in two buns like Princess Lea.  Little did I know that such an artist lived within that tiny, petite body!!! Holy Mackerel!  She came into the shop weekly and we began to talk; becoming friends.  She mentioned to me ‘wouldn’t it be fun to write a book?’  Well, dreams DO come true.  Josie is now on her SECOND book by F&W Publications.

Her first book, “Collage, Lost and Found” was such a hit that she was invited to write another book, “Bent, Bound and Stitched.,”due out in May. (we will carry it HERE!) Josie has done some incredible card samples for me and that is just the tip of the iceberg.  She is great at soldered art.  She is a wonderful and inspiring teacher.  Her students LOVE her.  She is definitely ‘edgy’ and has a great eye for collage. You can find WHERE she is teaching and WHAT she is up to at www.inkyblackpaperarts.com  Josie lives with the HUMAN love of her life, Nick, AND the canine love of her life, Hank, a less than five pound Chihuahua who most definitely has an eye for art!!!  (He even has his own blog!)

Amy Crowe Secrest is an artist during her free time and a ‘corporate’ gal by day.  Not only can she draw, but check out her polymer clay jewelry on her website, as well as her love of 1980’s toys, games and ephemera.  And she’s one of those gals that can conjure up a knitted piece without following a pattern!  You can find Amy online at http://www.amyville.com.

Jenni Bowlin is well known in the scrapbooking and papercrafting world.  She’s an incredible woman, mother, wife and artist.  Visit Jenni at her website to see what she’s up to!

Maryse Carrier is past known for her art connected with a well-known rubber stamp company in Canada and we’re glad she decided to ‘downsize’ and search out a much, much smaller company!  We love what she does and so do her followers!  Maryse’s images are whimsical and open, leaving lots of room for watercolors or colored pencils.  These images make you smile.
 
Carol’s Collection. That’s me. Since college days I have been hoarding quotes and sayings and now have a notebook full from decades of collecting. And, since I cannot draw, I have turned some interesting family photos, as well as those family photos of a friend, into fun rubber stamps. My criteria for a good photo is one that makes me laugh. I hope you too will enjoy!

Kelle McCarter started her business, "designsgirl.com" in 2003, a graphic design company specializing in corporate logo design. She is also an incredible calligrapher. Her line of funky gals wearing crazy hats screamed to be made into rubber stamps! We hope you enjoy them as much as we do.