Welcome to Behind the Scenes!
This week I am happy to announce a Dutch manufacturer of awesome stamps. Please meet:
We're talking to Louise today. Louise please introduce yourself.
My name is Louise Kolker and I am the owner of the the Dutch Stamp Company Art Journey.
I am 53 years old, married to Jos and we have a son of 24 years old who studies law. We live in the lovely village Sleen in the north-east of the Netherlands . This is also the location of our stampstore also called Art Journey. Next to my job running our company and our stamp store I also have a day job as management assistant at a HRM department in a hospital.
My hobbies are of course rubberstamping but I also love to read and with
my best friend we are keen Geocachers.
Geocaching is treasurehunting with a GPS. Our goal is to find caches all
over the world.
Can you tell us something about the company? By who and when was it founded and where is it based. Was it originally the intention to produce for the scrapbooking market or did it evolve in that direction in time?
Art Journey started nearly 10 years ago, this year we are celebrating our 10 year anniversary in the weekend of 28-30th of June. I started it out as a hobby in my attic at home. Just because the people who I taught workshops also wanted to buy stamps and stamp supplies and those were not available in the Netherlands I decided to import them and that was the the first step. After a few years of importing stamps in to the Netherlands and introducing stamp companies as Paperbag Studio, Paper Artsy etc etc and trying to hold on to exclusive rights so I could make a difference and not have the same in store as the other stores I decided we needed our own exclusive stamps. With the help of two girlfriends (Sija Teijgeler and Hermine Koster) who made the first designs we introduced our own stamps in 2007. Sija took over the designing and we never looked back. Since then we have released 62 sheets and several single stamps.
Of course my attic was soon to small for the ever growing business and about 5 years ago I rented a great building with a shop and workshop studio where we weekly arrange workshops.
What kind of products does your company offer, which are your personal favorites and why.
Art Journey as a brand only sells unmounted rubber stamps, but in our stampstore we sell a wide arrange of stamps and stamp supplies. My personal favorites are of course our beautiful Art Journey stamps.If I had to choose I really love our nature stamps, with my very favorite the sheet called Nature Flowers. Saying that I also love the stamp sheet Willy Helene as that is the name of my mother, now 85 years old but showing her as a girl of 12 years old, but that is more sentimental value. Also the sheet Butterfly wishes has a little boy on it. That is our son Ben when he was 2,5 years old. You can imagine that those are very special for me.
How are new products developed. Do you have in-house designers or designers from outside.
Nearly all our stamps are designed by Sija Teijgeler, but as she has
moved on to other activities we have a few new freelance designers.
Next to the designers of the stamps, we have a very talented and active
designteam who make wonderful artwork with our stamps. These ladies are really
great and I can’t thank them enough for there inspiring work. They show there
work on their blogs and on our design team blog and our Pinterest account.
How do you think the scrapbooking/mixed media scene will evolve in the upcoming year. What will be hot and new, what will be out.
Rubberstamping is an art of all times. As it has so many possibilities and can be incorporated in all kinds of art such as for instance scrapbooking and mixed media, it will evolve and find more and more artists that will want to use rubberstamps.
Is there any exciting news you want to share with us?
This year we will release at least 6 new sheets and are looking into the possibilities in selling our stamps wholesale in countries outside of Holland.
Where can we find your company?
Blogs:
http://artjourneydesign-team.blogspot.nl/
http://www.followmeonmyartjourney.blogspot.nl/
Some projects created using Art Journey stamps:
And here is this weeks give away:
Art Journey is giving away not one but 2 beautiful sets of stamps. So 2 lucky people are going to win these 3 sheets:
Oh my, who would not love to win these? I sure would!!
How you can win? That's easy! Visit the Art Journey website . (The website can be read in Dutch, German and English). Find your favorite Art Journey stamp set and come back here to tell us which it is and why. You can leave a comment until Tuesday, March 14, midnight (GMT+1) and the winner will randomly be picked and announced in next weeks Behind the Scenes.
And now it't time to annouce the winner of the previous Behind the Scenes:
Congratulations Sigrit! Please e-mail me your address and you'll receive your prize soon! :)
Thank you all for stopping by!
Enjoy your Friday and have a wonderful weekend!
Beautiful stamps! My favorite is the Nature stamp.
Posted by: Annika | March 08, 2013 at 09:31 AM
So many beautiful stamps to choose from ! I love the Dance set, the sense of movement from the dancers is fabulous & the sentiment is gorgeous! Sue C x
Posted by: Sue C | March 08, 2013 at 11:34 AM
very beautiful stamps on this page. my favorite is absolutely tree.
Posted by: Jessica | March 08, 2013 at 11:49 AM
Oh! So much gorgeous stamps! Like all of them! Nature Flowers is my favorite because of possibility using of it in variety projects)))
Posted by: mellpellmell | March 08, 2013 at 12:06 PM
Now, I've been added your webshop to my favourites. So many beautiful stamps!!! I've hard to choose just one. Here are my favourites, Tree, Text, Roses, Sea, Fish and Ornament! As I must choose just one, it will be Ornament as ornaments has always inspired me in my creating.
Posted by: Gerd Andersson | March 08, 2013 at 12:34 PM
I loved Noel, Sea and Umbrella Girl. So glad that I always discover something new reading your blog. Love that, thank you.
Posted by: Beatrice Lawson | March 08, 2013 at 03:30 PM
So many great choices! I think that Numbers is my favorite. Thanks for the chances to win!
Posted by: Miriam Prantner | March 08, 2013 at 04:25 PM
My favorite plate from Art Journey is Umbrella girl, which I already own. Out of the plates I do not have my favourite is Nature flowers because it can be used for so many different occasions. Lots of wonderful stamps : )
Posted by: taru76 | March 08, 2013 at 05:20 PM
Wat een geweldige vintage stempels! Ik vind vooral Umbrella Girl prachtig.
Posted by: Romy | March 08, 2013 at 08:10 PM
I popped over and although I am more a dog person than a cat person, the cat stamp is wonderfully done, and I also liked the Dance stamp and the follow me girl. Thanks for sharing a company I was not yet aware of.
Posted by: Ann Jobes | March 08, 2013 at 08:32 PM
my gosh what Yummy rubber goodness. great right up and so glad I came over. AWESOME RUBBER AND DESIGNS. I NEED them lol :-)
Posted by: Donna O'leary | March 08, 2013 at 10:51 PM
Wow theses stamps are gorgeous and so unique, I especially LOVE 'friends 2' and 'music'!
Posted by: Peg | March 08, 2013 at 11:52 PM
I am so impressed, I like so much many of them.I like Clocks the most, I have many stamos and I can see I use over and over the same ones, I am sure those Clocks will be visible on many of my new projects:), I also like Music a lot and Precoius Momens!
Posted by: Bellaidea | March 09, 2013 at 01:52 AM
Great stamps. My favorite is Nature Flowers, because they are a little different than most you see, plus there are some great sentiments and I love the feather.
Posted by: lacyquilter | March 09, 2013 at 07:39 AM
Well done! Louise is a wonderful woman and her shop is FANTASTIC!!!
Posted by: Ineke | March 09, 2013 at 08:34 AM
I love Art Journey stamps. My favorite is Steampunk 1 .
I would love to be considered for the giveaway :)
Posted by: Jeannette | March 09, 2013 at 11:42 AM
Geweldige stempels, ik vind de Christmas Seals de mooiste.
Posted by: Mariska | March 09, 2013 at 11:51 AM
Oh, I can't make up my mind!
Lots of really nice stamps there...
I have five favorites:
Nature Flowers, Music, Numbers, Sewing and Tree.
And honestly, I can't make a decision!
Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: Anne | March 09, 2013 at 01:02 PM
My new favorite is Nature Flowers. What a nice interview. I didn't know the shop was so young. To me it seems like it's always been there. Greetings Henriette
Posted by: Henriette Prins | March 09, 2013 at 03:21 PM
Hmmmm, ik vind ze allemaal wel leuk...
een paar favorietjes zijn bird, nature, nature 2 en 3, steampunk 1, 2, 3 en tree en.....
ik denk dat je het wel begrijpt ;-)
Posted by: Marie-Anne Raeman | March 09, 2013 at 06:42 PM
Love the nature sets but my most favourite is writing.
Posted by: Margriet | March 09, 2013 at 09:16 PM
So many beautiful ones! I love the tree set! Thank you for a chance to win!
Posted by: Jean A Marmo | March 11, 2013 at 12:26 PM
I like work of your team. Stamps are gorgeous and so unique. Great Stamps designed.
Posted by: Bec Perkins | April 01, 2013 at 02:42 PM