Shop Update: 2011 Poladoodles Calendar

Say hello to my first ever Poladoodles calendar! It's been done for about a week but I wanted to spend more time finalizing the packaging details. And I'm very happy with how it all came together. So please check it out at my Etsy shop! It even comes gift-wrapped for the holidays. You know how much I like wrapping.. I couldn't resist. ^^




Total of 6 different images, two months per sheet.


If you cut along the dotted line on the back..


You get Polaroid prints that are the same size as the original Polaroid Spectras.


I chose to use Hahnemuehle 308 for its nice, thick weight. See how stiff that is!


Packaged in a glassine bag and sealed with a sticker that's hand-stamped in champagne ink (I had to incorporate rubber stamping somewhere, right?)


Finally, everything goes into this envelope, ready to go to a new home. Voilà!

I'm glad I finally made a calendar, which I've always thought about. It made a very indecisive person like me make millions of decisions along the way (like, to perforate or not? That is the question) but I think it was better to have made it than to not even have attempted at all. I learned a ton along the way and this will not be the last time I make a calendar.

Anyway.
Now, go check it out! (:

Mother's Day card + masking tapes

Hope you all had a good weekend!
My weekend was quite relaxed.. I got to visit Heath Ceramics at Sausalito to take advantage of their sale and played lots of Ratchet & Clank. I did not spend Sunday with my mom because I'm living very far from my family. :(


But now that Mother's Day has passed, I can share this photo of the card I made for her. I love shopping for cards but this Mother's Day, I didn't find any that I thought she would like, so I just made one. And I know she appreciates handmade cards because last time I sent her a fancy card, she was slightly disappointed that I didn't hand make it.. Oh, Mom.

And yes, that's masking tape. ^^;; I've been itching to use them, so this was a good, very simple project to start with. I'll have to come up with other projects soon. ^^

These three I got at a cool photo store in Tokyo last year, called Monogram (I'm sure I'll talk about this store at another time because it was so nice). Good thing there are many online stores that carry these tapes now, like this one and this one. And if you're in San Francisco area, Kinokuniya Stationery store in Japantown carries some mt brand tapes, too. Awesome.

I'll be back tomorrow with an exciting piece of news I've been keeping a secret. ^^

Altoid Tins

Hey, it's time for another rubber stamping project!
I got to go the local Daiso recently and bought a few craft items that I didn't know I needed. Like adhesive cork sheets. Here is how I used them on some Altoid tins I've been using to store office supplies.


I first saw this idea long time ago on Daily Danny here but never got around to buying cork sheets. And there they were at Daiso for just $1.50!

It's really simple. You just trace the shape of the tin on cork sheet with a pencil, cut and then paste on top of the lid. I wanted to do a little more decorating than how Danny did, so I made some labels, instead of rubber stamping directly on top. For "paper clips", I used a blank address label and for "push pins", I used a piece of twill tape that was rubber stamped first. This time, I made sure to try the VersaCraft stamp pads I mentioned before because they work for both paper and fabric.

I think I'm happy with both.. The third tin I'm saving for now, in case I think of a better idea. It's empty, anyway. ^^

So that's I've been up to in my spare time recently, some craft projects, and a shop update I'm planning for early March, which I'm very excited about. Hopefully it all works out.. :)

PS: Anyone interested in hand carving rubber stamps should see Geninne's tutorials here.

Valentine's Day update

My Etsy store has been updated with two new creations: a Poladoodle print (limited edition of 5) and a Gocco card. This is my first time making prints with a Poladoodle made with 600 film, so the dimension of the prints has been updated to 8"x10" paper to accomodate the square format.


As you can see, the card design was inspired by the Polaroid image. The hearts are obviously inspired by Valentine's Day but I think they are appropriate any time. They were both very fun to make, especially the Gocco since I haven't touched it in awhile. Hope you come on over and take a look here!

Chocolate Scrapbook

Last year, I made this chocolate scrapbook for citrusboy. He likes to try different kinds of dark chocolates, and with so much variety available here in the Bay Area, it was becoming difficult to keep track of what's good and what's not. I've seen wine journals but not chocolate journals, so I decided to make a scrapbook! I re-covered a scrapbook in reserve with some fresh fabric and rubber stamped "chocolate" on the cover. That's my Polaroid shot of some chocolates.. I might replace that with something better looking..

Some shots of the inside:

He wanted to keep things simple, so I made a rubber stamp in the shape of a text box, where he can jot down date, rating (out of 3 stars!) and a short comment. That's it, no other frills.. I've never made a scrapbook before, so this has been a good exercise. :)


Ah, the second page with Amedei chocolates. These are some serious chocolates, and we highly recommend them. We actually saw them at Mitsukoshi (fancy department store in Tokyo.. man, is there anything Tokyo doesn't have??) at some ridiculous price. We are definitely thankful that we can get them at more reasonable price right here.

Citrusboy still has plenty of chocolate wrappings to add to the book but he's forgotten how they taste. I think he should try them all again. ;)

At Poppytalk

Ooh, my rubber stamp projects were featured today at PoppyTalk. You can find the post here. This definitely motivates me to do some more.. Hm.. what should I do next? ^^ (Thanks, Jan!)

Switch plate makeover

Time for another mini project with rubber stamps! I got the idea while browsing Martha Stewart Living website and saw these papered switch plates. I decided I should cover a switch plate in my studio because it was looking old. And I wanted to make a pattern using a rubber stamp. :)


So I pulled out a sheet of muted green paper and VersaColor Chateau Gray ink pad. I wanted a very quiet pattern with subtle colors, so the plate doesn't stand out too much from the wall. The flower stamp I had carved a long time ago, using the design from this book by Koma Keiko. But you can use any kind stamp that you like, store-bought or handmade. I didn't use any glue, as instructed in the Martha Stewart site, because I don't want to worry about cleanup when I move out. Just some Scotch tapes did it for me.


Super simple! Good thing this plate just snaps on and off.. I would imagine this project would've taken me a little more time if the plate had screw holes. Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the result.. what do you think?

Stamping on wood

Oh, my. It's 86 degrees here in San Francisco. It's too hot! How did I ever live in Chicago?

Anyway, it's time for another quick rubber stamp project! Couple days ago, I stamped on wood for the first time.

These are little 3-tier storage boxes bought from Ikea very long ago (here). I've decorated them before but it was time to update them. Again, it was very simple to do, with strips of patterned papers, tape, and stamps I had already carved. The inks took awhile to dry but I think I'm happy with how they look on wood.

One of the containers is already filled with handmade stamps:


Cool! Next time I go shopping for craft supplies, I'll be on the lookout for wood things.

Saving the planet, one stamp at a time..

Well, maybe not the whole planet.. maybe just my apartment. I've been coming up with a few small ideas on how to improve my space, using rubber stamps, so I decided to share them here from time to time.

First project is labeling glass jars. Ta da~

I have many many glass jars for holding many many writing/cutting instruments. But I just did these two.. leaving the rest for future projects.

This was so easy! Maybe took less than half an hour.. You just measure the diameter of the jars, cut strips of paper and stamp away with alphabet rubber stamps. I wanted to use just single strips of pretty Japanese papers but the patterns were too busy against the contents of the jars. Thus the big white strip + smaller pastel strip in the middle. The stitch lines are hand drawn, using a gray pen.

Okay, now that I look at them, I think I could've done better but I didn't want to spend too much time on them. Usually, the more I think, the more likely I won't get it done.. Might as well do it when the idea is still fresh!

What do you think? ^^
Have a good night.

Gocco

Psst, I got a Gocco machine. OMG!



I first learned about Gocco a couple years ago when I was browsing various sites of Jill Bliss. I was immediately drawn to it but resisted getting one because I read that they were going to stop making them. But recently, I started to seriously reconsider because of my recent interest in rubber stamping. If I like making duplicates, then why, I should get into screen printing, I thought. And then one day, this Gocco came in the mail as a surprise present! >_< Thank you.. you know who you are. I am one happy gal.

Those cards in the picture above are the results of my first Gocco printing. As you can see, I made some mistakes and tested on different colors of paper. I think I used up almost half of the gold tube! What was I thinking? Heh.

I printed the design on lots of white note cards I had lying around. Here they are drying:


Not done yet! Here I'm adding some color with rubber stamps:

I guess I could have made a second screen for the hearts or used the blocking strips but I didn't want my first Gocco project to be too challenging. I rather like this combination of Gocco + rubber stamping.

I'll write about the finished cards next time. :)
You can learn more about Print Gocco here:
Save Gocco
Flickr Gocco Group
DIY Definitions: Print Gocco

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day, everyone!!

This is a card I made for my dad. It was very fun to make because the idea was very spontaneous. I learned I have to stamp the white ink in several layers for it to look opaque against dark color.. :)

While making the card, I thought of my dad, of course.. I remember how he used to drag me and my sister out to a local park every morning before school started, to teach us tennis. He LOVES tennis. And he's good at it, too. He would always yell at me for not moving my feet fast enough, and my sister for hitting the ball too early (Even in tennis, my sister and I were total opposites. Anyway, I digress). We stopped playing when our high school schedule became too hectic. Now I kinda regret that I stopped learning from him. Who knows, maybe I would be totally fit right now, had I continued!

Ack, who am I kidding.
Anyway, I miss you Dad and your private lessons. Maybe next time I go home, we'll do some drills!

Lotta Prints at Craft Gym

My goodness, is it Thursday already? Before it's too late, I'll share some of my pictures from the past weekend's Lotta Prints printing party at Craft Gym.

It was really crowded:


I got my copy of Lotta Prints autographed by the author herself, and even got to sit down and try printing on fabric with one of her designs. Here's me in mad action!

In the middle of all this madness, I saw Lotta going around giving people advice. I was too shy to ask anything but I listened carefully and took note of tools and supplies. I couldn't stay long because I don't handle crowds very well but all in all, it was a good experience. And I got to check out Craft Gym! They had a very nice space.

Me outside holding the finished(?) piece. I'm definitely going to try block printing on fabric in the near future. But for now, I should just concentrate on printing paper first. :)


For more pictures from the event, check out Craftzine's recap and Lotta Jansdotter's blog.

Shop Update

Hi all, my Etsy shop has been updated with a new set of stamped, flat cards. This time I decided to try something different, by combining stamping and drawing with colored pencils. Check them out here!

And in case you missed, a set of "Hi" Poladoodle postcards has been added to the store, here.

Fun fun fun! :)

Goodies from Japan

How was your Memorial Day Weekend?
Mine was relaxing and low key. Except my sister visited me on her way back from Japan. She was there for her vacation and took the trouble of getting me lots of omiyage (Japanese for present/souvenir). w00t! Check these out:

I did ask her to bring me some small alphabet stamps because they are rather painful to hand make.. but she brought alphabets plus more. Like a little bunny. I'm especially excited (and scared) about the multi-color ink pads. How should I use them? Hm..


Well, it's certainly nice to have people who know what you like.. Thanks, sis! You're spoiling me rotten. :)

Poppytalk Handmade May Market

Today is the first day of Poppytalk Handmade’s Paper goods and Affordable Art Market, and I am one of the participants! So come on over and visit my virtual table at this online craft market. You’ll see some Poladoodles as well as my first set of flat cards that I inked with hand carved stamps.




I’m really excited about how these turned out. The inks look much better than I expected on the flat correspondence cards I have (100% cotton!), and this means I’m going to design some more. I hope you enjoy them as much as I am having fun with them.

Rubber stamping..

As you can see, I'm still obsessed with Tetris and even playing it on paper, with rubber stamps. I've dabbled in rubber stamping before but now I'm really getting into it. I started seeing falling blocks even when I'm not playing, so that's when I knew they had to manifest themselves physically somehow. Call me crazy!!

Anyway, I really like how you can reproduce the same image over and over again, and how the ink interacts with the texture of the paper. Instead of buying stamps, I've been drawing my own designs and carving rubber pads to make my own. I know Tetris isn't that original; you'll see my original designs soon. Can't reveal them just yet! ^^ I plan to make cards with my handmade stamps and have them available on my Etsy shop next week, in time for Poppytalk Handmade's May Market. Hope you stay tuned!