Hand-carved rubber stamps

I remembered, way back in 2009, a good friend of mine gave me a set of carving tools for me to use to make my own rubber stamps. I did gave it try on an old and new rubber and gave them a new life. I posted some photos of them back then at my personal blog. You can view the posts at the link HERE and HERE. I did made more after that but I stopped carving rubbers until just recently. Somehow, the mood to carve came and I just couldn't stop! I can't believe that I've been keeping the carving tools and rubbers for the past 6 years!! OMG!! I felt so bad for neglecting them :(.

I guess the thing that triggered me to make my own handmade rubber stamps now is my need for simple stamp designs for my own handmade cards. I really need something simple but I can't find them at the craft store. Another reason is of course the price. I think it's better for me to try making them myself since the designs that I wanted are quite easy to do. 

I just start with something easy and who know perhaps in future I will be able to make complicated ones. I have doubts about that since I have shaky hands. It's not easy to carve when your hands are shaking. It's a real challenge.

I love making stamps like the ones I made above. Simply because they are the easiest type to make! Playing with the positive and negative space in a design is fun! And when carving a rubber stamp using a design that has a lot of negative space is much easier compared to the ones with a lot of positive space. And I love carving out the positive space and just holding them on my fingers as they are just so cute!!

The ones below are the type of designs that has a positive image. They are a bit difficult to carve out. Really tested my patience but it was a good experience nonetheless. I just need to focus more and be gentle when carving them.

Of course this won't be the last time I carve rubber stamps. There will be more to come in future in shaa Allah. As long as there is a need, then there will be time for me to make them. This is just the beginning of a wonderful journey..... :).

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Pop up graduation hat card

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I got an order the other day to do a graduation card, but I didn't have enough time to do it. I didn't want to take the order at first but since my customer persisted, so I accepted the order in the end. But I told her, I only have time to make a simple one and a small one too since my schedule is pretty full for this month. Luckily she didn't mind it at all. :)

I believe......this is my second graduation card design. I don't really design graduation cards a lot. Don't really fancy making them that much as compared to other types of cards. Don't ask why ehehehe.

Well, for this design, I thought of doing something different. I thought of doing a pop up inside it. But didn't know what would it be until I saw a tutorial on how to make a graduation hat! That really caught my eye! Immediately I tried making it and I was surprised at how easy it was to make one. I really enjoyed making it and I especially love making the tassel for the hat! That was pretty fun! :D 

Since the card itself is pretty small, so the graduation hat had to be made small in size as well. That was the only thing that was pretty tricky for me to do. Especially since I have big hands, and chubby fingers, LOL! :D I also tried something new by stamping some flowers and colouring them and later making them pop below the graduation hat. Although it's very easy to do, I still loved it anyways since it's something new for me to try. All this time, I've always made pop up flowers from scratch, so making pop up flowers from rubber stamps were a fun thing to try out.

All in all, what's important is that I had fun.....and I tried something new.....plus, I made my customer very happy ;). You can view how the graduation hat pop up in the card at the video below:

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For a best friend ;)

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I'm so happy.....I finally finished designing this tri shutter card! My customer wanted me to design a tri shutter card for her best friend in a combination of red, black, pink and white. It's her best friend's birthday :). So I decided to focus more on the pink....using pink as the main color for the card as the birthday girl is so sweet and somehow I think that pink suits her best :).

As always when it comes to making tri shutter cards, I'm always having a hard time figuring out how to decorate it. As you can see, there's so many spaces to decorate. The more I study about tri shutters, the more I think I'm thinking too much about the design hehehe. Because I do see other designers decorating them in a simple yet beautiful layout. So I'm trying my best to be simple here but, oh well, I'll leave it to you to judge if it's simple or not hehe.

I made the patterned paper myself. Decorating a blank paper with polka dots and also stamping it with a floral rubber stamp design. I had fun stamping and decorating it with seed beads and tiny red flower sequins....somehow it makes me feel like a textile designer all of a sudden haha!

I really hope the birthday girl loves her birthday card! ;)

p.s. I had to cover up the faces of the people in the photo for privacy purposes. It's a request from my dear customer. ;)

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Design my own patterned paper

My own patterned paper!! 

I've been wanting to do this for a long time already. Thinking of ways to utilize my rubber stamps, especially my clear stamps that I have in my collection. I wanted to make my own patterned paper for my handmade cards. And this is just one of the many ways I could do it.

So I started making one today with all of my "Thinking of You" stamps  plus I added a lot of the heart shape stamps to it too. This is just one of the easiest ways to design your own patterned paper. You can add glitters, color them with markers, color pencils, distress ink........etc etc.....it's all up to your imagination.

Gotta be careful when stamping them actually because one mistake can ruin the whole piece of the A4 paper. Right now I wish I had more different types of ink color hehehe. I don't have all the colors I need so I just make use of what I have and make the best of it.

Can't wait to make more of this! I wish I have more time though.....hehe! :) I can do this ALL day! It's fun!! ;)

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Love themed rubber stamps

I couldn't help myself! I just had to buy these! hehe! Another great bargain! :) I got them at the Popular Bookstore recently. Couldn't help but buy it because of the things they offered in this DIY set.

There's 4 cards, complete with it's embellishments and also of course, my favourite would be the love themed rubber stamps that comes together with it's ink :) Love them!

There were more rubber stamps collection there that I would like to buy but tried my level best to control myself and just pick the ones that I really would use for my card making experiments hehe. I just go crazy every time I go into these stores. Especially if there are good bargains around. It's just too irresistible! :D

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Self-cling rubber stamps

Don't you just love a good bargain? Well I do! ;) And these rubber stamps are  really a great bargain. The first time I found out about this type of rubber stamps, was when my craft buddy Miyyah gave them to me as a gift. I was super excited about them. I think I've blogged about it as well before. You can have a sneak peak of it at the link HERE. The one she gave me was a sheet of rubber stamps that mostly  had designs of wishes/wordings. It didn't have any ink pads or rubber stamp holder in the set. But this particular one that I bought had them all included in the set. I love it coz now I have the plastic holder for me to use to stick the rubber stamps on it, which makes it easier for me to stamp with. :)

They have a variety of designs to choose from and I wish I could buy them all! LOL! :D Well, I just might do that actually hahaa.....since the price is quite reasonable compared to the other brands of rubber stamps that you can get at the craft stores which  are so highly priced. Of course they are expensive because of the high quality. But then, not all of us can afford it right? ;) 

These rubber stamps are quite durable. They are not fragile and very easy to use. They stamp well too. Love them!

Lately I think I've been buying too many stuff for my card making activities. Even though I do think I should slow down on the buying and concentrate on the making, I can't help but buy them because they are such a good bargain...hehe! Gotta get them when they are still available in the market....coz once they are sold out, there's no telling when the supplier is going to restock them so, I gotta get them when I can. :).

Not sure yet what I'll do with these rubber stamps......but I sure do hope I'll get to use them this year! :D We shall see! ;)

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