smART Rubber - smARTworks

Today's featured rubber stamp designer/retailer is smART Works owned & operated by Susan Trask and features her line of smART Rubber stamps. You might have seen her original line of "Incredible Shrinking Women" Shrink Art Dolls/Templates in RubberStampMadness...in addition to these dandy little templates she's got a huge line of art stamps just begging to be inked!!

Susan said that, " My personal rubber journey started in 1999, but my rubber as a business journey started a few years later, in 2002, when I designed a line of shrink art dolls called "The Incredible Shrinking Women."

Having seen these little ladies published in RubberStampMadness (Issue #133), Ruth Ann McAuslin, owner of a LSS asked if I would teach each one as a class, and to do so, I designed some templates which I then sold through her shop.

Eventually, one thing led to another, and Ruth Ann pushed and prodded me to expand my designing horizons into the world of rubber... Ruth Ann was acquainted with Bill Walsh and Wendy Wyman of Repeat Impressions (my rubber pressers), and actually set up a little "visit" for me to meet them, and find out exactly what designing a line of rubber stamps would entail... This was late in the summer of 2004. smARTworks become "official" that same fall, and the rest, as they say, is history..."

Since then her rubber stamping catalogue has grown to over 150 pages with new stamps added two to three times a year! Be sure read more about Susan and her rubber journey on the "About Us" page and find out just who her "helpers" are...both the 2 and 4 legged varieties!

While many of the images are designed in house smART Rubber also plays host to several free-lance artists. They include - (The prefix codes and the artists they represent are as follows:)

ABC- images by Angi Brown, former owner of the Angi-B & Company stamp company. Stamp manufacturing rights to the Angi-B images were acquired by smARTworks in 2007.

DK- images by Dina Kowal. Along with husband Russ, Dina is a missionary currently serving the Lord with New Tribes Missions in Sul-Ut, Indonesia. In addition to designing artwork for rubber stamps, Dina keeps a stamping blog (Mama Dini’s Stamperia),and operates a digital watermarks/banners business. She is also the smART Cookie Design Team co-ordinator for smARTworks.

HSD- images by Darlene Poole of Heavenly Smiles Original Designs. Darlene is a free lance, sketch artist living and working in North Carolina.

smART Works rubber stamps are deeply etched red rubber dies which are sold un-mounted and usually in sets. They also offer handcrafted premium 3/4" acrylic mounts.
smART Works is an Angel Company - all forms of mechanical or digital reproduction, as well as photocopying are strictly prohibited. As a courtesy to their customers, smART Works offers a "Designed Using smARTworks Stamps" - image at no charge (use item # DUSS-N/C when ordering).

smARTwork sells its stamps retail only, via mail order, and at http://www.smartrubber.com/. smARTwork's accepts checks, money orders, and credit cards via Paypal. Susan says, "We gladly ship internationally, but International orders MUST be paid using Paypal. We charge EXACT shipping on all orders. That's why we ask our customers to e-mail their orders and provide a zip code... We calculate the shipping, then send them a total (if they want to pay by check), or a Paypal invoice. It may seem slightly inconvenient, but is saves them a bundle. After all, where else can anyone order a single stamp set, and depending on it's weight with packaging pay only $0.59 - $0.75?" So very true!! It's wonderful that they offer such a service! Most places wouldn't think twice about charging $4.00 + for shipping.

Susan also wanted to pass along some additional information for everyone to keep in mind...

The following pages of our website are updated monthly -- News, Monthly Feature (card project), In the Spotlight (special pricing for stamps used on our feature card), and Overstock Central (50% off savings).

In between updates, anything noteworthy is posted on our smART blog, "In the Works..."

We also vendor at A Monthly Rubber Stamps Club (AMRSC) which features 1-4 stamps sets at 25%off their regular retail prices.

Let me tell you smART Works has such an amazing line of stamps...I cannot get over the variety offered here. There truely is something for everyone ~ from vintage to country cute, nature to a stamping diva! Spirit Dancers, Petroglyphs, several pages of oh so popular Birds, Mail Art, and much, MUCH more!!! Just so much fun rolled up into one place!

I tried to narrow my favorites down to a few but well ~ it just wasn't possible. I found so many stamps and entire lines of stamps that were simply must haves.

Let me start with the Domino Darlings - these are a line of stamps available in 2 sizes. The small DD fit dominoes measuring 20mm x 40mm, the larger DD's are sized for the 1x2" dominoes. Many designs are available in both sizes but there are a few unique to each size. My favorite set of the Domino Darlings is "Looking At You". This set has 3 of my favorite images... Mona Lisa, "the Look" as I like to call her and a spiffy rooster giving you the "Chicken Eye" as my son likes to call it! I have other favorite domino sets as well - "Loggerheads" found on the same page as "Looking At You", "Sand & Sea", "In Style" and "Framed".

smART Works also has several pages of cool Background stamps, my favorite being the "Weave" pattern! They also offer up many many leaf images scattered about their catalogue...you can never have too many leaves as just in nature they are all so unique and special (you know Autumn is my favorite time of year!!) Masculine stamps are also included in their line up....from this life-like fish image and snazzy pair of shoes to one of my favorite stamps in the entire collection - the Moose image in the "Happy Father's Day" set. I have to say that one of my most favorite sets of all has to be from the "On My Desk" line of images .... Every set in this line is highly desirable but I just LOVE the "Pen & Ink" set!!! I have a fascination with pen nibs so this set is just the berries in my book :)

Then there are the seasonal stamps - many pages of Christmas sets, Love/Valentine's Day sets, Mother's Day, and Father's Day (shared above), Easter/Bunnies, and well I'll let you explore the rest for yourself!!

Now for the fun stuff....Tell me which set(s) are your favorite and I'll enter your name into a drawing for a surprise set of stamps and an acrylic block from Susan and smART Works!!! At the end of the week (6-28) I'll use Random.org to determine who the lucky winner of this gift pack will be! So, start your browsing (drooling) and remember...you can't win if you don't post!!!

Ohh! Eeeeek!!!

T-Storms are starting up again...Gotta run!

Be sure to check smART Works out and let us know your fav's!!

TTFN Folks!!