Rubber Stamping Adventures!

Hidey ho, campers! How are you enjoying the summer so far? Thankfully, it's been a very mild summer this year, so I've been able to spend less time lying in a puddle in front of the air conditioner! The question, then, is what have I been doing with all that extra time?

As some of you know, I've got this driven need to learn things. Asked what my goal in life is, I'll often reply that my goal is to learn everything. EVERYTHING. Yes, I know I'll fail, but just think how much fun I'll have learning in the meantime!

The latest thing I've been learning recently is how to carve my own rubber stamps. See, it all started with business cards...

I've designed my own business cards in the past, and I've been very happy with them. The problem is that they go so quickly. I made a ton of cards a couple of years ago to tide me over until I could get some proper cards printed up, but I kept running into the same issues- business cards can be expensive, and I don't know that I always want the same, single image on my cards. Then there's the question of what can I do when I run out of cards and need some in a hurry?

Some of my first stamps. Robot! :D

So, my kind of strange creative mind hit on rubber stamping. I thought about having a stamp created with all my information on it, but then I found how much a single business-card-sized stamp could cost. (Think $25-40!) Because of this, I started thinking about carving my own stamps. It's something I've been interested in for years, but have never really had the time or opportunity to do.

A quick google search found a Speedball carving set for significantly less than $40. While waiting for that to reach me, I hit my local Dollar Tree and grabbed a bunch of erasers and a couple of things I thought I might be able to make a stamp pad with. Because I'm so fond of bright color, I knew I didn't want a single-color stamped image. So, I grabbed a children's watercolor paint set and some felt to see what I could come up with.

The result? Well, my first stamps were a smashing success, but they were pretty small. My husband brought home some larger erasers a few days later, and I carved the middle stamp in the above image. I've carved over 20 stamps now, and have only cut myself twice, so I figure that's a good thing, right?

Then came the stamp pad. Let's see if I can simplify what I did- I got a medicine organizer with 7 separate compartments, put the watercolors (green, blue, purple, red, and orange) into different compartments with some water to liquify them, then poured them onto the felt and let them dry. To use the stamp pad, I spray it with a light mist of water 5-10 minutes before I plan to use it, then again right before, and oddly enough it works!

I also decided I wanted something beautiful for the back of my cards, so I set out to make something... colorful and me-like. It's amazing what you can create with a set of Crayola watercolors...

Once it was dry, I doodled over it in white, adding paisleys and hearts, fun phrases and spirals. I wanted something that looked like pieces of a whole once it was cut up. I wanted something that felt special, as if I were giving a piece of art to everyone who gets one of my cards.

The result? Crazy fun business cards in gradient colors that make me SO happy... I've had to hand-write the blog address, mainly because I don't carve that well yet. Still, I'm happy with the result so far.

Stamped business cards version 1.

Stamped business cards version 2.

I've also carved some flowers, some leaves, as well as a few other things. Then I wondered what I could do with them, so I started experimenting. And yes, I'm frugal, so I've been painting on old envelopes. I'm weird that way. :D

Not bad for children's watercolors and some eraser stamps, eh? So what do you think of all these? And what do you think I should carve next?

Leave me a comment telling me what you think. I need the feedback, what can I say?

Til next time...

I'm still alive, isn't that fun?

See my disclosure statement for more information.

I Made a Custom Layniefingers Keychain!

Some days I feel like I might be a weirdo... those days are few and far between. Most days I know for sure that I am! I don't know why, but ever since I was a little girl I would look at items and think about not just what they were, but what they could become. I constantly carry basic crafting supplies in my purse (scissors, glue stick, various pens and pencils, etc), and I use them often.

In other words, I'm a freak. :D

For example, my son got money for Christmas from several relatives. He wanted to buy a box of Magic the Gathering cards, planning to open them and possibly sell the rare cards and play with the rest. We all play together, and it's been a fun family activity for years now.

We took him to the local comic book shop where he bought a box. On the checkout counter was a cute box of rings and keychains, and the shop owner gave him a Justice League keychain as a thank you, I guess. Kiddo gave it to me since he wasn't interested in it, and I started looking at it, wondering if I could do something fun with it.

We went to Borders with the box of cards to open them and sort them, and maybe do a bit of browsing while we were out. I noticed that the keychain was a simple plastic one with a paper insert that could be changed out, and that's when I decided what to do. I pulled out my business cards  (I did end up printing several versions of them for fun!) and tested the various ones to see which would fit nicely. Turns out one fit perfectly, and with just a bit of cutting I transformed the Justice League keychain into something a bit more fitting for me!

Yea, I know. I'm weird. But isn't it cute? For the moment I'm using it as a zipper pull on my purse. Let's see if I get any comments about it! :D

Business Cards for Layniefingers

Aaaaack, I am such a goober! I went adventuring with my husband today, taking photos of all the exciting holiday gift sets out that include nail polishes at my local WalMart. It was lots of fun, and people didn't think I was weird at all, from what I could tell. A couple of people asked why I was taking pictures, so I explained that I have a nail polish blog and was taking pictures of things to show my readers. They seemed excited by this.

Well, unfortunately, we lost track of time and we wound up being out so long that there wasn't time to run me home tonight before husband had to go teach. "No big deal," I told him. "My blog post for the day is up. I'm fine, time-wise. I'll just work on replacing images in the blog."

Right. Have I mentioned that fibromyalgia makes you stupid sometimes? Yea. I got here and saw the date, and said, "Wait a minute, that's not right..." I went to my blog and realized... EEEK! NO POST!

But fear not, readers, I have pictures!! I've been kicking around ideas for business cards ever since I printed that first set. I've doodled several possibilities, and I'm not sure which one(s) I like best. So I'm going to do a poll and get y'all's opinions!!

First up is the original design I made. I like it, but I'd left off the Etsy link, so I've added it back in and changed the font a bit. I actually like this one a lot. It's fun, it's funky, it's got a lot of character, and I think the energy matches the energy of the blog.

Then I started feeling rainbowlicious! I know, I know, it's entirely too bright, but seriously, isn't this cute? I can't help it, I am absolutely addicted to rainbows. I'm just not sure about how I feel about it. It's cute, though.

Then I went for hand-drawn feel. Unfortunately, these are all using brushes and fonts I've downloaded, but they combine so cutely! The problem is, I don't know if this card suits my blog. Ahhh, decisions, decisions!

So, next I added some fun hand-drawn embellishments using brushes I'd downloaded. Aren't they adorable? I thought about coloring them, but it's just too fiddly for me. There's also the question- does this work with my blog?

Finally, I added a block of text describing my blog. You may need to enlarge the image to read it. The text definitely fits the blog, but the card as a whole? I have no idea... This is hard work!

Finally, I decided to use the brushes I'd made of my own drawings along with the photo of one of my earliest nail art attempts. It's cute, but I feel like it's missing something. Again, I just don't KNOW!!



So, those of you who have an opinion, how about sharing it with me? Which card do you think I should make, and why? Which card fits the theme of my blog and my personality best? Or do you think none of them work, and I should let YOU make a card for me? At this point, I'm open to just about anything, as long as it involves having someone else make a decision! =P

I'm moving up in the world!!

Sometimes I'm amazed at how little things can make me so incredibly happy. The bright shade of blue of a fall afternoon sky, the smell of freshly baked bread, and... office supplies! I can spend absolute hours wandering through an office supply store, testing the pens, touching the various paper samples, being engrossed in the variety of notebooks and journals. Back to School sales have made me squee with excitement on more than one occasion, just at the thought of getting new pens or a brand new journal.

So I guess it's no surprise that I'm totally giddy because I made business cards for my blog. I wouldn't have, really, even though it's such a fun idea. But I am SO incredibly cheap. I mean, frugal. (Yea... that's the word. Frugal.) I can't see the point of spending good money I don't really have on business cards for something that doesn't really make me money. Except that I've had several people asking me about my blog lately, wanting my email address or my url, and I've had to drag out my sketchbook, tear out a page, and scribble my addresses in my chicken scratch, hoping they'll be able to read it once they return home. It's inconvenient, it looks shoddy, and frankly it'd be fun to have business cards.

Then it hit me: I have access to a laser printer- I could print my own business cards! Let me tell you, the squeal of glee you heard Tuesday afternoon was probably me. I went back and forth in my head on what to do, but finally decided to grab the header of my blog, add a picture of my favorite nails, and throw my various addresses onto it. I forgot to add my etsy account, but hey... I can always print more, right? :D

So now I've got a short run of business cards, I printed 5 sheets and trimmed them using my paper cutter. I'm strongly tempted to do another run with various images, just because I can and it's fun! I can't even begin to tell you how much I love these, and now I won't have to dig for scratch paper to let people know about my blog!

In other news, I made a Facebook account for Layniefingers, so feel free to add me! I know, I'm so behind the times... but I figured hey, why not?

So tell me, what do you think of the business cards? Any suggestions for future print runs?