Good Evening Blog: A Mishmash Night

It's Thursday, a good evening for mishmash work.  My mind is darting here and there as I think of all the new techniques I want to try, and new projects I want to start.  I don't know why this evening I am so inspired to launch new things.  Surely I have so many projects that I can continue.  Some new ideas are related to ongoing projects, many are not.

One thing I won't be designing anymore is bookmarks, except customized ones.  Here is the last bookmark that I made.  

Handmade bookmark: -front- , collage, altered art, large format.

It was a gift, to my baby sister (37), at Christmas.  I liked it so much that I was going to continue with the design.

Collage, altered art bookmark: -back-, hand-painted paper, stamping, fibers, sequins, jewels, marker, colored pencils, beads.

But alas, my bookmark making is going the way of my handmade card making.  While the love affair with hard copies of books will never end for some, me included, people don't read books like they used to.  You know.  Desktop computer, tablet, laptop, cell phone, ereader, ebooks, email, etc., etc. 

My card and bookmark ideas and designs will be transferred to wall art, desk sets, organization items, digital downloads and other more marketable handcrafted products.  

I'm designing 6-sided art stamps for sale, and I've carved 4, and 2 for myself.  After test-stamping them, on real products that I can alter, embellish and list, I am cleaning up the designs, which can involve re-carving some areas.

Always direct the blade away from your body when carving art stamps.

I am going to make 3 more of the coffee place cards, in the image below.  The set of 4 will be listed in my eCrater Coffeetime Anytime shop.

  Keep your fingers out of the path of the carving tools when shaping your hand-carved stamp designs.

I'm glad I've been through the learning curve of accidentally carving text so that it prints backwards, instead of forwards.  Aren't you thrilled when the learning curve is over so that you can get on with it, and soar?

Handmades Tag -front-

I made individual handmades tags for 3 items that I'll be shipping to North Carolina.  They will be sold at the shop of a friend.

Handmades Tag -back-

More on this later.  I'll share the other 2 tags too.  I love making unique handmades tags for my products.  I also like designing and selling them too.  I'll be making more of them to offer in my eCrater store.  I'm moving Exquisite Little Tags Shop from this blog to there.

Hope you're having a wonderful, creative February!

Flower Stamp Carving Tips by Autumn Hathaway

Hand-carved Flower Stamps: 2 Designs by Autumn

Autumn shows the difference between hand-carving low-relief and high-relief flower stamps.  Her small bottle cork-mounted flower stamps are very well made.  She is especially creative in using her stamps to design backgrounds and large blocks of color on envelopes and journal pages.

Autumn's designs can be found at Etsy and Pingg, and she lives in Massachusetts.  Read her short tutorial here: Stamp Carving + Small Flower.
Sandi Holland on Google+

Peppers, Wallets & Birds

It's my pepper drawing and my lettering. There are 4 in this set with a green, orange, red and yellow pepper. My napkins are in sets of 2-6.

Wise Wallet Wisdom

The is my first completed PepperPepper hand-embroidered napkin.

I will paint the inside of the flattened package and glue the handpainted paper to the outside. Then I'll re-fold it and glue back together, adding either a Velcro or bead closure. A Bird In My Hand

I drew more than 9 birds before I was satisfied with one to use for my latest pencil top eraser art stamp.


You'll see this little bird popping up in a lot of my upcoming artwork. He'll often be joined by many friends and relatives. Of course the others who auditioned will get parts in other art projects too. You know me. Salvage, salvage, salvage!
Have a pleasant day.
I am recycling my gum...package that is, to make a mad money/money card wallet. Except for the collaged wise money management quotations, I am finished with the handpainted paper design for this one.
PepperPepper!