AMY BRINKMAN

Vintagraphy - Vintage Dictionary Art Prints - find my art here!

Vintagraphy art prints I've designed LOVE YOU - FOR LIKE EVER find them here in my shop 

Just wanted to let you all know that you can find my designs at my Etsy shop Vintagraphy. You can also click on the shop links in both sidebars. Lots of cool, fun typography and vintage & original illustrations printed on antique book pages. My love of books, my passion for vintage ephemera and art has made this the perfect business venture for me. I am so excited to be completely engrossed in this newest chapter of my life. I am putting my heart and soul into Vintagraphy and am continually working to improve and grow the business. Yes, I'm still scrapbooking, art journaling, photographing and taking long walks on the beach - my other passions will never leave me. I have also taken on a brand new hobby, that I can honestly say has been one of the most rewarding I have ever done....crochet!  I absolutely love, love, love it. I am currently working on a giant granny square blanket for my daughter. The tactile part of the hobby is what I need after a long day designing on the computer for Vintagraphy.  Thanks to all of you for your continued support of my designs and art. 

Amy

A sampling of more of my Vintagraphy art - ©Vintagraphy 2011-2012 All Rights Reserved

 

 

 

 

My newest CHA collections...Safari Girl & Safari Boy

Here's some fun new baby collections I designed for Best Creation that were just released at CHA titled, "Safari Girl" and "Safari Boy". Soft colors of lavender, yellow and green highlight the Safari Girl line. Safari Boy is accented with colors of orange, brown and blue. Sweet baby jungle animals like lions, monkeys, giraffes and alligators frolic together alongside jungle palms.  These were really fun collections for me to illustrate and design since the little animals brought a smile to my face, each and every time I worked on the collection.  Hope you enjoy them!

If you want to take a closer peek, you can find them here on the Best Creation website and also their blog, where you can see actual product sample shots here.  Just scroll down till you see Safari Boy and Safari Girl.

Can't wait to show you what else I've designed for Best Creation that will be released in April this year. Super, super cool!

Some fun projects the girls on the design team made with my new Safari Boy collection.

Happy Scrapping!

Amy

Crayon Box colors of Presencia Embroidery Floss

Presencia New Floss, originally uploaded by Amy Brinkman Designs.

Here's some new floss I picked up this afternoon at a fun little store in Minneapolis - Crafty Planet. I just love the crayon box colors of my newest Presencia floss. I am more and more drawn to this brand of floss - beautiful rich colors, true in every light. Plus it has a nice sheen to it and is wonderful to stitch with. Yummy. Can't wait to use it!

Collaged Cards

ABD_CollageBlue2, originally uploaded by Amy Brinkman Designs.

Here's a set of cards and bookmarks I made as a gift for my mom. I wish I had made a duplicate set for myself! Very fun and easy to make and she absolutely loved them!

An easy way to set the tone for a group of cards that are different, yet similar is to pick a similar foundation of colors. For instance, I used all blue or blue-like papers as the background.

Some of the items you'll see used in the set are:

Glass Glitter (love this stuff)
Skeleton Leaves
Vintage Stamps
Old Book Pages
Various scrapbook papers
Glue: Golden Gel Medium
Velvet Ribbon

Just tear your papers, collage and glue other items down and you'll have a beautiful set of cards in no time!

Happy Collaging!
Amy

Playing with Color - Embroidery Floss Combos

ABD_PresenciaFlossCombos_Page_3, originally uploaded by Amy Brinkman Designs.

I love playing with different color combinations. After a major Presencia embroidery floss purchase, I had a lot of fun moving them around into various sets and color combinations. After about 45 minutes of play, I came up with what I think are nice, pleasing, energetic and interesting combos. I scanned them for all of you, numbered side up, in case anyone wants to use these color sets themselves.

More floss color combinations at my Flickr site, please click here.

One thing to remember when playing with combining colors - whether it's paper, paint, floss etc: Always look for the temperature and color undertones. If you combine similar undertones, you are bound to get pleasing combination. Warm + warm, cool + cool. Colors also have "color" undertones...for instance a red can have a blue undertone making it seem cooler OR it could have a yellow undertone making it warmer. Sounds simple, and it is, if you pay attention.

If something isn't quite right for you when laying out your color choices, something is a little jarring, check your undertones. Guaranteed - fixing that will result in a pleasing colorway.

Also, for those of you who don't have access to Presencia Floss, you can get a DMC & Anchor conversion chart here. Presencia to DMC & Anchor Chart   DMC and Anchor are lovely flosses to work with as well and their color choices can't be beat. I know from experience! I have too much to count.

Have a happy, colorful day!

Amy

Camping Out Embroidery Style

ABD_SS_CAMPOUT, originally uploaded by Amy Brinkman Designs.

As many of you are aware, I love embroidery. All styles, from vintage to contemporary...

Boating season is coming up, which means lots of time outdoors. What a great time to stitch up a fun kitchen towel for our boat's galley! I used one of Sublime Stitching's patterns called Campout.

We love camping out on our boat, sitting around the campfire, hanging out under the moon and stars out on the shores of the St. Croix River. Even the smell of our morning coffee is better when camping.

This was a fun project to do - I actually stitched on both sides of the towel, so matter which way it hangs, it always looks great. Have you ever noticed how much quicker you get things done when they have a personal meaning to you? I was able to complete this project in just a few hours.

I added a little extra "fun" to the license plate, since isn't that what camping is all about?

Happy Stitching!
Amy

How to Organize Embroidery Floss

  Just like all good, overly-abundant collections, sometimes they must be organized. My overflowing embroidery floss collection was currently behind housed in one of those clear plastic, slotted boxes.  Boring! (sorry to those of you that like these things). I wanted to organize my embroidery floss with pizazz, with oomph, with the wow factor! The remaining skeins of floss (probably 35 or so) were still in skeins on a fun little tray. Pretty to look at when new, but somewhat messy once threads started disappearing from use. The skeins start to look a little sad. Hmmm...how to organize a slew of embroidery floss in a way that was open to the possibilities of inspiration?

Because I'm somewhat obsessive like a dog with a good bone, I spent hours scouring the internet looking for an ingenious way to do such a thing.

Jenny Hart, of Sublime Stitching, uses a thread spool holder. I love the idea and the look of all the lovely threads sitting out, waiting to be touched. But, I wanted something more compact, more portable and more mish-mash kind of inspiring. I stumbled upon Heather Bailey's blog where she too had her floss carded, but she put them in cute, vintage-y looking glass jars. Interesting. I liked that idea. Except I had wayyyy more floss than Heather did in her photo. So, I adapted the idea and after two nights of hand-winding floss around bobbins, I had what you see below.  I found this amazing glass bowl at Michaels for only $5. Somewhat fishbowl shaped but very cool.

Being a designer means I am always tuned into the visual side of things, to possibilities. What's great about this embroidery floss organization system is that it allows for inspiration. Throw the bobbins in the bowl in random order, a few different times, and your eye will see new color combinations. Let the floss bobbin rings rest on the counter or coffee table and intermingle. They will choose their color friends.

This technique of letting embroidery floss bobbins coexist next to unlikely  pairings really makes for fun and exciting color combinations.

What I also really like about this floss organization system is that it is portable and customizable. Just take the floss bobbins that correspond with your new project from their existing ring and place them on a new one. Everything is in one place and they can be put back on their original bobbin rings when the project is completed.

Now, my newly organized floss sits in its pretty bowl, catching light and beckoning to me on my kitchen counter. Home dec at its best.

In addition to this system being fun, it's also easy to work with. I organized by first floss brand, then color, then number. I am not super worried that a 3703 is by a 725...as long as it's in the same color family (blue, red, pink etc) it works for me. Most of my floss is DMC, but I also have quite a few lovely skeins of Presencia. I decided to separate the two brands because there is just enough difference in them to do so.

I am currently doing a whole project with Presencia. Just because. I like to make little rules and games for myself. Keeps me on my toes. This game is: Use all Presencia floss in this project. Try to limit total amount of colors used. Etc. Etc.

In fact, I think I may review DMC and Presencia floss in an upcoming blog post. Maybe even toss in some newer threads that I have found that are super fun to use and very tactile.

The lovely greens you see here are DMC floss. I do love green very much but have found myself drawn to blues a lot more lately. Maybe because I love water and am looking forward to boating on the river this summer. Who knows?

Below are some more photos of my floss collection. If you have any comments or ideas you'd like to add, I'd love to hear them!

Below is my lovely Presencia Floss

Presencia Embroidery Floss above

See more photos on my Flickr page and check back often for more updates!

Click here to see additional photos on my Flickr page

May you all have an inspirational day!

Happy Stitching!

Amy

10 reasons I love embroidery

Ok, I admit it. I absolutely, positively, adore, love and am crazy about embroidery. You know, the kind that makes you want to touch and feel it. The texture, the beautiful colors, the threads. It's one of my newest loves and passions. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would swoon at beautiful threads, get excited at fun, cool patterns. Have a coronary over fine linen. Never. Ahh, never say never.

I took up embroidery for real about nine months ago. I had dabbled in cross stitch before, done some crocheting, was defeated by knitting. But I had never actually done any kind of embroidery. Sure, I have lots of embroidered pillowcases, dresser scarves and aprons here done by Mom and both my grandmas. But, why had I never tried it myself?  Probably because I was and still am obsessed with all things involving paper arts and scrapbooking. Probably because I have been a business owner, manufacturer and designer of those scrapbooking products for over 8 years.  Not too much time for dreaming about playing with needle and thread. But not anymore! Let me tell you my TOP 10 REASONS I LOVE EMBROIDERY and why I have made the beautiful hobby and art a priority and why I absolutely love and adore it.

1. Hundreds, if not thousands of thread choices. Everything from cotton, to linen, to silk, to wool. Wonderful for someone who loves collecting art supplies. (me) Wonderful for someone who doesn't - keep it simple, sweetheart!
2. Color, color, color. Oh my goodness, I can't get enough. So many combinations! Thread and fabric, thread and thread. Love it!
3. Compact and portable. No need to drag out the kitchen sink full of supplies. Just a few skeins of thread, a needle and small piece of fabric.
4. I can use my own illustrations for patterns. Because I am a designer, I have a plethora of illustrations, ideas and themes that translate into embroidery designs. Some of which will be offered very, very soon to all of you via my new Etsy store.
5. Economical. I have never, ever done another type of hobby that is so inexpensive to get into. Most floss skeins can be purchased for less than $1. I am talking a few cents here, folks. Hoops are around $4. You can truly get into the hobby for under $20, maybe even less than $15. Patterns too are relatively inexpensive.
6. I am part of a legacy. I am continuing in the footsteps of my mother and grandmothers and now teaching my daughter the skills.
7. Easy to learn. You can start stitching right away...no need for super fancy stitches. You can complete a cute design with a simple back or straight stitch. So easy a young kid could do it.
8. Great gifts! I have made some great gifts since starting embroidery. 
9. Originality - because there are no hard and fast color rules and what kind of stitch to use where, the same pattern could be done by two different people and each would have it's own brand of uniqueness.
10. Relaxing, therapeutic. I can't begin to tell you how true this is. There is something about it that just sends me to another world...also, some of my best ideas have come to me while stitching. In addition, the very act of stitching itself, somehow irons out the problems in my brain and makes them relatively smooth and easy to deal with.

So, there you have it...my newest passion in a nutshell. In the coming weeks, I will be concentrating more heavily on embroidery and various aspects of it. I can't wait to share my passion with all of you.

Happy Stitching!

Amy

18,159 Photos - how to deal

18,159

18,159 photos on my computer. I don't even want to know how many gigs that is. I do know I have a 350 gig hard drive, which I suspect is filling up quickly.  I suppose I could give you a screen shot of this number or try to give you one giant thumbnail of all the little thumbnails, but I can't.

I know there are a lot of you just like me...both traditional and digital scrapbookers that have an overwhelming number of photos to process through. I believe the problem of too many photos has gotten worse mostly due to my love of photography and the world of digital. Not to mention, the oh-so-easy-to snap 850 Grad Photos of my daughters on my Nikon DSLR. Keep in mind, I have three daughters, two of which I have already photographed for Graduation. That means 850x2. Ouch!  Oops, I forgot my son has already graduated as well, so add that number too.

What is scary about this number is the few that have been printed, whether in print format or book. What I realized today, looking through them on Iphoto, was the vast amount of memories that are forgotten from not printing them.  I mean forgotten.  So many moments captured that are for my computer's eyes to see. Hmmmm....I remember (I sound old here) back in the day when I would get piles of prints back from the lab, sort them, and start scrapbooking them. Looking back through the 25+ scrapbooks created, all of us in our family can relive those memories.  We can't relive them, however, if those newer memories are stuck on my computer.  Are they even memories if no one can relive them again? Or are they just images?

My call to all of you, myself included, is to get busy! If we need to, let's get back to basics...

HOW TO DEAL WITH 18,159 PHOTOS

• Print 50 photos out a month - easy to do with Shutterfly. Have them shipped straight to our door. Now, you have no excuses!  Slap them in a scrapbook on plain cardstock, don't worry about embellishments or EEGADS, put them in a traditional photo album.  You gasp with horror, I know. The scrapbooker in us could never allow THAT! What about all the cool supplies clogging our studios and basements? I am the first to know about that - I have a vast amount of Cloud 9 products from my days as Founder/Creative Director.  Use, what you have that doesn't overwhelm you. Set out a limited amount of colors in your cardstock. Limit your embellishment types to 2. Just do it. When you put a limit on things, your creativity soars and your productivity increases. Or there is another alternative...

• Do a photo book with Shutterfly or Blurb. I have used both and they are both great quality. Blurb is a bit less expensive, but if you sign up with Shutterfly, you get a lot of special offers. I just did one 8x8 album for free with them. Yes, FREE! You can either do your own digitally scrapbooked pages and create your own book, or you can use one of their templates.  Both rock! If you don't like the idea of scrapping or the photo album trick, then yes, there are other alternatives.

Reminder, get those photos printed. Do in small batches for time management and the overwhelming factor.

• Place those printed photos in a cute basket on the coffee table. There is something so tactile about this, that almost everyone will pick them up and look at them. Who cares if there is fingerprints on them? (You have the originals on your computer, backed up to an external drive, right??? Ahem... don't forget that!)

• Punch 2 holes in the left side of the photos and ring clip together. I think I got this idea from Ali Edwards. I can tell you, that I have two such little albums on my dining room buffet and they constantly get looked at. I have even included little paper scraps etc that mean something to me.

• Grab an iron greeting card holder (the kind for Christmas cards), pop in your photos and display on your wall or desk. Pottery Barn has cute ones, but I have seen them other places. 

• Paste photos into your journal, diary, art journal, sketchbook, or calendar. Get them somewhere you can enjoy them. Make it personal.

• Brag-book it. Get the inexpensive ones from Target, the Dollar Store or Walmart and toss them in there. Most hold a standard roll of film. What's a roll of film, you ask? I know, I can barely remember. 24 prints. So, you can get 2 little bragbooks for probably $5 and you can store those 50 prints a month in them. How about placing those brag books in that cute coffee table basket?

• Frame them! Yes, now everyone could really enjoy them, even the UPS or FedEx driver can view your beautiful creations. Because, yes, they will be hanging in your front entry hall for the world to see. I know, this seems like an obvious one, but how many of us really do this? There are cool collage frames, big frames, little frames, all kinds of frames that will highlight your photos and elevate them to ART!  How cool are you now?

Now, I am sure, I will think of all kinds of other ideas after I publish this post. If any of you have any ideas you want to add, please do so in the comments section. It's always fun to hear how others deal with 18,159 photos, isn't it?

I'm off to upload some prints! Enjoy!

Amy

Hand-carved Stamps

I don't know about you, but I have been wanting to try hand-carving my own stamps lately.  More and more often, I see this being done as a craft.  It's inexpensive,fun and highly addicting.  Plus, it's really pretty easy.

My inspiration came to me while out walking on our property.  We have an amazing variety of hostas and they truly have the most beautiful leaves.  Simple, yet beautiful.  One of them really caught my attention.  I got busy with my sketchbook and lo and behold, my first image for a hand-carved stamp came to life.

I transferred the image to the stamp carving block by turning it over and rubbing it into the soft material and began carving.

This was a lot of fun - all it requires is some simple drawing skills, concentration and a steady hand.  I am pretty proud of my first hand-carved stamp.

I used a Speedball Lino Cutter that I ordered from Amazon. You can check it out here: LINO CUTTER ASST W/HANDLE B/C

I also ordered some Speedy-Cut blocks shown here: SPEEDY CUT BLOCK 4x5.5 BX/6   from them too, in the smaller size that I found a bit more manageable.

Here's how it turned out!  I love it.  I stamped it with Colorbox Chalk ink which is really quite vibrant.

 

I can't wait to try my hand it more stamp carving. I will keep you posted as I do more.
Enjoy!
Amy