The winner of an entire set of the Cornish Heritage Farms Thomas Kinkade release is Jane Wike--lucky lady! I am sharing three of my samples here, but you will want to go to the CHF gallery to see so many more, ranging from time-consuming to quick and easy cards and projects. These are stamps that it's hard to go wrong with, even if you choose not to color the image at all (as in my second sample below). Many of you are looking for guy-card stamps; there are some fabulous guy-card stamps in this series! (By the way, the inside of the card above says, "there would be a shortage of fishing poles.")
Today I wanted to share a timestream "my-point-of-view" on this new release. First, when Lisa called me several months ago, she wasn't permitted to reveal the name of the artist, just that good coloring skills would be helpful. Then she told me several of the other people whom she had called with the same "I could tell you, but I'd have to kill you" proposal. Hey, I wanted to be a spy when I was growing up, so this was right up my alley! Besides Lisa Strahl as fearless team leader of the Thomas Kinkade Rubber Stamp Design Team, others who said "yes" were Anna Wight, Asela Hopkins, Ellen Hutson, Keri Sereika, Linda Bullard, Sharon Harnist, and Valerie Stangle.
After we agreed and signed non-disclosure forms, we eventually received the first image. It was definitely a work in progress: Richard and Liz had spent hundreds of hours trying to translate the incredibly detailed Thomas Kinkade images into good rubber stamp images. I stamped it. I lifted the stamp and looked at the image. Is it okay to admit now that I shook my head and thought, "I'm not sure that this will ever work. . ." Of course I didn't SAY that out loud! But I silently wondered how a painting that was so detailed and so dependent upon color and light to communicate could ever be captured on a small piece of rubber and made to work monochromatically.
Fast forward a few weeks and several more hundreds (literally) of hours of work at CHF: Liz sent us a second test image. I didn't stamp it the day I got it--I was that nervous! A couple of days later I remembered that it was on my desk and hesitantly pulled it out. This time I didn't even use my brayer to ink it; I just took an ink pad and gave the rubber a few halfhearted taps. I pressed, then lifted the rubber. . . And I honestly gasped in delight! The image was so lovely that I didn't even take time to think about researching "proper" colors. I just grabbed my Prismacolors--they were closest-- and went to town with them!
This whole process has been something of an education for me. I have learned that even when you start with amazing artwork, translating it into a stamp-able image is no small feat. I have also learned much from the other artists on the design team. Whew! Watching how each of them puts her own signature style on such strong images has been a real pleasure. I consider myself very blessed to have been able to take part in this adventure. (Thanks, Richard, Liz, and Lisa!) And I hope that this release makes you as happy as it has those of us who have been playing with the images already!
