Rubber stamp – where the journey takes me

I made it at last. Everytime I have had the intention of sitting down to write I had an interruption from one person or another and I include myself here.

What have I been doing you might well ask. I have been quite a busy little bee – or multi tasking as some would say. After making those birthday cards a couple of weeks ago I made up my mind to do more crafting and on Saturday morning I settled down in my craft room and began to think about creating some Christmas cards for my daughters shop (as I had promised).

It is a long time since I attempted any lino prints and I felt eager to have another go as I like the quality of the prints and the fact that once you have carved the original design you can print an unlimited amount of cards. It is also appealing because unlike rubber stamps the design belongs to you and it is exclusive.

I had no particular idea in mind for the card design other than it should be slightly vintage in feel and perhaps a Christmas Robin would be appropriate for a shop called Birdhouse Interiors. So I flicked through my sketch book and settled on a drawing I had done some time ago of a Robin. Not the best drawing in the world but the shape isn’t too bad and it seemed quite promising.

Robin Sketch

I converted this into a more simplistic black and white shape transferred it onto the lino then set about carving out a picture remembering that the bits I remove would come out as white.

Robin Lino Cut

I did a few test sheets before printing on the actual cards.

Robin Tests

Then the production line began…first with the black ink…

Robin in production

then I applied the red ink for the breast and berries by hand. Finally the Christmas greeting was done with a rubber stamp.

And voila here is my line of Christmas Robins.

Robin Xmas Card

I can’t say it turned out just as I had in mind I think that will take much more practise but at least I have made a start and my daughter is delighted.

All packaged up and ready to go. I can’t believe that only this morning these cards were just an idea in my mind and didn’t exist.

Now I just need some inspiration for my next one.

The Error Horror

Last night we went to a 60th Birthday Party of a dear friend of mine who also happens to be my boss at work! I was sure I already had a card with 60 on it but when I came to find it in my card box – I was mistaken and to my horror it had a great big 50 on it!!!

The Idea

However, all was not lost as I decided there was nothing to it but to get out my crafting tools and make one. It has given me chance to use my newly acquired Vintage Numbers stamp set that I bought as a present to myself from Paperchase. They really are wonderful to use and although I thought pricey at the time the quality of the stamp is very precise and nice to work with. The set comes with a pad of black ink.

The Task

As I only had 30 minutes to come up with a finished product I had to keep to something very simple. So after a bit of a play around I settled on stamping the 6 ad 0 different ways on a piece of white card. I then cropped close in to the print keeping it a good square shape, then mounted this onto black card just slightly bigger to give it a finished edge and then mounted the whole thing centrally onto a bright purple card and voila!

The Finished product

I thought it was quite in keeping both with his party invite which was done in that ‘Ransom Note’ style and the dress code which was ‘Bright’.

The Temptation

I might even be tempted now to buy the vintage letter set when I next find myself in Paperchase (which will be when we visit my mum-in-law in Shrewsbury). When we have spent a few hours in the care home having had slightly odd and often bizarre conversations with most of the residents – my mum-in-law included, we usually bring ourselves back into the ‘real’ world by spending the last half hour in the town centre browsing in one or two of my favourite shops.

The Realisation

I am already looking forward to using my Christmas Stamp set (from Waterstones) this year for cards and having realised that there is only one week left of September I had better get some ideas set in motion for Christmas pretty soon.

Is anyone else making their own cards for Christmas and how soon do you start?