The first big one for me was a swap about hand-carved stamps; you make one, you get one. I’ve made my own rubber stamps before, though usually of images from Japanese rubber stamp books, but, for some reason, it was a challenge to do it this time around. It’s just been so long since I’ve made one, so I felt a bit rusty, but I was also concerned that my partner might not like what I sent.

After reading Good Mail Day and looking through the related Flickr group, I’d found some lovely postcard collages I really liked, and wanted to make some of my own. (See Postcards from December.) Well, my partner for this swap turned out to be one of those collage artists I’d admired, so I wanted to make sure I sent something nice.

I took so much time debating on what the “right” image for her stamp would be, paging through every rubber stamp book I own (trust me, that’s a lot). I knew it was all self-inflicted pressure, so at some point, I just picked one and went for it. I got it to a point I liked and sent it off, forgetting to take a picture first. Here’s a scan of my test sheet though, with the final image at the bottom right:

When I sent the stamp, I also included a postcard collage I made, as well as a little note explaining that I admire her work and such. Hopefully she won’t think I’m a stalker or anything.

After this, I’m not sure what creative swap I’ll try next. I was thinking of a handmade postcard swap, but I’ve gotten a bit sidetracked. I had a few sad swap packages, but then I came across some lovely art forms that I’d like to try my hand at.

A few days ago, I was browsing someone’s Flickr favorites, and came across elise.blaha’s paper projects set. What really stood out to me were the books made from binder rings, combining all sorts of collected papers with photos, notes, and other items, in a sort of informal but beautiful variation on scrapbooking. Most of the individual pages are pretty simple, which I like, but then the books have different themes or time periods, which is nice and also very personal.

To me, the format is really great, since it’s so simple and flexible; you only really need something you can find at an office supply store for cheap, and the rest of the materials can be pretty much anything. I’ve been wanting to reduce what I have in craft supplies (some of which may be done through a giveaway here soon), so this might be a nice way to use them up. I just need to come up with a theme and a size, and then start making things.

However, I just came across another art form that really stood out to me, though I’m not sure if I can manage it. It’s called etegami and is a Japanese art form focusing on simple drawings done in ink as postcards. The intent is to draw something simple you see, like a vegetable, flower, animal, or whatever, add a message, and then send it to a friend. The subject can be something from your day or a seasonal thing, and the message can be a poem, a quote, or just a greeting. They’re not meant to be perfect though, and the rougher they are, the more interesting they can be.

I found out about etegami from Dosanko Debbie’s etegami blog, which is dedicated to her original pieces, and which was mentioned on the Good Mail Day Flickr group (she sent the book’s authors one of her postcards). She explains a lot about the art form on her blog, with plenty of examples, and I like that it’s not about perfection or even the end result. The experience of drawing what you see, and doing it for someone else (you must send them!), are most important.

I tried searching for more information about etegami, but, so far, I’ve only found a few things. Besides Debbie’s blog, the best is Etegami 24 Seasons, which is a series of videos showing a woman painting her own etegami through the various seasons. And there are a few examples on Flickr, so that’s something as well.

I did look into the supplies for making these, and they don’t seem too complicated. It mainly involves ink, paint, brushes, and paper, though the most authentic kinds are not necessarily easy or cheap to track down. I’ve seen inexpensive sumi ink and calligraphy supplies (brushes, ink well, practice paper) at Daiso, but the paint and washi postcards are harder to find. Kinokuniya has sets of the gansai paints Debbie and others in Japan use, but they’re rather expensive. I think standard watercolor paints could be used instead, though I’m not sure if they are quite the same. And I haven’t seen washi paper postcards before, but perhaps the calligraphy paper from Daiso could be used and cut to the right size.

My main concern though is the drawings themselves. I took a few drawing classes in school, but it’s not something I feel I’m good at. I know the idea is to keep it simple and even rough, and I like that the process is sort of a meditation on the object you’re drawing. I just fear I’ll end up with a blob of black ink on paper, and then I’ll just toss it all and quit. I guess you have to start somewhere though, so maybe I can start with some cheap calligraphy supplies from Daiso, and then see if I can track down some cheap watercolor paints, since all I have on hand are acrylic and gouache paints. We’ll see though…

Aren’t these gorgeous?

You can buy these and other handmade items from the creator at her Etsy store.

However, I’ve been starting to prepare for next month’s workshop, which will be on “washi paper quilting,” based on these kits from Hanko Designs. I’ve done a few of these pieces before, but the idea is that you combine washi paper, cardboard, and thin sponge to create a padded or quilted effect. I’ve been trying to find a pattern that will be easy enough for a first-time project in a class format. I was looking at the Hanko Designs page and saw mention of “kimekomi,” which they said is a traditional Japanese art (or craft?) that inspired their kits, so I started searching for that online.

What I found about kimekomi seemed to mainly refer to 3-dimensional dolls that use fabric and padding, with many layers to add dimension. They’re quite beautiful, but not entirely like the 2-dimensional pieces you can make with the kit. Then I remembered having seen some intricate 2D pieces like this in a local Japanese arts store, so I tried looking for that. Let me tell you, if you don’t know the exact term for something, using general but related terms takes awhile to get anywhere! But I eventually found what I was looking for.

Kurumie, or oshie, is another traditional Japanese art (or craft?) form that uses padded pieces of fabric or paper, but in 2D form. Some of them are quite intricate, like these kit examples, with many complex pieces and layering. The idea is still the same as the Hanko Design kits though. You start with a sturdy base, add some padding (cotton or sponge), and then wrap fabric or paper around it, finally assembling everything to create an overall picture. Some of them even have a bit of embroidery or painted areas on them, to add even more detail.

Anyway, I’ve been looking at so many web sites to find as much as I can about this art, but there isn’t a whole lot out there, especially about the history. It’s really great to discover things like this though, to see where certain creative forms come from and what from the past inspires people in the present. I’m going to continue to look into this as I work on my class examples, but I just wanted to share a bit of this in the meantime.

If you’re interested, I’ve bookmarked a bunch of kurumie links and I would highly recommend the Hanko Designs kits (and their other items) if you want to try your hand at it.

It all started when I was reading through my news feeds and clicked on a link to view Sally’s blog. I don’t normally view her site directly, so I hadn’t seen the design of it in awhile, including the gorgeous aqua color she was using for header text and links (sadly, it’s gone now). I became so enamored with this color that I started thinking of what it would combine well with, beyond the white, yellow, and gray on her site.

I kept thinking about these color combinations on my way to work, noting how colors I saw along the way might work or not work with the aqua. I thought about ways I could play with these combinations, either with paper, paint, or digitally. The last method made me think of a Flickr color tool I’d seen awhile ago.

When I got to work, I couldn’t find the exact tool, but I did find another that was rather fun to play with. The Flickr Color Selector lets you choose a color, and then it loads Flickr images that contain that color. It’s really quite fun to play with and I came across some really lovely photos, including some simple but beautiful ones by tomooka, a photographer in Japan.

I kept following this color kick, eventually coming across a few more color tools that are intended for creating schemes. First, the “kuler” site by Adobe lets you create schemes by starting with a base color and applying a bit of color theory to them, or by making your own custom combinations. If you use any of the Adobe CS2 programs, you can even download the schemes and use them there.

I also found a program called Color Schemer, which lets you do about the same on your own desktop. You can export the results to another program and even share them in their web gallery.

I poked around a bit to find some color wheel posters, but most were based on red, blue, and yellow. When I took a class about color last year, we focused on cyan, magenta, and yellow as the primaries, and I’m a bit fond of these instead. I couldn’t find a full poster, but I did find a nice CMY color wheel I’ll probably order soon.

I’m really quite fond of and sensitive to color, and this was a fun start to realizing its appeal yet again. I’ve been in a bit of a creative lull, but I’m hoping that this will get the juices flowing again. And all because of a single color!

First up was the Matchbox Craft Swap, which required making something tiny enough to fit inside a matchbox. I had some blank matchboxes that I’d bought for a past project, and I thought about making a miniature scene inside of one of them. I didn’t really know what to make the scene out of or where to find the right items for it, so I scrapped that idea and made a cross-stitched pin instead:

The pattern is my own creation, though I have to give proper credit to another crafter for the inspiration. I was browsing Flickr for cross-stitch and embroidery photos and found this lovely set of cross-stitched pins:

Very cool, and definitely not like the sappy cross-stitch stuff you find in local craft stores. I decided to start with this and play around a bit, and this will hopefully lead to some variations and further patterns. And if anyone’s interested, I’d be more than happy to share my pattern, either in PC Stitch or image format.

As for the pin itself, I basically stitched out the design and then sewed the fabric around some layered pieces of template plastic. I wanted to add a fabric backing with the pin back, but I got tired of sewing and just hot-glued the pin back on. Maybe not the best approach, but it gave me a reason to finally use the hot glue gun I’ve had sitting around for a few years.

I was still in a cross-stitching mood after this project, so when I moved on to the Coloriffic Swap-O-Rama October Swap, I worked in another piece. This month’s colors were orange and purple, and after reading that my partner likes elephants, I combined the two into this framed cross-stitch piece:

I found the elephant pattern online and modified it slightly, dropping the border and filling out the background to fit inside the frame. The frame came from a $1 bin cross-stitch kit I found at Michael’s; it was some awful candy cane pattern kit, but it was worth it for the frame alone and I tossed everything else aside. Stitching the elephant part was easy, but working on the orange background took forever, so I probably wouldn’t do another one like this, or at least not for a swap with a looming deadline.

My other handmade items for this swap included collaged postcards and mini envelope/card sets (my old stand-by), plus a bunch of drawing supplies and candy for my partner. Here are a few photos of it all:

And now I’m all done for a little while at least. I signed up for a Japanese-themed swap on Craftster, which I have yet to start, and then I think I’m going to take a break from swaps for a bit. Or at least the rather involved ones that require a bit more time than I feel like dedicating right now. It’s hard to keep up the motivation to do things when I’m not at work, and I think a project without a due date would be more relaxing and easier to get into.

I was inspired by the design on Metromint bottles, which have lovely silver labels with blue or green circles, depending on the flavor. It’s a very simple design, but I thought how it might work nicely as a card design, so I started punching out circles and making measurements.

I didn’t really get very far with the card idea, beyond making sample circles and sketching out some ideas, but I did end up making some bookmarks with circles of cardstock. I needed to finish off my last swap for the month, which is a reading themed swap, and I whipped up these bookmarks and laminated them before adding the ribbons at the top.

Very easy to make, and it gave me some ideas for color combinations to try out. Part of my inspiration came from these postage stamp bookmarks, which I’d seen in a local bookstore recently. I might try out my own version with the various stamps I’ve got saved, but that’ll be for another day.

Oh, and I almost forgot! I wanted to share some lovely items I recently bought from a few Etsy sellers. As part of preparation for my new job (which officially started today, though I only had to sort out paperwork), I’ve been doing clothes-shopping and picking out a few new accessories. I poked around Etsy for a bit to find a new purse and managed to find some really pretty ones.

First, I bought this gorgeous bag from Mint Workshop, which, even if it’s a bit larger than I’m used to, is so wonderfully made and beautiful to boot.

(More photos are available here.)

I also managed to find a cute business card wallet in a matching fabric, made by Keyka Lou, which I plan on putting my own business cards (when I get them) inside.

(More photos are available here.)

The quality of these pieces is so amazing, and I highly recommend checking out both of these sellers’ items. I try to support other crafters, and especially when I find pieces as great as these, it makes it even easier to do.

I’m still waiting on another Etsy seller purse to arrive soon, and am also looking for some nice, handmade pendants or necklaces for myself. (Recommendations are quite welcome!)

The South Bay Stampers meeting was held at a very cool paper arts studio called A Work of Heart, which I had intended to visit before but never had. The space was a bit messy, but it was full of all sorts of rubber stamp and paper supplies, including stamps, inks, diecut machines, adhesives, and a lot more. They apparently teach classes and rent the space out for parties and paper crafters.

Although there were only three of us in attendance, it made for a nice evening, with each of us working on various projects and chatting. I poked around the supplies a bit and then made envelopes for the rest of the time, spending most of my time talking to Khris, the organizer, about various crafty things. Khris teaches classes at the studio and has various crafty business ventures as well, and it was really great to hear about what it’s like. It definitely made me think about trying it out for myself (someday). We also talked about various craft blogs and organizing craft fairs, and I invited her to check out the South Bay Craft Group.

I ended up spending nearly 3 hours there and I had a pretty good time, so I’ll definitely be going to the next meeting. Hopefully we can get more people interested in joining the group and attending as well. Khris and I talked about this being a major issue in this area, that there are plenty of crafters out there, but not many get involved in groups, even if it’s totally casual and social. I’m not sure what the reason is (too tired? don’t know about groups? don’t care? too lazy?), but I’d love to figure it out. It’s frustrating because it seems like I always hear about cool crafty things happening up in San Francisco or thereabouts, but not often down here. I don’t mind driving up there sometimes, but it’s nearly 2 hours round trip, so I don’t want to do it all the time. My current thinking, though, is that if people actually organized and attended events down here in the South Bay, that interest would group and end up perpetuating itself. It’ll just take a bit of work to try and get to that point.

After the knitting thing didn’t seem to be working, I dug around my stash to find something I could actually do and feel good about doing. I found a kit from the DMC Linea series and decided to go with that. Basically, you get a fabric base item (purse, pillow cover) with a pattern already printed on, and then you can pick your own colors and stitch it all out. I ended up choosing some pinks and ended up with this after a few hours:

I think this series is DMC’s attempt to get a younger, more “hip” crowd into embroidery, which is fine by me, especially because it’s so easy to do and the kits are pretty nice. I don’t know if they’ve done well, but I know they look a lot better than the usual embroidery kits you find in the same aisle. It’s kind of depressing to look through all the same old designs of clothes-wearing teddy bears, fairy-filled fantasy scenes, and awful, inspirational quotes, so when I saw these, I was pretty pleased. I hope to work on a few more of these, and then move on to some of my own designs.

Originally, I was thinking that I’d buy some readymade items and embroider them, but after looking through some newly acquired craft books and fiddling around with my sewing machine, I think I might make some of my own from scratch. Awhile ago, I’d emailed Sarah of Hip to Piece Squares about how she makes her tote bags (aren’t they all just gorgeous?!), since I couldn’t find any good patterns elsewhere, and she offered a lengthy set of instructions to get me going. I put off trying it out for awhile, but after making a zippered pouch at our last South Bay Craft Group meeting, I was able to figure it out. The approach isn’t too different really, with one using handles and the other a zipper.

I messed up on a few bits and even had to rip out some stitches at one point, but I like it as a first try. I even made a little zippered pouch to go with it!

I’ve also been trying to catch up on old projects and intended projects lately, and it feels so good to get them done. First, I finally washed and ironed a major embroidery piece that I worked on for months and that is a very belated wedding present for a good friend. (No photos yet, but after it’s been framed and delivered, I’ll post some.) And then I sewed up a pillowcase that I had intended as a Christmas gift for my sister. It was so much easier than I thought:

She’s attending my alma mater and is a lot more “rah rah” than I ever was, so I thought this would be perfect for her. We’ll see what she says when it arrives though.

Anyway, I feel so much better having worked on all of these projects now. It’s just no fun being in between projects, so I’m hoping to keep up this momentum and move on to other things. It’ll help, considering that I have a bunch of swaps on Swap Bot to work on over the next month or two!

Earlier this month, they released a new line of scrapbooking kits, complete with album, paper, stickers, and other accessories, and in designs very similar to their other products. The papers are really quite lovely, and would make for great envelopes, so it’s too bad they don’t sell them separately!

First, I went to the Paper Zone store in Corte Madera, to see one of the stores I’ve heard so much about. I have to admit I was a bit disappointed though, mainly because they didn’t have many of the metallic papers shown on the site. Those “Aspire Petallics” ones on their home page are just gorgeous, but I guess I’ll have to order them online if I want them.

After a few other stops, I headed back south towards San Francisco, stopping to have lunch in Japantown. I stopped in the Kinokuniya stationery store there, of course, and looked around for a bit. I didn’t buy anything, but I did get some ideas for cards from the ones they had for sale. They had some really lovely cards that incorporated fabric and paper, and now I want to try something similar by wrapping chipboard or cardboard shapes in some sort of patterned material.

My final paper stop of the day was the Paper Source store in the Marina. I’d only been to their Fillmore store before this, but that one is tiny in comparison! They had a lot of really nice flat wrap papers, some metallic papers, and lots of amazing letterpress stationery. I picked out a few paper sheets and packs, and toyed with the idea of letterpress business cards after I saw a lovely card with blossoms on it.

I can’t really justify having any proper stationery like that made right now, but the visual effect of letterpress is quite nice. The color palette seems limited, at least among what Paper Source offers, but the debossed printing is great, especially done on certain textured papers. I bought one mini greeting card done in this style, but now I’m thinking about taking letterpress classes at The San Francisco Center for the Book.

I’ve actually been drawn to the idea of learning print design lately, mostly as a result of making my own stationery and browsing through paper stores. I’ve long had an interest in graphic design, but I chose not to pursue it while I was in school. It keeps coming up though, especially lately, so I’m thinking about it again, even if I just take a class or two. For now though, I guess I’ll just keep up with my envelope silliness.

Oh, that reminds me! I’ll actually be giving a little demonstration at next month’s South Bay Craft Group meeting, to show how to make envelopes. I’m trying not to make too much of it, but I can’t help but think of more and more details that I want to include. I figure I’ll cover the basics at the very least, but there are a few neat alternatives that would be nice to mention too. I just don’t want to bore people with nerdy little envelope things.

Speaking of envelopes, I listed a few assortments of origami paper ones on my Etsy store. I’ve only sold one item on that site before, but I figure it’s worth a try with a few more.