Skipping Stones Design

Hello!

Katie Gehring here hoping that your new year is off to a great start!  At the end of last year,  Heather announced that Skipping Stones Design is taking a bit of a hiatus while Heather attends to grad school, work, and being a great mom.  The Design Team will be popping on the store blog over the next 4 weeks to share even more Skipping Stones inspiration with some of our favorite sets and we may even have a couple surprises planned along the way!

Also, through the end of January, Heather has the entire store on sale ala the infamous PMS sale or Purchase More Stamps!  The more you buy, the more you save!

• Buy ONE set: Enter PMS1 for 5% off!
• Buy TWO sets: Enter PMS2 for 10 % off!
• Buy THREE sets: Enter PMS3 for 15% off!
• Buy FOUR sets: Enter PMS4 for 20% off!
• Buy FIVE sets: Enter PMS5 for 25% off!
• Buy SIX or MORE sets: Enter PMS6 for 30% off!

If you have any challenges with the discount codes, please email Heather directly at madebyme33 (at) hotmail (dot) com. She will turn around an invoice that reflects your savings.

Although Heather plans to leave the store open and continue to make available some of our most popular sets, the inventory of some of our other sets will not be replenished once they sell out.  With the entire store currently in stock, now is the time to pick up a favorite set, or two, or five before they become scarce!!

Happy shopping and looking forward to seeing you throughout the month!

Katie

Good morning!

Heather here with some important information to share with you about Skipping Stones Design.

I started Skipping Stones Design several years ago to help stampers share the gift of laughter one card at a time. Over the years, I have been nothing short of blessed to share this gift of laughter with all of you and see these stamps come to life in your hands. Recently, behind the scenes, I have been juggling work, graduate school, being a mom to two wonderful kids and, like many of you, trying my hardest to keep all the balls in the air. I have reached a juncture where it is no longer tenable to continue this pace and as a result, I have made the difficult decision to take a hiatus from Skipping Stones Design.

To use a baseball analogy, I am thinking of this break as a 7th inning stretch of sorts and here’s what this means to you:

Effective this month, we will be discontinuing our weekly sketch challenges. We will honor all previous sketch winners through the end of December. If you are a past winner and you have not received your free set, please drop an email to my DT coordinator, Katie, at scrappy_diva (at) yahoo (dot) com, and let her know which challenge you won and which set you would like. She will pass that information along to me and I will get your stamps out. The winner for sketch challenge 156 will be announced here on the blog on December 5th.

As part of this hiatus, I am also suspending release of new designs.

Starting today through the end of January, the entire store is on sale, AND the more you buy, the more you save. That’s right, we are having our famous (or infamous) Purchase More Stamps (PMS) sale to help me reduce inventory.

Buy ONE set: Enter PMS1 for 5% off!
Buy TWO sets: Enter PMS2 for 10 % off!
Buy THREE sets: Enter PMS3 for 15% off!
Buy FOUR sets: Enter PMS4 for 20% off!
Buy FIVE sets: Enter PMS5 for 25% off!
Buy SIX or MORE sets: Enter PMS6 for 30% off!

If you have any challenges with the discount codes, please email me directly at madebyme33 (at) hotmail (dot) com. I will turn around an invoice that reflects your savings.

Although I plan to leave the store open and continue to make available some of our most popular sets, the inventory of some of our other sets will not be replenished once they sell out. With the entire store currently in stock, now is the time to pick up a favorite set or two or five before they become scarce!!

Finally, I have often referred to Skipping Stones as my third child. Needless to say, I would love to see my little stamp business continue to grow and thrive. As much as I look forward to reaching a point in my life where I can again devote time and resources to Skipping Stones Design, I am simply unsure of what the future holds. If you have an interest in owning a stamp company and perhaps picking up where I am leaving off, please send me a note, and let me know.

Over the next couple months, the Design Team will be popping on the blog to share inspiration and projects they created using some of their favorite sets. Also, don’t forget to bookmark our Pinterest boards for sketch and card inspiration.

Before I go, I would like to say THANK YOU to my AMAZING design team, Megan, Tesa, Rochelle, Glenda, Wendy, Katie, Karen, Cyndi, Judith, and Stephanie. I would also like to acknowledge Jingle who was with me from the start and will be stopping back in over the next couple months to share some projects with you. These ladies seriously rock the stamps and I am so grateful for the inspiration they have provided. I also want to THANK you for your business and support over the years. Skipping Stones would not be what it is today without you!

Big hugs,
Heather Engebretson

Good morning!

Today, we are super excited to introduce you to the talented ladies who are joining us for some of our challenges in November.  First up is our sketch artist, Kelly Schirmer!

Kelly Schirmer

I am thrilled to be joining Skipping Stones Designs as the guest sketch designer for November!  I live in Avon, New York, a small town just south of Rochester.  My husband Jason and I have been married for 11 years, and we have 2 beautiful daughters, Eva (8) and Claire (7).  The girls would not want me to leave out our black Labrador Retriever named Olive!  I am a Speech-Language Pathologist, and I work with children ages birth to five years old in their homes.  I have been stamping since 2002, but really got interested in the hobby in 2007 after joining Splitcoaststampers.  I am currently on the Waltzingmouse Stamps Design Team.  Past design team work includes Pink Persimmon’s Creative Team, and I also participated on a catalog contract team for A Muse Studio.  So excited to see what everyone designs with these sketches, yay!

Our guest designers for the month are Ivanka Lentle and Jennie Harper.

Ivanka Lentle

 Hi, I’m so excited to be a guest designer for Skipping Stones Design this month.  I live in Southern Ontario with my husband of 25 years and our two wonderful daughters.  I work part time as an RN and love to create in my spare time.  I started out scrapbooking when my oldest daughter was just 2 years old (she’s now 20!).  Then the cardmaking bug hit me and I never looked back.  I love to make elegant cards with  gorgeous ribbons and bling, but lately, I’ve gravitated to a more CAS style and now love making CAS cards …with gorgeous ribbons and a bit of bling of course!  My challenge to myself this year has been to stamp more so I am so excited to be working with the talented DT here at Skipping Stones Design. I learn something new every time I visit the blog.

Happy Monday friends!

Today, we are delighted to announce that Skipping Stones Design in on Pinterest!  We have set up boards for each of our stamp sets that we will be pinning cards and projects to on an ongoing basis.  Check out our boards for some fantastic inspiration including:

A stunning card by Karen Baker using Sentiment Frames.

This adorable card using Bras 3 by Annette Witherspoon.

A Christmas Card using Pumpkin Seeds Sentiments by Katie Gehring.

We would love for you to check out our boards and follow us to stay up to date with all the inspiration Skipping Stones delivers weekly!  Thank you so much for stopping by!

Katie

Good morning!

Can you believe that it is already October?  I love this time of year with the cooler temps, the changing leaves, and the opportunity to introduce you to our fantastic guest designers for October, JJ Bolton and Miriam Pranther!

JJ Bolton

I’m a wife, mom of twin teenage boys, science nerd, and late-night crafter. I’m originally from Hawaii but now live in northern Virginia. I’ve been crafting my whole life but only recently added card making to the list. My card style usually leans toward graphic/CAS or cute/fun, but I’m up for anything!  I’m so excited and honored to be asked to play along with the great Skipping Stones DT!

Miriam Prantner

My name is Miriam Prantner, I’ve been married to my husband for 11 years and we have two daughters, Ellie and Carina.  While I have been crafty my whole life, I only started stamping and making cards last year.  These days I make more cards than any other type of paper project.  I love that there are always new techniques to learn!  When I’m not spending time with the family or crafting, I enjoy playing roller hockey, spending time with friends, and reading.  Skipping Stones Designs’ sketch challenge was one of the very first that I participated in when I started stamping, so I’m really excited to be guest designing this month.

And we are soooo excited to have JJ and Miriam as our guest designers this month!!!  I can’t wait for everyone to see the fabulous cards they create using our Skipping Stones stamps!!!  I have one more update to share for this month.  We are bring back some more retro sketches!  We (and you) had such a great time with the sketch rewind month we hosted in August that we are doing it again and bringing back even more blasts from the past.  Our first retro sketch challenge will be unveiled tomorrow- be there or be square!

Have a great day, friends.  Thanks for stopping by!

Katie

Hello friends,

We have exciting news to share today!!! Cath Edvalson of Paper Crafts Magazine- Moxie Fab World, gave Skipping Stones Design her “Stamp” of Approval.  We are pretty humbled by this honor as we think Cath is pretty moxie fab herself.   Cath is giving 2 luckies a chance to win all the fab and trendy sets she is highlighting today including Heartsong 2, Damask Darling, Victorian Summer, Grunge 2 and Beautiful Botanicals. Visit this post and leave a comment by Sunday, September 9 for a chance to win!

Here’s just a sampling of the Skipping Stones sets that Cath highlighted today…

Victorian Summer

Grunge 2

And if you are not the patient type and don’t want to leave your crafty fate to chance, you are in luck! Our Labor Day, Buy 3, get 1 free sale is good through tomorrow.  To take advantage of this special offer, send an email to our owner, Heather at madebyme33(at)hotmail(dot)com and let her know which sets you want!  She will take it from there!

Thanks for sharing in our good news today and for all your support and kind words!

Katie G.

Hello and good Monday morning!

Katie Gehring here with some special news to share.  You may recall that about a month ago, Skipping Stones Design announced a call for new members of our design team.  We were so humbled that over 60 amazing paper artists submitted applications and narrowing down the field from 60 to 5 was super tough.  We made our decisions and contacted the selected designers earlier this month, but swore them to secrecy so that we could announce the news together. Today is the day!

Before I announce the members of the design team, I would like first to acknowledge the fabulous contributions of some very talented ladies who are stepping down at the end of the month: Pamela Young, JoAnn Valderama, Wendy Jordan and Jennifer Ingle. I have been enriched by getting to know each of you through our work with Skipping Stones Design, and Heather and I wish each of you the very best in all your future endeavors- crafty and otherwise!

Now, without further ado, here are the fabulous ladies who will be providing Skipping Stones Inspiration:

I am the owner, artist, and sense of humor behind Skipping Stones Design.  I live in Rapid City SD in the shadow of Mt Rushmore.  I am a single mom of two great kids ages 9 and 11. We live in an ark with two cats, two dogs, two ferrats, and a hamster.   I am currently working on my master’s degree in Literacy Leadership.  I am a part time literacy teacher for the kindergarteners at Meadowbrook Elementary. I graduated from University of Wyoming where I had a swimming scholarship.  In my free time, I love to do art, photography, read, and spend time with family and friends. I just finished my first triathlon and am busy training for the next one.

My name is Megan Aaron. I live outside Philadelphia, PA with my husband, 6-yr-old daughter, Eliana, our dog, Penny, and our lizard, Queen Julia. I work as a software engineer during the day and use pretty much every second of my spare time to scrapbook. When I do get time for other hobbies, I enjoy reading, video games, running, traveling and dining. I have been scrapbooking for about 7 years, although I kept an old-school style scrapbook throughout my whole life. I started scrapbooking after a trip to Europe, when I was home, mostly alone, and pregnant in my apartment while my husband was traveling for work. I had hundreds of photos and tons of stories that I wanted to record. I also needed something to take up my time. HAHA, I never had any idea just how much it was going to do THAT! After that I found the online scrapbooking community and was hooked. I love everything about this art – the people, the inspiration, the creativity, the papers, the embellishments, the changing trends and the new challenge that comes along with each one.

I’m a graphic designer by trade, wife, and mama of two energetic, young boys who spends weekdays at work and late evenings crafting. I’m drawn to clean and simple style, yet like to dabble in shabby and chic, elegant and fun and cute too! I really enjoy card making and interior design. Anything that will stretch my boundaries, challenge me and make me a better designer is what I strive for!

Hi! I’m Tesa. I live in Sweden with a husband and our boy. I work as a teacher and researcher in Economic History at the University and feel blessed for having a job I truly love. When not spending time with family or friends, you will most likely find me by my scrap desk or doing something paper craft related on the internet like chatting with one of many new friends I’ve “met” through this wonderful hobby of ours. I’ve been stamping for six years, and I’ve loved every minute. I feel so honored to be part of the Skipping Stones Design Team.

I’m a SAHM of 4 kids, although I’m never home.  I’ve been stamping and scrapbooking for over 17 years, and have served on a variety of DTs including current teams of Stampendous!, Dreamweaver Stencils, and Spectrum Noir.  Recently I have expanded my crafting love to include being a local Independent Sales Rep for a number of stamping and scrapbooking companies. If I’m not stamping, teaching, on a sales call, or hanging with the kids you will usually find me with my nose in a book!  I’m totally excited to be re-joining SSD!

I am a mom of two beautiful, creative girls and wife to my hubby of nearly 12 years.  We live on 2 acres in NE Ohio with our four cats and lots and lots of antique automobiles.  I started scrapbooking in 2001 and picked up stamping a few years ago. By day, you will find me busy working at my job in Human Resources before heading home to be mommy and CEO of the Gehring homestead.  After the girls have gone to bed, you will find me either folding laundry (we all have it!) or tucked away in my crafty space making stuff… cards, scrapbook pages, home décor, gifts, I love them all!  I find that I am happiest on days when I get to be creative.  I am grateful every day for Heather for designing both gorgeous stamps that take my breath away and funny stamps that make me smile.  It’s truly the best of both worlds!  I am also beyond blessed to be working with all these fabulous and talented ladies on the Skipping Stones Design Team!!

Hi, I’m Judith, or some of you may know me as Jay Gee. I am from New Zealand but have been living in Townsville, Australia for nearly 8 years with my husband of 22 years and our two teenage children. I love all things crafty and have been stamping/card making for about 2 years now. Thank goodness for this amazing online community – it is my teacher on this journey I am so excited and honoured to be joining this amazing team.

My name is Stephanie Mino and I feel so lucky to be a part of this Skipping Stones Designs team.  By day, I’m a 5th grade teacher in a very small, public school.  I love every minute of my job.  I’m coming up on my 17th year in the classroom and feel extremely fortunate to be able to mold the minds of 10-year-olds.  After school, I’m a happy crafter.  I love making cards and all kinds of projects using my Silhouette Cameo.  I have only been making cards since July of 2010 (never doing any scrapbooking or paper crafts, prior).  I’m so very happy that after 42 years, I’ve finally found my “crafty” niche.  I always love learning new techniques and being inspired by so many other bloggers out there.  I can’t wait to work with this team and bring some inspiration to others!

Hi everyone! I’m Wendy Price and I’m so excited to be staying on as a Skipping Stones Designer! I’ve been stamping and scrapbooking for almost 10 years now, but I’ve been crafty all my life. You can find more of my projects at my blog:  Paper, Ink and Smiles.

My name is Rochelle Washington.  I live in Lithia Springs, GA a suburb of Metro Atlanta.  I have been married to my husband, Terence for six years.  We have a three year old son who is the apple of our eye. I’ve been a crafter in some form or another my entire life.  I enjoy playing with paper, ink, stamps, embellishments and scraps.  I do not foresee an end to my crafty endeavors and I’m excited to be part of the Skipping Stones Designs DT!

I am thrilled to be joining the Skipping Stones Design team!   What a fabulous opportunity and I must thank Heather for the great stamps and Katie for her fabulous organization!  First off, I must confess, I am a big geek!  Science geek and crafty geek! I’m a marine geologist by day and a stamping addict by night.  I have a great group of crafty friends here, there and everywhere who keep me inspired, entertained and enabled.  I’m also lucky to have a supportive hubby, who never asks how much I spend on my addiction, I mean, hobby!  My paper crafting style is generally clean and simple, although I do stray off in random directions sometimes.  I love to play with bold colours, funky patterned papers and fun colour combinations.

Well, friends, that’s our team and starting next week you will be seeing lots of awesomeness from these lovely ladies!  As always, thank you for stopping by!  Don’t forget to check back tomorrow as we will be unveiling our last retro sketch challenge for August and lots of amazing Skipping Stones inspiration to go along with it!!

Creatively yours,

Katie G.