Featured in Art Nouveau Blog Post

Kellyssima just contacted me on Etsy to let me know that she featured our Berry Cluster, Ribbon and Leaf UM stamp set in a blog posting on Art Nouveau designs. Click the image below to visit the posting. Some lovely prints and her jewelry is very nice, too. Cheers!

Leaf stamp on ceramic trivet

Another creation by raquelmasri.etsy.com. She emailed me about it yesterday. She used the large leaf stamp from our Art Nouveau Berries & Leaves stamp set. Click on any image to see the Etsy listing for the trivet.

Add a touch of autumn to your table with this botanical porcelain handmade piece!

Use it to set hot pans, hot drinks,as a candle holder or just by itself as a conversational piece. It can also be used as a focal point on your next mosaic project.

Sculpted, bisqued and glazed. I used a speckled matte tan color for the background and a rich chocolate glaze for the textured leaf.

It is approximately 5 1/2" in diameter.

Sigh - really need to get to a pottery studio and play with clay and stamps myself!

Fairy and flora stamp sheet, stamping, and a lost credit card

Finished this up just in time last week, sent it off to be pressed into rubber, got it back, and then made a few stamped pieces for a magazine submission deadline for stamped fairy/elf art. Phew!

I have posted larger images on Flickr and have also posted the sheet for sale on the Etsy shop. I am also offering small sets of images from the sheet.

I had bookplates on the brain while putting the designs together - hence the little phrases and the stamped images I created. The sheet also includes smaller versions of some of the designs from our last stamp sheet - the Mucha-inspired berries as well as the leaf design based on the hand-carved stamp I recently retired.

Although these stamps are deep etch, they were not specifically designed for use with velvet embossing, as our other stamps were. These stamps are smaller, more detailed and not "reverse value", although they may suit some people's velvet embossing purposes and are certainly safe and deep enough to use.

I've actually never done much paper stamping. When I received the raw rubber sheets, I was in Boston on business and visiting my family. I went searching around Arlington, Cambridge and Boston on Friday with my friend Susan to find cling mount sheets, ink, and other items for stamping.

I didn't find ANY cling mount foam. That was a bit of a surprise. I thought that it was more readily available in brick and mortar stores. It served as a lesson to me that I should get some to offer on my shop so that people who purchase the uncut unmounted sheets can throw cling mount in the cart as well.

I went to Art Beat and Playtime in Arlington - love these places. No luck with cling mount. Then on to Paper Source by Porter Square in Cambridge - my friend Susan has been telling me about this place for years and how easy it is to drop loads of money there. Exactly why I never set foot in the place before last week. Gorgeous papers, a nice stamp collection, inks, cards, journals, etc. I tried very hard to hold myself back. The staff was very friendly and helpful. I picked up a copy of the May/June issue of RubberStampMadness, some embossing powder and a lovely flower stamp (used in the card art below) and olive branch stamp (used in the green card art at top).

Then we tried Spark, also near Porter Square. The women working there were a little too busy with lunch to pay us much mind, but it was just as well, as they didn't have anything I needed, stamp-wise. They did have lovely beads and fiber art materials, though.

Then we went in search of Michaels crafts to see if they had cling mount. We ended up at an AC Moore instead. Still no cling mount, but I did get an embossing tool and some adhesive-backed felt, at least, which would act as a cushion for the stamps. I should have picked up an acrylic stamp block, as mine were sitting at home in upstate NY...

I dropped Susan off and headed to a gas station in my rental car. While I was waiting for the tank to be filled I absent-mindedly played with my credit card and it slipped down alongside the window, into the door. Gone. I couldn't stop laughing at myself. The gas station attendant seemed to think I was a bit insane and gave me a lollipop when I told him what had happened. I called the company to let them know that I had lost the card and they asked if I wanted them to check to see if there had been any suspicious activity - um, no... no one is going to get their hands on that card again until or unless that rental car is completely demolished and the door ripped open.

I stamped on Saturday... I was reminded again and again that I should have gotten an acrylic block. And it was very clear that I don't have much experience stamping on paper. Heat embossing was fun and very satisfying. I colored in some of the pieces with markers and/or colored pencils as I watched a "Top Chef" marathon.

Now I am home again and thinking of future designs...

Cheers!

Our New Stamp Set

Our newest stamp sheet has arrived back from the engravers. I came right home from the Post Office and cut out a few of the stamps to test them on velvet. I'm very happy with them!

See our Flickr page for more images. We also have the stamp sheet posted on our Etsy shop (the pre-order discount is no longer available).

New Stamp Set - Pre-Order Discount

Update, April 4, 2008: I am leaving this post up, but the Pre-Order Discount for this particular stamp set is no longer available.


I've been away for the last week or so, but managed to do some final "tweaking" to the designs for our third stamp sheet and send the file off to the manufacturer.

Hopefully, we will have our first batch of sheets within a week or so. I'm posting a limited number of sets at a discount before we get the sets in our inventory. 25% off the usual price for a sheet. See our Etsy shop for any listings.

Berry and Leaf Rubber Stamp Set... Almost There

I think I am almost ready to send in the file for the next stamp sheet set, which is based on the images I've been working on (and posting about).

On my Flickr account I've posted other images that I have been working on that will probably feed into the 4th rubber stamp sheet that will be appropriate for use with velvet and clay. Probably more of the nature/leaf theme.

I may have a sheet ready before that, though, which will be smaller, more delicate images of fairies and elves. I am trying to get things ready for a submission deadline and that has made me rethink my priorities. Initially, I was assuming that I would focus on stamps that can be used for more than paper, but this project came up and I decided I would give it a try.

I will post about that next.