Back To Books

Tonight I stopped by Staples on my way home and indulged in a delicious composition book and a few pencil toppers. Something about September makes school supplies a necessity. I know it's silly, but part of me always longs for new text books and the excitement of a new school year.

And Just Like That

she's here.

I walked home tonight with my books held tightly to my chest and the wind whipping my hair around me like a scarf. I giggled a little as I fought the breeze. It seems I spent so much energy waiting for a Summer that never seemed to come. Then September 1 showed up and Miss Autumn knows exactly where she belongs. I didn't even realize it was time yet. All of the sudden I stopped feeling like I'd been cheated out of a Summer. Out of no where Fall is here and out of no where I am giddily excited about her arrival.

Listening to right this second: "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes" -- Dinah Washington

Rainy Day Color Samples

Avast ye mateys!

What does avast ye mateys even mean?! I've forgotten. It certainly sounds cool. It's something I used to know and have since pushed into the recesses of my memory along with the Pythagorean theorem. Here's some pirate sketches for the lot of ya.
xo,
Amber

Arrows and Wings

This is just a quick little digital ink sketch I did this morning in Illustrator. I hope I gave it an acceptable amount of cutesy-factor.

You're the Perfect Package!

This latest, and some say greatest, set of Hanna Stamps! was one of the most fun for me to design. Haha, well that's kind of funny since I loved illustrating every one of them. I hope that people use this set the way I conceptualized it, using boxes and bows to create fantastic looking little stamp packages. I'm already loving the sneak peeks that I am seeing on the design team blogs. The cluster stamp in this set is to die for! When it's lined up perfectly and twisted ever so slightly in a basket weave like pattern it creates an absolutely beautiful patch of spools and ribbons. It's my favorite of the bunch. Below is one of the tests that I always do before I ink. I line up the cluster sketch I've designed and repeat it until I fill a square so that I know exactly what it will look like if it's used as a repeating pattern. Only after I check it like this will I ink it and finish it up to send it off to become a stamp.


This Hanna Stamps! little beauty sitting on the floor wrapping, or unwrapping her gifts was originally a concept I sketched out while I was designing our 'Tis the Season set. As an artist you never know what great ideas you will come up when you're sketching up a storm, that's why it's important to always have a pencil handy!

It was really important to me to always create a cohesive stamp set. For ''Tis the season' I really wanted a versatile set, a lovely girly that could be decorating an outside tree or perhaps an indoor one with a blanket of snow that could easily become a tree skirt and so many options and choices. I know that all of the Hanna Stamps! customers are too talented to be tied to one of my ideas, so I try to come up with open ones that let them create their own.

This little eager gift opening/wrapping girl just didn't fit with any of the other concepts in the 'Tis the Season set. Now I'm glad she didn't! She makes the most perfect round the season gift giver! The DT is already using her for fantastic round' the year card ideas, everything from Valentines Day to birthdays and mother's day!

If you crop out the little box with the exploding broccoli-like bow on the gift tag you can easily fit the sentiment onto the tag. I had everything done and ribbons and bows and boxes crammed into every nook and cranny before I realized that we needed tape and scissors! That's always the hardest part of wrapping anything for me, finding a good pair of scissors in the house and enough scotch tape to hold it all together. I just couldn't let this little girly have as hard a time as I do! I thought we should help her out a bit ;) Kristi loved the idea of adding the tape and the scissors. Apparently we both have a hard time finding the tape!

Stalking the blogs and seeing what everyone is up to with these little girls that I've been sketching and developing since middle school is the best part of designing Hanna Stamps! I am so glad that I have had this opportunity to invent and create and to watch such talented people use my images. The entire experience has been such an honor. I cannot wait to see what everyone does with her. Happy Stamping, lovelies!

"You're the Perfect Package" can be purchased at http://www.hannastamps.com/

Hanna Stamps! Tis the Season Set hits the Market!

I'm loving my freelance work lately. Above you'll find the new Hanna Stamps! 'Tis the Season' set. I loved creating the artwork for this Hanna Stamps! set. I actually like this more than the 'But I need it' shopping set artwork, although at the time I thought that the shopping set was tops. This set goes public today, October 26th, and you can buy it at Kristi Ferro's blog, www.KreationsbyKrissy.com

I'm thrilled to be the Hanna Stamps! artist because it's allowed me to bring two of my talents together. As a character developer and a product designer I couldn't be happier.

Kristi is the greatest client to work for because not only are we friends but she allows me almost complete creative freedom. Very early on she sent me about a million rubber stamps to try to bridge the gap in my knowledge of the medium. That package of stamps influenced my creative process in one very important way. I realised that all I personally wanted to do with stamps was make infinite repeating patterns. I loved stamping an entire sheet of paper by twisting and turning the stamps to make full pages of a repeat. It became really important to me for every set to have one stamp that really lent itself to that process. We call the repeat pattern stamp a 'cluster stamp' and every set has one. In this set the cluster is a smattering of stars and swirls under the mistletoe. Does it make you want to kiss it ?!

It seems like me and Hanna Stamps! are a perfect fit. I can't wait to see what those fab stamping ladies come up with for this set. I was blown away by the cards made with the last set and I simply cannot wait to see where they take the artwork this time around!

P.S. If you love this set. . . . you're going to go nuts for the next one! It's my favorite! Haha.

You Know You Want It.

Today's the day! Last night at 12am EST. the project I've been working on for the last few months went public! So I can FINALLY share what's been going on! Man, this secret has been hard to keep. I am the exclusive artist for Hanna Stamps! My new creations can now be bought at www.HannaStamps.com !!! Kristi Ferro and I have been working together to create Kristi's new rubber stamp company. She's done a dream at promoting and pimping and now they're out there for all the world to see. There has been such a frenzy for their actual release, I was afraid people were going to start banging down doors.

I've learned a lot about stampers in the last couple of months, they're a whole breed unto themselves. My mom says it's like Nascar for women. Ha. She's just about right. These women are so talented. It's such a strange experience to see artwork created with rubber stamps I've designed. They're using my art to create new art. It's like collaborating with dozens of artists and wow, is it fun to see what they come up with! More than anything I'm amazed at the versatility. These stamping ladies are doing things with Hanna Stamps! that I would never even think to do, and they're doing them beautifully. It's such fun to see what they'll come up with next! The links below will take you to their frantically fantastic cards. You'll be shocked at their sublime talent. I know I was :)
http://splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/showgallery.php?si=hanna+stamps&limit=&x=10&y=7

You can read all about Hanna Stamps! at Kristi Ferro's Kreations, right here:
http://www.kreationsbykrissy.com/

I'm so excited! Go Hanna Stamps! Go!

Return of the Cute Girls

Okay! I know, I know. I haven't posted in a stupidly long amount of time. I have an excuse though, honest! I'm actually so busy with freelance work at the moment. As I'm freelancing I really strive to keep my client's confidentiality. That way they're allowed to use a trade secret approach to any product or design I make for them. That client confidentiality goes right out the door the minute I flaunt the nuts and bolts on my blog while we're building stuff. So when there's not a lot of new work on my blog it usually means I'm busy working but that everything is under wraps.

However, one of my favorite projects I'm working on right now is just too fun for complete secrecy. These are a couple of the drawings that we decided to discard recently. I loved them too much to completely toss them aside. The products for this new client are going to be soooooooooo spiffy! I love my other freelance clients too. I've been really lucky lately, all my freelance clients have great stuff for me to do and work is totally exciting development-wise. Juggling it is hard sometimes, but it's more than worth it.

Since I'm such a nerd, in addition to my freelance work I'm chipping away at my independent stuff. I'm still working on my children's book. Hopefully I will have some pages to show off before too long. My biggest goal for the late summer and early fall is to redesign that website we all know and love so much, that's right - we'll be creating a new face for www.AmberAlvarez.com. Please contain your excitement.

New Fashion Sketches!

This is some fantastically fun new development work that I'm doing for a new company. I probably won't be able to show more of this stuff until it's done and working for them in the biz. I just wanted to give you a little sneak peek, because I'm totally excited!