Wild Flower Stamps - Nearly ready for sale.

I'm just not sure where?  I think I'd like to sell them in a The Old Barn in Wadenhoe.  They sell tea and coffee amongst other delicious things.  It is a little garden centre too with a gift shop inside.  Or do I sell them in Etsy and finally set up shop with them.  I wish I could do both?  Maybe I could if I were quick off the mark with purchases, taking the bought item out of where I'm selling it?  Can it be done?  What do you do?

Here is what I have to sell to start with, some wild flowers.  I will be boxing them but need to buy some thin hay to line the boxes with.  I think I will stamp the picture of the flower on the outside of the box.  I will show you the finished article once I've decided.  I've been trying to work out the best presentation for my stamps as there's no where really to put a label.  This way I could glue a little pretty information leaflet on the back or something?

Here are the stamps for now that I have carved, ready for boxing.

My First Stamp Carving Workshop - THANK YOU to ABIG sponsorship

The fantastic company ABIG have come through and surprised me yet again with their kindness and willingness to supply me with their outstanding workmanship.  Their blades are my favourite by far!  I cannot recommend their equipment highly enough.  My favourite blade being the No.1 for fine art work. So it look's like they are sending me 12 handles for teaching my new workshop on the 18th June at the Fuller House Craft Group and every fortnight after until I have got through their fantastically large group. 

I will be showing 12 students at a time how to create a very simple stamp that will have high impact on wrapping paper and tags.  They will take home with them a new skill learned, a hand carved rubber stamp that's been mounted professionally onto a piece of season treated oak. Also at the end, they will have their very own bespoke wrapping stationary for special birthdays coming up.


http://www.abig.de/index.php?id=5&L=3

Alice in Wonderland Submissions - Ready for showcase

Carving the Mad Hatters Hat was very hard indeedy!  I did it though and it is my favorite kind of carve when it's hard.  My carving blade from ABIG didn't let me down. http://www.abig.de/index.php?id=5&L=3

Mad Hatters Hat - Comparison to ring finger.

The Background - Warped Checker board.  

 

Image taken from a waving F1 flag photo and manipulated on Photoshop.

The stamps mounted and ready to showcase.

I've tried to make the stamp appealing by making it for printing, tea party invites etc.  It was fun to do and I hope that I can take part in another showcase :)  It will be interesting to see what sort of exposure the Showcase Handmade UK (https://www.facebook.com/showcasehandmadeuk) will have for me and my Little Stamp Store. 

Here's a few pictures of the finished article.  Let me know what you think x

 

Alice in Wonderland Submissions - Sorted, Just the carve to do.

So going on with the 'What should I do?' dilemma, I'm really pleased with what I've come up with.  

On the search for party invite ideas, I googled High Tea images and found a chair that I could use for a stamp.  It wasn't quite what I wanted though, as half of it was missing and I'd have to create the rest of it.  

In the end, I'm not sure if 'Just a carver chair' would look like it had anything to do with Alice in Wonderland?

A beautiful take on the Mad Hatters tea party by Unknown.

See the chair at the far right? That's the chair I'd like on my invitations, but there's only half a chair.  Also the chair won't really represent the tea party to anyone else, so I wanted to make it more obvious. 

So I found a Mad Hatter's hat from the original drawings, I think.  I down sized it and played around on Photoshop to fit it onto the top of the chair.  Like this:

Next I needed to redraw the chair so that I could transfer a full image onto the rubber for carving.  So I had to decide what the rest of the chair would look like.  

I just drew how I'd like the lower half of the chair to look.

I then traced the image onto tracing paper, ready to transfer to my rubber.

Ta Na!  Ready to carve.  The words on the hat are crazy tiny, so a little nervous about that bit!  Wish me luck...

I'm really looking forward to playing around with colours in the last step with the stamps when they are ready.  I hope it represents Alice in Wonderland, I think it will all come together when I make an invite.  I may have to have a Mad Hatters tea party just to finish it off.

Recent Custom Orders - Pictures

Here are some of the custom orders that I do for work at the Little Stamp Store.

https://www.facebook.com/gigglingarmadillos?ref=ts&fref=ts

https://www.facebook.com/HandmadeThreeForTea?fref=ts

https://www.facebook.com/byEKMCronin

https://www.facebook.com/erinmayphotography

https://www.facebook.com/MartinsWoodFarm

Alice in Wonderland Submissions - for Handmade UK Sellers

Ooops, I totally forgot about this entry but luckily did a lot of looking around when I first took part, so I knew that I would like to make a couple of stamps for a party invitation but not sure what.

I really like the chequered background and thought about bringing it up to date with all the chevron patterns that are about lately.  I was so set on that idea until I saw it on Pinterest, on an Alice in Wonderland invite.  Honestly! you think you have come up with a unique idea but there are so many people around having the same 'light bulb' moments, it's hard not to loose interest.  But in the end I thought I'll stick with the original chequered theme and make it dark.  So I'm going for a warped chequered background (with a possible cheeky Cheshire cat grin to add on top of the checked background). 

The other difficult bit is I am only allowed two submissions.  So I'll have to make a set of picture stamps in a box of it's own for the invite plus the warped chequered background.

Ok I'm off to carve a warped back ground whilst I ponder about what else to put on the invite.  I do like the idea of just a carvery chair that you would see sitting next to the tea party table.  Maybe I might do that instead of lots of other stamps.  That way the invite maker could add whatever they'd like.  A tea pot, a drink me bottle etc...   I will also make the warped background duck egg blue to bring it into the now.  I think this would also take away from the darkness of the warped black background and make it a playful and fresh for all the picture stamps to go on top.

Creating a Fabric Stamp - Continuation 2

*****I have finished the doily stamp ***** and I'm really pleased with how it prints.  I had a few last minute adjustments to the oak block that the stamp was to be mounted too.  Nothing too difficult but handy to know.

The holes that the screws were put into were sunken holes.  This was to allow the screws to get through the thick block.
Once the handle was screwed on, it left behind big holes.  This meant that the print wouldn't come out properly where you pushed down over them.  So I cut some rubber to fit in the holes and 'voila!'


Then I stuck on the rubber with glass glue and did my first print.

This was the outcome of all those little carved bits!  :)  It took a long time but I am 'Pretty' pleased.

The great thing about this huge stamp is that I can use it for so many things.  I had a quick go at putting a few labels/brown tags together and stamping all 6 in one go.  It came out like little vintage doily lookalikes on the tags and it looked pretty cool.

But more than labels I could use it for wrapping paper, greetings cards and even a wall paper stamp.  It would look pretty ace on a piece of living room furniture and waxed on top.  Hmmm, might try that when I re-do /up-cycle my unit in the front room. The stamp itself is 15cm square.