Stamping

Meet Spellbinders’ New Artist/Designer, Stephanie Low

Hello! Stephanie Low here, I am a new Designer for Spellbinders and I wanted to take the time to introduce myself.

Explore collections by Stephanie Low: Good Vibes Only | Handmade | Inked Messages | Just Add Color

I’m an artist. I always have been. I think most people (if not ALL!) are too. But I am in the more literal sense, an “art” artist. I paint, I draw, I create lovely things for myself and others, and it makes me happy.

Before I introduce myself I will warn you that I do not write with proper grammar, punctuation or keep track of tense and rules. I write the way I talk, and the literature professors of my school days would be livid if they knew! So just go with it!

I was born and raised in south San Diego in 1984 and was a tomboy artsy-fartsy awkward scrawny little cuss. I remember always drawing and doodling and coloring. Going to the craft stores with my mother who is a yarn addict and manipulator (aka crochet hooker!) and lusting after all the pretty colorful paint and paper and shiny things. I wanted it all!

As I grew and continued to find myself sitting in art classes, and then advanced art classes, and I found that I was often or always dissatisfied with the results of my work. I was told they were of exceptional quality by my teachers and my family, but they were never right to me. I did all sorts of random media, and yet I always felt frustration. I remember feeling that I was supposed to be able to create in a certain way. That I should be able to create painstakingly detailed pencil shaded portraits of people from memory. Or come up with goofy characters for an eventual best selling comic strip. I wanted to badly to be the kind of artist I thought I should be. But I wasn’t and that made me want to quit. So I did.

I did however fall in love with memory keeping and scrap booking which I think carried my creative energy and helped me feel that I was still creative. This was an outlet that was creative for me but more importantly it was family bonding. I would get together with my sisters or mother or other friends and family and we would scrapbook together.

It wasn’t until about 2012 that I accepted my deep need to draw again. My husband was a medical student (which means I was a single parent!) and we lived very far from our family and friends and I was without my preferred method of creation for over a decade at this point. I was lonely and medical school was difficult on our young family and I needed to start giving myself something meaningful.

I would pick up my pencil and put it to paper and feel no impulse or direction. It was then that I stumbled upon “zentagling” and began to doodle in this style.  It is a forgiving style. Mistakes can be forgiven by transforming them into something good. Shapes and patterns and simple linework were easy for my mind to unravel. After weeks of this and feeling more happiness than I had felt in a long while, I wanted to start creating something of my own. Over time I was creating one of a kind zen doodled feathers. I was beyond happy!

After some time and more and more experimentation I began posting photos of my new found happiness on social media. Soon I was getting people saying they would love to have them as tattoos. I decided to experimentally open an Etsy shop in October 2013. I create custom illustrations for them for tattoos, home decor, business logos and I have even teamed up with a novelist.

In 2015 I chose to enter into the craft industry as an illustrator and designer. In the spring of 2016 I was contacted by Spellbinders about teaming up for a stamp line. I obviously jumped at the idea and I have since lent my illustrations to them for several different stamp collections. Each of my collections is influenced by my love of tattoos and I have tried to push the envelope just a little bit with each illustration.

My husband and I have three little children and we are stationed in Hawaii for the next two and a half years. My children get a kick out of what I do and often embarass me by proclaiming to stragers that their “mom is an artist!” Beach weekends and long hikes and sunsets all inspire creativity for me of course, but a blank piece of paper and a sharp pencil are even more powerful.

I am eager to grow as an artist. I want to spread the joy of creation to as many people as I can. I think creation is essential to happiness. Not only drawing or painting, but creating memories, blankets, dinners, make overs, sculptures, gardens, friendships, novels, clothing, budget spreadsheets, chemical reactions, poetry, jokes, music, harmony, peace, love, ART! It is all art. Art is all things beautiful and hopeful and lovely and worthy. Go make art. Make art everyday.

I hope you enjoy my new collection with Spellbinders, Earth Air Water that features detailed rubber stamps with coordinating dies using imagery of my favorite floras and faunas. All designs were hand drawn and brought to life by Spellbinders to bring you creative ways for card making, coloring and any other creative project you have in mind.

18 Comments

  • Brenda Flatt Lilley

    I love every set in Stephanie’s Earth Air Water collection. I have never wanted to own anyone’s entire collection before now. From those beautiful feathers, to the little slug, to the koi, to the squirrel, to the chrysanthemums, to the mouse, etc. – I need all of them! My poor pocketbook isn’t going to have much left in it! Thanks, Stephanie, for this ahhh-mazing collection!
    🙂

    • Stephanie Low

      Brenda! You made my day! I canNOT wait to see what you create with them, please stay in touch and find me so you can share your creations with me! xoxo. Thanks!!!

  • lb

    Hey Stephanie! Shout out from San Diego – I love all of your designs in this collection! looking forward to using them in my own art projects and card making!

    • Stephanie Low

      619 Represent! South San Diego is home forever, no matter where I live! Please be sure to share your creations with me when you have a chance to begin playing with them, cant wait to see what you come up with!

  • Barb Macaskill

    I love your images! They are all so pretty and I love the fine little details on them! My favorite is the mushrooms/snail! So delicate and lovely!! Looking forward to seeing many future images added to this collection! Congratulations and TFs!

    • Stephanie Low

      Thanks Barb! This Earth Wind Sea collection is doing quite well, folks are loving it which makes me very happy to know. The next Spring Love collection will be available soon and then more to come after that. Thank you for taking the time to send me some love! xoxox

  • Beverly Jordan

    Welcome Stephanie!! You images are gorgeous! Your family are beautiful too! You are one talented lady!! Love your chipmonk!

    • Stephanie Low

      Beverly, the chipmonk is sold out on the Spellbinders shop and I was so surprised! I wasn’t sure about her when I doodled her up but it makes me happy to see her so loved! Thanks for taking the time to send me some love! xoxox

  • Joy Weber Huttenburg

    Welcome Stephanie. I’m loving your designs. I, too, have a fascination with zentangle. I have no artistic ability but love it. Like you say, mistakes can be covered up. I’ll be interested to see what else you come up with.

    • Stephanie Low

      Thanks JOY! What a Joy you truly are I am sure! I am sure you get that a lot. I have some great collections which will be released this year so I am eager to hear what you think of them! xoxox! Thanks!

  • Dorothy Mutafopulos

    I am so in love with your art work.
    I love how easy and crisp your stamps are to use and to die cut awesome!!!

  • Lauren Swain

    I just wanted to say how much I love your artwork. That I got your ocean feather tattooed on my thigh. I love it so much!

  • Loulou Browning

    I would like to ask and or make a suggestion. Coming from a fello artist myself, have you ever drawn a feather that at the base looks like the ocean then as it reaches the top turns into a sunset? I think colored it would look beautiful.

  • Megan C

    HI! I just found your website, and I am so grateful. I too was born in ’84, but on the East Coast. VB, VA born and raised to be exact. But unlike you, I have always thought about visiting California and all along the West Coast. Just have not made it that far. I do have an expansive post card collection, but non I have purchased myself lol. Your website and talent is unlike I have seen in a long time, and I have been looking! Keep up the amazing work, and beautiful story.

    Forever grateful. ?

  • Beth

    Are you still in Hawaii?! We are on Oahu! I’d love to have a version of your feather tattooed on me ~ would that be ok???

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