Using my stamps: handmade stickers

I'm in love with carving stamps with my hands.

I love the idea of making little tools which allow you to repeat your "works of art" without limits. 

But, to be honest, I rarely use my stamps in very creative ways. I used to decorate pages and envelopes with them and anything else.

This happened till last wednesday, when a simple but funny idea knocked to my brain: stickers made with my stamps! 
Uh, sounds good!

I picked up some ready adhesive labels (not sure about their name in english) and started to decorate them with my stamps.

Then I cut around them with my scissors and ... ta-daaah!!! I got cute and unique stickers! :)

A very easy and quick project to fill some minutes with!

I want to use my stickers to close envelopes and decorate cards. 
I made some foxes, swordfishes, leaves, birds, stars and red hearts. But I also have other animals (+ a dino!) to play with in the future.

As usual I tested the final product on my moleskine journal, adding also the date with the date stamp S. gave me last october:

This experiment gave me some happy moments and now I'm looking for other creative ways to use hand-carved stamps.

If you have some suggestions, please, leave a comment!

[Sorry for the bad quality of the photos in this post. Artificial light doesn't help!]

Inspired by Pinterest: washi tape stamps!

I had a lot of fun yesterday! I spent some time working on a little project and letting my creativity flow free.

Reinvigorating! :)

 

Sunday afternoon, alone at home, darkness and cold wind out of the window... and me sitting on my desk making what I love: simply perfect to end the week!

 

And what I've done?

After a very long long time I decided to carv a stamp!

Inspired by this pin I've carved two stamps that simulate a washi tape "cut".

 

Of course I've tested them in my moleskine, as usual. 

I used them alone, just to test and adjust the design, and with two photos from a magazine. And I used my new stamp with the date, too! :)

 

I'm not 100% happy of the final result, but I've really enjoyed the process. Oh, how I've missed handcarving!!!

 

To be clear, the stamps are those green pieces of adigraf in the photo.

The stamps need  to be fixed to a rigid board, like the one I've made for the dala horse stamp.

There is a white space on the left of the page: I'll fill it with words today!

 

 

Snowflake craft inspirations

I'm still working on my snowflakes ornaments (not finished yet, because I'm studying a lot and sewing a leather bag for a friend).

I've looked for some on-line inspirations on the snowflakes-theme recently and found some super lovely ideas I want to share with you today.

 

A lot of glue and some drops of watercolors and you can make this super cute thing (here for the tutorial):

 

Of course the most common way to make snowflakes is with paper and scissors.

I'm sure you've done something similar when you was a child, but if not, well, you can find tons of tutorials on line about this tecnique.

I really like this drawing (found here) and decided to show it to you:

You can make also paper sowflakes in 3D or play with this on-line (and free) tool to make false paper snowflakes to download (so funny!).

 

And what about beaded snowflakes?

On Remodelaholic there's a well-written tutorial to make this:

 

Have you some puzzle pieces to recycle?

Follow Lisa's tutorial to make snowflakes and Xmas trees:

 

If you like to carve rubber stamps like me, I think you can give a try to simple snowflakes like these by GreenGardenStamps or buy them: they can be a lovely tool to decorate Xmas packs:

 

If you can crochet you can make a lovely snowflake like this one by Loukippi:

AuntFran made 2-3 of them (similar) last year and I totally felt in love with her work (and Loukippi's work is amazing, too).

 

Hope these lovely links will inspire you to follow me in the snowflake mania! :)

Starting a new (and bigger!) Moleskine

I finally finished to write in my third moleskine journal.

I wrote, drew and glued a lot of thing on its pages and, new thing to me, on the cover, too. I adorned it with a sticker with my initial (given to me by a lovely little girl), a dottet tape (part of the packaging of the Xmas present by Alice) and a tiny scrap of fabric I really like. Uh, yes, and I added a dragonfly (one of my favourite animals) to the bookmark.

This moleskine journal stayed with me from March 2011 to April 2012.

I used it a lot not only to write about my days, bu also to test my handmade stamps (those with the shape of a postage stamp, Dala Horses and others) and the draw (here my favourite page, but I really like also the portait of Erasmo the crocodile).

So I finished it and it's the time to use The Little Prince Moleskine I bought last Year in may. So beautiful, so new and... so big!

I decided to go a bit over my habits and my taste for small things to try to write (and draw and glue) on a bigger surface. I wanted to evolve my style and learn something new.

So I abandoned my usual pocket size for the regular size. And I like!!! :)

Another new thing to me is that this journal hasn't my beloved squared, but it's plain. My journaling is becoming more visual day after day, and the lines started to bother me.

I've already written 4 pages, tested a new stamp (a post is coming), glued the paper of my new organic soap and the paper of a Yogi Tea filter with the quote "To know others is smart. To know yourself is wise". Do you agree?

:)

Dala horse stamp finished!

Do you remember the stamp I made for Dala Horse craft-a-long?

I've carved a piece of Adigraf and tested it, but I wanted to secure it on a wood board.

I took my stamp with me to my parents' home and I made it!

My stamp is finished and ready to use!

I decided to color with black the board, to give a contrast to the green silhouette.

Now the stamp is with me in my house in Sicily, so far from my parents' home in the north. I've spent 3 lovely weeks of holidays there and now I'm here. My suitcases yesterday were full of clothes for autumn and winter, of course, but also of fabrics, bottons, printed patterns and other craft materials.

I'm back! :)

Coloured Dala horses in my journal

Some days ago S. and I bought a set of crayons for our little niece Chiara (4 years old). The project (the hope) is to leave them in our home, so when Chiara will come to visit us she will be quiet for a minute or two making and colouring a drawing.

A set of new colors in my home... uhm,  I couldn't resist! I used them. I know, they are for my niece, ok, but a little test don't make me a bad aunt. Or not?

Aniway, I used them for some coloured Dala horses.

I tested my handmade stamp with black ink and I embellished them with bright colors (I wanted a page full of creative joy).

Then I wrote a title: "Dala horses... in many colors". As I wrote this words, I remembered a post by Hanna with the same title.

Funny! :)

Probably I can consider my journal page a sort of answer to Hanna's post.

Making this super-simple page has been important for me. I noticed how I miss colors in my new life. I want to buy watercolors and brushes soon. And other art&craft materials, of course!

Making a Dala horse stamp

Last week I had a lot of fun making a Dala horse stamp for "Dala horse craft-a-long", a cute idea of four talented bloggers (Carina, Hanna, Pam and Kathryn).

You can join, if you want. This game has simple rules: make by hands an object related to Dala horses, photograph it and upload the photo in the dedicated Flickr group.

As I read about this idea, I wanted to join, of course.

I like the idea of working intensively around a subject and to do that with a lot of people in the world. Amazing!

But I haven't a lot of craft material here in my new house (no fabric, no embroidery thread, no watercolors...), so I decided to handcarve a stamp.

I took some photos of the process...

... and I tested it in my moleskine journal, as usual!

I like it! :)

I decided to embellish my horse with a simple geometric decoration, probably really far for the traditional patterns used in Sweden (if you are interested, read Hanna's posts about where Dala horses are made and about the traditional painting tecnique).

I used a sheet of Adigraf: it's simple to carve, but I'm not fully satisfied by this material (it's too thin and soft, in my opinion).

Probably I'll fix my stamp on a wood board, like I did with my two stamps of the little prince. I think this is an important trick when you work with Adigraf; the print on the paper comes out better.

I hope this post gave you some inspiration to join this game and realize your Dala horse! And if you are not a crafty-person, well, you can read all the posts about this topic written by Carina, Hanna, Pam and Kathryn. Don't miss them!

Scout movement, the little prince and two stamps

I usually don't write about scout movement in this blog, but it has been an important part of my life for years. As I wrote in Carina's interview, being a scout has been a positive thing for me.

Some years ago I gave up for different reasons, but scout movement is always in my heart. All my best friends had experience with me in my scout group and I'm sure this gave strenght to our friendship.

My brother has been a boy-scout, too, and my dad is a scout now :)

So you can understand that for me the motto "semel scout, semper scout" (= once scout, scout forever) is particularly true for me!

My friend Alice is still a scout. She asked me to have a stamp hand-carved by me to use with her little scout (8-11 years old) during summer camping. And I said "yes!", because I'm happy to help my group and because the subject of the stamp is ... the little prince! Yeeaah, I love this carachter!

In the photo you can see the result!

Uhm, nothing special, I know. They have a lot of imperfections, in the prince's face in particular. It was so difficult for me!

I worked for the first time in my life on an Adigraf sheet and it was easy. I made two stamps, a bit different for dimensions and style, but inspired to the same original drawing by Saint-Exupery. Then I glued them on two wood leftovers I found in our garage.

Probably I'll give them to Alice tomorrow. I don't know if she will be happy about this stamps, but I did my best.

Frames and stamps

When I made my rubber postage stamps, I had the funny idea to use them as frames for dates on my moleskine journals.

I usually start all my writings in it with the date and a tiny drawing (or a written note) about the weather of the day.

These things can stay inside a frame similar to a postage stamp; it is a cute idea.

The "stamp frame" gave me the need to give a frame to all the page and I realized it with other handcarved stamps I made in the past.

And then I filled the page with words, drawings and other stamps. Fun!

In these days I've also looked at mum's collection of postage stamps. Now she dedicates herself to different hobbies, but some years ago she had a real passion for pastage stamps, like a lot of italian people.

I've never appreciated her collection when I was a child, but recently my mind changed; I consider postage stamps a work of art in small scale. And tiny dimensions increase my love. This is a lovely butterfly from Cameroun:

Some stamps speak about the story of a country; look for example at these from ex-CCCP:

I'm happy mum collected them; I'm going to put my nose into her albums full of stamps tomorrow!

MadameRenard's post office

Today, after lunch, I realized an idea I had some days ago: I carved two postage stamp's frames!

I really like all is about faux postal service, as artistamps (read this great Q&A in TangleCraft blog).

I worked on some of them last April, but my drawings were not really good.

Handcarved stamps, instead, today gave my great satisfaction and fun:)

One is rectangular and one is square.

They are really easy to make!

I've tested them in my moleskine journal, as usual.

I used them as frames for other little stamps I made last year of for drawings and writing.

The idea of a MadameRenard's Post office is so funny!

A post office in the woods, managed by a crafty fox.

A post office where odd postage stamps are printed everyday.

Why not? I'm allowed to dream! 

Handmade!

I made a new stamp; do you like it?

It is for the envelopes I ship from my shop. I usually mark them with a black fox (a sort of personal symbol): I realized it last June.

Now I want to add this "handmade warning" near the fox.

Good idea.

Dinostamp (and my new way to use moleskine)

I haven't posted this stamp yet.
It's a dinosaur! And its name is... Dino (my dad's name, a common name in Italy).

I realized it in January and tested on my moleskine.

Testing stamp on my journal's pages is an habit I started in 2010 while I was unconsciously changing also my way to use moleskine journals.

In fact if I think to my previous journal I notice that it is mostly written.

This one, instead, is rich in other forms of expression and no-wordy way to document my life.

I filled it with drawings of objects of my life, sketches of bags to sew or doodles; I glued a lot of things on its pages, like beautiful images from magazines or scraps of fabrics I was sewing with; I also fixed a wonderful feather I found on the street and this part of the packaging of new yarn (I'll post the sweater I made with it soon!).

My journal became more visual and I like it!

Now this red moleskine is finished and I've already started a new one with black cover. I put it on its beautiful case I made in december.

A journal is friend walking with you during your days. It's patient and it's always ready to listen to you!

Red leaf

I found the time to carving a rubber stamp at last!

I bought the right tool during a trip in the italian city of Piacenza last week, a carving knife with replaceable blades (I decided to buy two of them in different sizes, n.1 and n.3).

Today I tested it on a common pencil rubber. I'm obsessed with nature, so I decided to realize a leaf (a simple drawing because it was my first attempt with this tool).

I'm very happy with the result, but also with the process: this knife makes a great job! Using it is simple and gives a natural look to the stamp (for my previous experiments I used a cutter, but I got only stylized and rigid outlines with it!).

Now I'm looking for sheets of linoleum or big rubbers to work with; I want to make complex subjects!

Crafty 2010 - Part 2: Carving rubber stamps

I spent a lot of time in the first part of 2010 looking at some beautiful stamps handcarved by talented people. To give a few examples I was in love with Geninne's and Memi's stamps [*], but also in these black birds by Kitty Kilian.

I have to be true: I was a bit jealuos and I decided to try to carve some stamps for me, although I hadn't right tools and materials. It was a saturday afternoon of June: coming summer always gives me energy and insipiration to do! An old pencil rubber and a cutter became my tools.

My first stamp has been a fox for my little shop. Not a notewhorthy result, but, oh, a lot of fun! I love it and use my black fox on every envelope I ship from my shop. I often made some recycled tags with it, too.

In the following days I realized also a water bird, a woodpecker and  swordfish. 

I decided to carve silhouettes, without details, because they are simple when you have not the right tools. But probably if I will find a professional rubber cutter (I'm going to look for it in my next trip to Milan), I'll try something more complex.

However, even with my poor cutter I was able to carve a stamp for a little girl, with her name, Lucia, and her favourite animal, a butterfly.

Happy me!

I had a great summer carving stamps :)

[*] Geninne has great tutorials about carving; Memi sells in her Etsy shop a guide about this art with a lot of pattern to use.