Hand carved stamps

My cousin introduced me to letter boxing, where you solve a puzzle to find a hidden stamp and then sign the log with your own hand carved stamp.   In the past I have cut stamps from foam, or rubber scraps, not know ing that a stamp carving material was available at the local craft store.

I have since had fun carving stamps for myself using a craft knife and my cricut tools.  I decided to list this stamp in my Etsy shop, although I was tempted to keep it for myself.

While time consuming, stamp carving isn’t difficult.  First, you need to draw your pattern on a sheet of paper using a pencil.  Keep in mind that thinner lines are harder to carve and require special tools.  I am using Speedball stamp carving material, because it was the only thing available to me, however there are many other brands out there.

I cut out the picture that I drew, and cut a piece of carving material to size.  Then, lay the picture face down on the material and rub firmly to faintly transfer the image onto the material.  I used a fine pointed knife to carve out the inside of small designs, and to make my basic outline.  I used the flat knife from my cricut tools to carve away the excess rubber and give depth to the stamp.  This stamp took almost an hour to carve because of the spots in the center of the mushroooms.

 

Brown Bag Spinach Salad

Brown Bag Spinach Salad

I make my husband a lunch to take to work most weekdays, and I get tired of making the same things, so I know that he must get tired of eating them.  This week I tried something new, and he absolutely loved it, so I thought I’d share.

Brown Bag Spinach Salad:

2 1/2 cups spinach

1/2 firm apple (fuji) chopped

1 tbsp each olive oil and balsamic vinegar

1/8 cup (half a palm full) sunflower kernals

Toss everything into a salad container.  Make sure that the oil and vinegar coat the apple bits so that they don’t brown.  Make sure that the lid is closed tightly, and shake well to toss the ingredients.   Stick in a lunch box with an ice pack to enjoy at your convenience.

Crystal Light Pen Cup

Crystal Light Pen Cup

Quick and easy use for some of those empty Crystal Light containers :0)

Supplies:  empty Crystal Light (or similar) canister, decorative paper, paper trimmer, kitchen shears, permanent marker, ruler, tape, glue

First, Measure your pens, and decide how much you want sticking over the top.  I had a neat pack of mini pens, so my container is short.

Next, use your ruler to measure around the cup and draw a cutting line at the proper height.  I wanted to keep that clean top edge so I measured down from the top.  I used a knife to start cutting along the line, but I found that my kitchen shears did a better job so I switched to using them.

Next you’ll want to measure about 1″ from the bottom of the container and cut it off.  To easily hook the containers together, you will need to slit the side of the bottom about every inch or so, forming tabs.  The picture below shows how the cut should look, although it is a picture of the wrong part of the canister (my first attempt didn’t turn out looking as nice.)

To put it together insert every other tab inside of the canister, so that the bottom is where the bottom should be.   To hold it together I just used a few pieces of scotch tape on the inside and outside.  Measure and cut a pretty piece of paper, and glue it onto the outside.

Tada!  10 minute pen cup that can easily have the paper changed once you get tired of looking at it.

Cut canister

Wedding Shadow Box

Wedding Shadow Box

I had a very homemade wedding, not because I necessarily wanted it to be homemade, but because I just couldn’t bring myself to pay an arm and a leg for something that I could make for a mere fraction of the cost.  I wasn’t even paying for much myself, but I still couldn’t buy such overpriced stuff :0)

My Mom sewed my dress for me, and she purchased about 2 yards of excess fabric “just in case.”  We ended up making the guest book using some of the fabric, but the rest has been sitting in a box for 5 years.  My cake topper, also handmade, has been collecting dust on a shelf in my bedroom, beside my dried bouquet. I finally decided to save these fragile items and display them in a nicer manner.

The box was purchased for a whopping $2 from the Salvation Army thrift store, but I have seen similar boxes at Hobby Lobby for around $15.   It was just the right size for my flowers to sit in, so I cut down the base to the cake topper (which was made of two pringles lids taped together) to fit into the box.  I covered a piece of acid free cardboard in the remnants from the  bridesmaid dresses, and then covered a slightly smaller square of cardboard in wedding dress remnants.  I covered the back of the box in a thin layer of batting, and then in the dress fabric.  I used hot glue on the back side to hold the fabric in place – I didn’t want any glue spots showing up where they would be seen.

I used a blue pigment ink to stamp the date on the fabric covered square – the ink actually matches the paper from our invitations.  I placed an actual rice bag inside of the frame (can you believe that I’ve held onto that for 5 years?) but I think that I may replace the rice with white beads in the near future.  I glued the square onto the background fabric, but everything else is sitting loose.   I had trouble getting the fabric to form perfectly square corners on the cardboard, but I don’t mind the homemade look since the fabric would have just been sitting in a box in the closet anyways.

6 months of catching up…

Candy Apples

Wow – I didn’t realize that I haven’t been on here in over 6 months!  I have made many random art projects in that time, and will hopefully be adding them in the near future.

For today: Candy apples (using this recipe)

These were an awful lot of trouble to make, and next to impossible to eat, nonetheless I enjoyed it as a one time cooking project.

I didn’t have any popsicle sticks or skewers, so I used plastic lollipop sticks that I have had hanging around for a few years.   I only dipped three apples, and rolled the remaining candy into a log which I then cut into little nuggets.  I actually preferred the small candies as they were much easier to eat.

Purse, cards, and wallies

My Mom and sister are so creative, and when we get together we usually have craft parties late into the night.  I spent the week with them, and helped make: several stamped cards using mulberry paper, a purse with 7 interior pockets using scrap fabric and butterfly buttons, and soot sprite wallies.  (Soot sprites / dust bunnies are from my son’s favorite movie: Tonari No {My Neighbor} Totoro)

I am proud to carry my new purse, and now have pockets for all the junk I invariably end up carrying around.  I will have to post some pics later on in the week.  The soot sprites turned out adorable – my Mom actually made them using the center of a flower on the ‘Walk in my Garden’ cricut cartridge.  She then hole punched some white wallies scrap for eyes.

Mini Terrarium

Terrarium Bottle

This cute little bottle has been sitting on my kitchen windowsill since November.  I really like how it looks, so it has been sitting up there, waiting to be used in an art project.  While looking for  VBS craft ideas, I ran across a moss terrarium project.   I knew I had a good use for my bottle!

I left my hand in the photo for scale, so you can see just how small the 6 oz glass bottle is.  Including gathering my supplies, this project took about 40 minutes to complete.

Envelope Funnel

First, I rinsed the bottle off, since it was a little dusty.  I then used some scrap paper (an old envelope) to make an extension for my funnel – I wanted to be able to add the rocks, charcoal, and dirt without getting the sides of my pretty bottle dirty.  I used substrate and gravel that came our of our old fish tank, and barely covered the bottom with it.  Next I sprinkle in some activated charcoal (also pirated from the fish tank supplies.)  My potting soil was a little bit damp, so I had to force it through the funnel with a chop stick.

Chopstick Action

I used the flat back end of the chopstick to pat the soil level.  Then, I broke off small pieces of moss, and fed them through the paper tube one at a time.  I found the moss growing around my a/c unit outside, and scooped up several pretty pieces with a spoon.  I pushed them into place with the chopstick.

View from above

I left a little space between the moss chunks for future growth.  Since my soil was already damp, I didn’t add any water.  I didn’t paint the cap because I liked the simple design of red Japanese characters.  I did find tiny white worms on the sides of the bottle the next morning, but since I’m sure they can’t get out I’ll just leave them.

Child hood dreams…

As a child, there were a few things that I dreamed of doing when I was a ‘grown up:’  fly in an airplane, discover something, and write a book.  I have flown several times, the most memorable being when my husband’s pilot friend he took us up in a four passenger plane for one of our first dates.  We flew to a small airport diner, with awesome mushroom burgers – every girls dream date, right?

When I was in high school, I read a book about ghost towns in Florida, then actually researched and found one that had been forgotten about for 70+ years.  (What can I say, the state archives just interested me more than t.v.)  The park ranger was gracious enough to take me and a few friends out to see it, since he knew it was in the woods, but didn’t know what it was.  While I technically didn’t discover it, I did rediscover it, which is close enough for me. 

So, that leaves writing a book.   I love to read, especially children’s fiction, so I decided to write a short story.  It is a challenge that I enjoy.  While I know that I can’t write well enough to be published, it has been a great creative outlet that doesn’t take up much space.  (Unlike scrap booking, which requires a large flat surface that remains relatively undisturbed.)

I have drawn a few of the elements of the story, and while I can’t really draw, I have had fun trying to, and you can tell what the pictures are supposed to be, for the most part

I like how the cave and rocks turned out, but not the rest... I was going for an underground city.

The necklace I drew for my story...

The key I made for my story

Colored pencils

I decided to try my hand at drawing… and I’m not good at it.    I did have fun with the colored pencils.  Unfortunately, that’s been the extent of my creativity this week…

Scanning medium format negatives

I finally did figure out how to scan the medium format black and white negatives that belong to my mother in law.  They range in size from 2″x3″ to 3.5″x5″, so a negative scanner was out of the question.   She has more than 50, so getting them reprinted at $3-5 a piece was also out of the question.

I just scanned the negatives on a regular flatbed scanner, at a high resolution.  I then used getpaint.net’s free software to reverese the colors.  They turned out ok, but some of the detail didn’t really show up.  Since I am unfamiliar with paint.net, I am going to scan all of the negatives at my MIL’s, then bring them home to tweak with Photoshop.

It has been really neat to see the 60+ year old photos, including my husband’s grandma’s wedding.  I am also really looking foward to putting them on cd’s to share with all of the aunts, uncles, and cousins.

I would like to make a tutorial, after I figure out the best method.