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…

Here’s the first batch, finished on Friday:

And the second batch, finished last night:

I want to mix up the colors more, but this is how they’ve worked out so far. I really like the textured cardstock I have, especially the Japanese “tsumugi” style (I think I got these from Hanko Designs or a local shop carrying their stock), I don’t really want to use the smooth variety. I might need to get some more after these postcards are done!

I’m not sure how many more I want to make, partly because I’m not sure how many I want to send out beyond the ones for swaps. I started a list the other day, so I should finish that and make sure I have the addresses I need, and then keep going.

Beyond that, I came across some simple projects on the Martha Stewart site, listed among ideas for easy handmade gifts.

• Decorative Decal Pillar Candles (with matchboxes)
• Map Coasters

I have plenty of maps saved in my clipping boxes, but I’d have to buy the coasters and sealant first. The matchbox one, though it’s not the primary part of the project, would be easy, and I have some blank matchboxes. We’ll see though…

Just post a comment on their blog, and they’ll choose one random winner from there. You can find more info on their blog.

I’ve been sending store-bought postcards through Postcrossing, but it’s really up to you what you send. I thought having some pressure, like in a swap, would help, so I signed up for a handmade postcard swap on Swap-Bot. The theme was open, so that made it easier.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been feeling very well this week and got so little sleep last night. So maybe it wasn’t the best idea to start crafting in the midst of this. I slapped together two postcards, using clipped magazine images, summer-themed stickers, and a bit of glitter and glue, but I really don’t like them. I’m going to chalk it up to feeling so awful, but so it goes.

What do you think? They’re pretty simple, so it’s hard to say much about them, I suppose.

I think for now I’m going to go back to the store-bought postcards, but maybe I’ll try again on some handmade ones soon.

What started out as a simple project turned into 30 intricately detailed pages in the first scrapbook I think I’ve ever worked on. It was kind of sad to realize that it was all done, but our friend really appreciated all the work we’d put into it. We also took photos of all the pages, so we’d be able to remember what it looked like.

It was really nice to actually see such a huge project through from start to finish, though the idea of actually buying supplies and using them up — sometimes the same day! — was a little new to me. I’ve always had a bad habit of collecting supplies I never used, so this was a nice change.

I might have one little project to work on in the next week, but I’ll have to wait until I post more about that. In the meantime, I’ve been buying a few things for myself on Etsy, and wanted to share some of the shops I’ve bought from.

I recently started thinking more about buying cute, dressy things for myself, so this was part of the reason for looking for items like this in the first place. And, as should be no surprise by now, they’re all Japanese in design and theme. The barrette and purse are both from Tago Design of Japan and the necklace comes from Ceeb Wassermann in Australia, who I’ve purchased a few necklaces from in the past.

Right now, digital things feel a bit more appealing (and easy), so I’ve made the occasional photo mosaic on Flickr, but that’s about it. Perhaps once I feel more interested, I’ll try my hand at something crafty again. We’ll see.

I have thought about posting links to other people’s works here, since I can at least appreciate other’s handiwork. If that sounds of interest to you, please let me know. In the meantime, I’m just browsing Etsy and Flickr to find pretty things others have made.

I hope you’re all doing well.

I got a bit tired of all the black and gray parts and switched over to the orange, which is actually a blend or orange and yellow and only half of a cross stitch. I haven’t done much of blending thread colors before, or varying stitches, but the effect is really quite nice.

I also tried to make some stickers last weekend, using Japanese papers (yuzen), a paper punch, and an adhesive machine. I was thinking of selling some on my Etsy store, just to see if there’s interest, but first I need to make a few more and take photos.

I also sent off my part of the Paper Swap a few weeks ago (cards and envelopes I made), and since then have been getting various parts from the other folks in the swap. My favorites have been some prints of various images, including a card from Frantic Meerkat and an assortment of prints from Snow Owl.

We got up there shortly after it had started, and parking wasn’t too bad. They had the entire Festival Pavilion reserved, and for a building that size, it was great to see it 3/4 full of craft tables. It was probably the biggest craft fair I’ve ever been to, and the best part was that there was no admission fee (other than parking, which ended up being $1 for 1-1.5 hours).

We made our way up and down the aisles, picking up a few business cards, inspecting items here or there, and continuing along. The first actual items we got were free promotional items from SF Weekly and Yelp, both sponsors of the event; the Yelp tote bag was especially nice.

As for the craft booths, I saw a few things that caught my eye, but I didn’t really feel compelled to buy anything right then and there. After awhile, it felt like everything started blurring together, with very similar items (so much vintage clothing!) and designs (enough birds already!) at one table after the other. That’s not to say that there weren’t any unique things there, but it just wasn’t earth-shattering or anything.

Now I recognize that part of it may be that I know a lot of what goes into making some of these things, and I see a lot on the craft blogs and online shops that I visit regularly. But even so, it seemed like there were an awful lot of similarities (and somewhat high prices) going on. Maybe part of it is that once you get to a certain level, you need to appeal to certain audiences to sell items. And maybe that audience just isn’t me. I don’t know.

That said, I will reiterate that I did see some things that I liked, even if I didn’t buy anything right away. I’ve bookmarked a few sites and plan on visiting them to reconsider a purchase. You might like to visit them too:

• Twinkle Jewelry
• Fernworks Fine Art
• Brookadelphia (no longer online)
• Seibei

I had a slow day at work though, so I ended up messing around with a few cross-stitch-related things. First, I tried playing around with an image in Photoshop, to see how difficult it would be. It isn’t so bad, but I didn’t have an easy way of figuring out the floss colors, so I let that sit.

At home later I fixed PC Stitch on my new laptop and it is so much easier than messing with Photoshop! I had an old copy that I bought off of eBay awhile ago, and once I sorted out some errors, I was generating patterns like nothing. I’ll need to clean a few up, but this will make it pretty easy, once I find my images. I think I might use something from a Japanese web graphics site I like, called Fool Lovers.

In the middle of my playing around, I ended up on the DMC web site, to find info on their flosses. It turns out that they’ve created a line of Hello Kitty stitching kits and patterns, including some cross-stitch. I’m not really enamored with Hello Kitty for the most part, but if you are, you should take a look at the new collection.

On a non-cross-stitch note, I woke up this morning to find an Etsy order for a few handmade items in my store. I haven’t sold anything handmade there in what feels like such a long time, so that was nice. Not that I’ve been adding anything new to it, or doing very anything much to promote it, so I guess that’s not a surprise. It’s funny because I’m trying to close down my eBay store for now, because I’d like a break from it, but I think I’m ok with leaving my Etsy store open. I’ve had some ideas for new things I could make and post there, and maybe eventually I’ll get around to doing that.

Great for little collages and other things, or try reusing the envelopes by turning them inside out, as shown in this Design*Sponge tutorial.