Guest Designer - Kathryn Dodkin of Willowgrove Stamps

Let me introduce my first guest designer, and a very good friend of mine--Kathryn Dodkin. Kathryn is the designer behind her successful line of stamps called Willowgrove Stamps.
Here is the Jolly Santa card that was published in the Nov/Dec 2007 issue of RubberStampMadness on page 45.

This Earmuff Snowman is published in December's magazine gift guide on page 58. He is also on the cover at the top listing what is inside.

Kathryn has been stamping for about 10 years. She added, "I have always loved creating. Even as a child I loved to draw animals and it is this love that has inspired my WillowGrove Stamps."

Kathryn also loves to scrapbook and says scrapbooking is a wonderful way to re-live vacations and important events. She enjoys photography which she says definitely ties in with scrapbooking. Would she like to take photography to another level? She would indeed and added, "I would also like to incorporate my photographs with card making. I love how every art form can be connected."

"My honeymoon scrapbook on Hawaii is my latest favourite project. I enjoy challenging myself creatively with each project and it is very exciting when I complete one."

This is not Kathryn's first time being published; she was was published a few years ago in Stampers Sampler, using a using a cross stamp from The Artful Stamper. "It is still one of my favourite cards because it used many types of Embossing powder in a unique way" she said.

"My stamp line began because I enjoyed drawing animals. I started with an Easter Bunny and it snowballed from there. Soon I was drawing countless animals and recently expanded my line to include florals, holidays and wedding stamps. I now do custom orders. There are many dog and cat breeds so it is almost impossible to have every one. If somebody has a pet that they cannot find on my website, they may email me a picture. I will create a custom stamp from a caricature of their pet. It costs a bit extra but it is fun to have a one of a kind stamp of your fuzzy friend."

"I love clear stamps. Once I began to use clear stamps I soon found that I much prefer them to the original wood block stamps. For one thing, you can see exactly where you are stamping. There is no guess work at all. Clear stamps are also easy to store because they are thinner than a wood stamp. They fit great in calendar cases and you can store them like your CDs. Its fantastic!

In five years I would like to see my stamps as a common stampers'household name. It would be fun to open a magazine and see a card that somebody submitted that uses a WillowGrove stamp. But really, in five years I hope to be having as much fun with card making as I am now. I can't wait to see what new products will be available in five years! Rubber stamping has already grown so much in the time that I have been stamping."

You can visit Kathryn's blog here.

I hope you enjoyed reading about Kathryn's Willowgrove stamps. Have a great weekend.