‘I majored in art in college, and worked for a few years as a package designer and then a freelance artist before leaving the workforce to raise my two daughters. I enjoy mixed media art, mostly using ephemera, paints and various rubber stamps.
I have an obscenely large collection of old tickets, postage stamps, Chinese fortunes and old thrift store books that I cut up and use in my art. Some of my favorite things to make include ATCs, inchies, and tip in and chunky book pages. I also love book binding and altering Altoid tins.
I’d have to say that the Vintage Halloween theme always gets me going. I love the expressions on the faces of the cats and Jack O’Lanterns, the colors, the skeletons and witches and spiderwebs. Everything! I enjoy crafting for Halloween year round. I also love using bird images. I like to include birds in lots of my art. My least favorite would probably be things that are sweet, like romance and fairy tales. That being said, I ended up really enjoying working on the last DT Valentine’s project, and went girly and ultra-pink on everything I did. It was fun to do something really different from what I usually do.
To challenge my creativity I love to try new things, and the best way I know to do this is to swap. Crafting for someone else really pushes me to be adventurous and to stretch myself to do better than my best! Recently I had a friend who really loved an art doll that she saw in a magazine. I made her a doll inspired by the one she loved. It involved using polymer clay, sewing, assemblage, painting, and even some wood carving. I loved trying to figure out how to recreate it, and was so pleased at how it turned out.
My big plan this year is to try to do 50 projects before the end of the year. I have an ever growing list of the things I plan to do, and I’m hoping to accomplish this goal. We’re two weeks into the year, and I’ve completed two, so I’m on track as of now. Hopefully I can keep it up!’
Kristin is one of the original Alpha Stamps Design Team Members and remains a fabulous source of inspiration with her creations. We are very happy that she remains on the team and look forward to seeing more of her lovely artwork!