Itsumo Mawaru

Here is the second set of stamps I carved for the stamp swap I participated in. This person’s theme was tattoo flash. Ideas that went through my mind included a I love Mom tattoo, the traditional anchor tattoo, and even a koi fish. The idea of a pin up girl was right in there of course. I really like how the rose turned out, you can see the closed-up center portion very clearly, though truth be said I am proud of all of these stamps. I think my pin up girl started looking a bit like Counselor Troi from Star Trek TNG but hey that’s life!

Best of all, Canada Post delivered these stamps in under 18 hours, from dropping it off here in Alfred to being signed for in Toronto. That certainly made up for the $8 tracking number I chose to put on it!

Hi readers! I haven’t been posting here too often, have I? Indeed I am posting a lot over at the farm’s blog.

But here is a special post with some pictures of crafts I’ve done recently.

I participated in a stamp swap with two other Canadians. One partner sent me this quartet of stamps. She did a great job on my logo stamp and it’s so hefty that it stamps wonderfully and authoritatively. I will get a lot of use out of it! In fact I used all but the sewing machine stamp when I replied to a friend’s wedding invitation. Yup, I stamped the heck out of the return envelope

This is  a set I made for one of my partners. It’s The Veggie Bunch. They were super fun to carve. I’ll make up a set for myself eventually.

I am waiting for the second partner to post pictures of my stamps before I post the picture here. Her theme was tattoos, so those stamps were things I had never really carved before and were a lot of fun to carve as well.

Oh, and what’s that secret stamp on the letter? It’s a sneak preview of one stamp in my first series of Farm Sketches prints! I’ve been casually sketching and carving stamps based on living here on the farm. In the near future I will be making some prints involving these stamps for people to purchase. Since most of the proceeds go right back into the farm and animals, it’s a great way to support the farm and get something of value in return. These prints will range in size from business card individual prints to 8.5×11 montages, and as with most of my creations, will be available in the best of colors: rainbow!

I’ve been in a stamping mood recently. At the same time I was finding I wanted a better, more consistent and organized way to remember my yarn details. So I decided to combine the two loves and make a yarn tag stamp.

I love stamp making. It is meticulously fun in the same way eating a pomegranate is. There’s something so rewarding about making a sketch, transferring it onto the rubber, and making it come to life. The stamp always takes on a bit of a personality of its own, and at least at this stage with my skills, my stamps always come out with that extra homemade touch to them.

Since I intend to use these tags for my yarn I will sell from the farm, I wanted to see if I could make it into a rainbow tag. It took a few tries to find the right colors but finally a nice rainbow appeared. A nice black and white yarn cord highlights the prettiness of the rainbow. Best of all, the tags are made with 100% recycled cardboard, aka my cereal boxes.

I am working on a set of other stamps based on my animal sketches. Hopefully I will be able to make prints to sell in the near future.

As per my thoughts on Friday, I was crafty last night/this morning! I’ve made up a set of 3 card-like items.  But I can’t post the pictures until tomorrow as I need to give them to someone!

In the meantime, here are some pictures of cards I made about a month ago with my mum. There’s one more from this set, but its colors are not coming out well in pictures today so I’ll try tomorrow.

This little red card is about 2 inches big. The red heart is embossed with clear powder.

This blue card is 4.5 inches by 3.25 inches. I really like the design on the inside.

And I can’t believe I never made a blog post about my Petit Prince stamp, completed about a month ago. I’m so proud of the stamp!

Here’s the stamp on the card. I tried to match the colors exactly to the illustration.

And the card’s inside. The rose is from a Stampin Up set.

I was so happy with this card, I’m not sure if I’ll ever give it away. In fact I numbered the back of it! It just feels more like art to me.

This morning was a good morning. I woke up feeling refreshed, had a decent breakfast while catching up on posts, and was out of the house a bit earlier than usual. Things were looking great.

And then I noticed that my car had a flat tire. Sigh. Luckily my pops had left an air compressor in the trunk so I was able to inflate it enough to get to a gas station, where I was able to ensure it had the right amount of air.

So far, things have been OK. The tire wasn’t cut or sabotaged, I think there’s just some tiny pinhole puncture somewhere, and if my wheel is in just the right alignment when parked, it lets the air out. Now I get to monitor it closely and figure out what caused it, and then probably have to pay however much $$ to replace some part. Yay for car ownership! But it still beats riding the bus, hands down.

On a more crafty note, I’ve been working on a stamping piece for the past few days. Due to a visitor I didn’t get to work on it last night, but I hope to get it done and posted here tonight. It’s my first stamping piece that isn’t a card or ATC. I hope it turns out nice.