Spring Fun: Hand Carved Bumbershoot Rubber Stamps

 

Here at Bumbershoot we love rubber stamps. We use them in our mixed media art all the time. So we thought it would be fun to make our own stamps based on our logo, the little green bumbershoot.

 

 

We hand carved our stamps out of a block of carving rubber, but you can even use an ordinary eraser as a base. You can find a really excellent tutorial on how to do that here. Geninne's Art Blog did a whole series of interesting posts on stamp carving too! We used Speedball's block printing cutting tool for cutting and gouging the block, and ordinary scissors for trimming the completed stamp.

 

 

We experimented with different sizes and even freehanded this little stylized bell-shaped bumbershoot. 

 

 

In the end we liked best the results we got from tracing the bumbershoot logo and transferring it to the rubber. We used ordinary waxed paper to trace and transfer.

 

 

Jim made this stamp! It is our favorite, with the really crisp lines and perfect size. 

 

We had a lot of fun going through our stamp pad collection and trying out colors. Those test sheets are now a work of art as well. They would make great wrapping paper.

We had so much fun carving out little bumbershoots, and we're looking forward to sharing them with you. Watch your invoices - you never know when a colorful little bumbershoot may appear!

Vintage Design Inspiration Board #16 with Creativity Quote

Life is a great big canvas

and you should throw all the paint on it you can.

~Danny Kaye

Inspiration Board #16 features:

vintage straw millinery leaves (Paris, France,

wrapped with embroidery floss and vintage Czech button)

vintage mother of pearl buttons (USA)

vintage pearl leaf bead drops (Japan)

vintage glass mirror leaf cabochon (Western Germany)

vintage plastic leaf charms

vintage red glass leaf cabochon

paper wrapper from vintage sequins

twine from original boxes of vintage buttons

embroidery floss

vintage linen tea towel

stamped with Thicket Birds stamp by Memory Box, black StazOn ink

and embellished with French knots

mounted on 4x5 inch gallery wrapped canvas base

 

 

Christmas in July. Stamped Cards with Vintage and Antique Embellishments

I had a bit of time during the July 4 weekend to play in my studio, and inspired by the "With One Stamp" feature that Stampington publishes in Somerset Studio magazine, I decided to use one stamp and many different vintage embellishments from Bumbershoot Supplies and my personal collection to make a series of Christmas cards.

Each one is unique, but for every card, the stamp, colors, and and basic layout are the same. That made it easier for me - I felt my time was limited and I wanted results and I wanted them quickly!

I like this approach, since each card is as unique as each recipient, and I very much enjoy using the vintage supplies for purposes other than jewelry.

The stamp is Thicket Birds by Memory Box. I love this stamp, it looks just like my favorite place to walk, Discovery Park, Seattle, in the winter.  I purchased the beautiful thick creamy watercolor paper sheets years ago from Impress. For each card I used brown and red markers to ink the stamp, foil highlighting in red, gold or silver, brown striped fabric tape purchased from Stampington, and stitched in red thread with my sewing machine. These components formed the foundation of each card.

And then I added lots of different vintage embellishments.

Because life always seems so full, to make these cards I had to break the process down into very small steps.  Ink and stamp. Pick some orders. Stick on fabric tape. Answer emails. Pull out and audition embellishments. Do some data entry. Stitch each card. Talk with suppliers. Glue embellishments. Wrap up designs for shipping. Add foil highlights.... You get the picture!

There are lots of different vintage embellishments used in these cards, some you may recognize from Bumbershoot Supplies and some are perhaps less familiar. I love to use the original packaging materials whenever possible, so there are paper and strings that are from the 1940's and 1950's and were used to wrap buttons and rhinestones and cabochons.

We like to make as many Christmas gifts as possible, and now I feel great because I have made a good start on my Christmas crafting and I am emergized to continue! 

Vintage Design Inspiration Board #10 with Creativity Quote

Cherish that which is within you.

~Chang-tzu

Inspiration Board #10 features:

vintage fabric rose leaves (Japan)

vintage glass pearl drop (Japan)

vintage jet beaded ball (Japan)

vintage mother of pearl sequins (Japan)

vintage mother of pearl oval discs (USA), hand stamped

vintage ivory flower cabochons (Japan)

vintage pearl headpins (in flowers, Japan)

vintage hematite rhinestones (West Germany)

vintage braided trim (USA)

vintage Made in Japan paper tag (Japan)

vintage tiny pearl cabochons

antique silk embroidery floss

contemporary stamped shipping tag

vintage linen tea towel, hand stamped

mounted on 4x4 inch gallery wrapped canvas base

With special thanks to JoAnn Ouellet of Au Naturelle,

from whom I purchased the stamped shipping tag

 

Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week, "this too is love" Art Journal Page

"this, too, is love" art journal page

Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

~William Shakespeare from Sonnet 116

New at Bumbershoot Supplies. Welcome to Somerset Studio and Belle Armoire Jewelry Readers!

This week, we welcome new customers via Somerset Studio and Belle Armoire Jewelry magazines to Bumbershoot Supplies.  We are thrilled with your response, thank you!  It's been a busy week packing and shipping orders but I've still found a moment or two to restock 9 of our items and add 10 new items since our newsletter on Sept 1.  

I'm continuing to expand the trims and millinery section of Bumbershoot Supplies, this week adding vintage fabric lily of the valley stems in 4 lovely colors.  When the weather gets grey and you need a reminder that spring always comes, these may be for you...

We have one new vintage glass pearl bead drop this week, the lovely twisted leaves shown in the photo above, making a total of 12 different vintage glass pearl bead drops offered at Bumbershoot Supplies. These are vintage Japanese, and we also have some new vintage glass flower cabochons from 1940's to 1950's Japan, 2 paisleys and one 18mm round...

These are just a few of our new items. I invite you over to Bumbershoot Supplies for a bit of window shopping to see the rest.  Keep watching over the next few weeks as we continue to expand our offerings with more vintage metal items, some beautiful rhinestones, a collection of french jet mourning beads, additional vintage glass pearls, plus more of those lovely vintage Japanese hand painted flower cabochons....

Until next time, wishing you a great weekend!

The Pleasures of a Long Weekend, Art for Fun

Art for fun. For no purpose whatsoever. Just to be creating something.

With Bumbershoot Supplies and Bumbershoot Designs, I am surrounded by things artistic all the time. It is a true blessing. Most days are very full, and that's why I love long weekends, because there usually is some open time to just potter around the studio.

When I want to create for fun, for no good reason, I usually turn to mixed media art, where I began.  I love the lack of rules.  I love that anything goes. It feels like me.  

This past long weekend, I wanted to use some of the wonderful supplies I received from Sarah Elder at mysocalledjunkylife on Etsy.  You may remember her as our featured artist a few weeks ago. I love her trim tags and other wonderful vintage art supplies, and I treated myself to some. 

The heart, lace and seam binding are from Sarah.  I tea dyed the tag, stamped it with gesso, and collaged with some painted, stamped and foiled vintage sheet music. Stitching, that makes a piece feel complete for me, plus some rhinestones, the little ones are from Bumbershoot Supplies.

I didn't begin with this in mind, however, this tag is going in the mail to London today, a birthday gift for my greatest friend Susan, who never reads my blog, so the secret is safe here :) 

Three Muses. Relationships. Love the One You're With

This is my entry for this week's challenges at the Three Muses, "relationships", called "Love the One You're With".

This is a 6x6 inch art quilt made with more of my stash of hand dyed fabric, which I sun printed, then wrote on with white pen, stamped, stitched with metallic thread and finally foiled.

The one you are always with is yourself.  I've always found that my relationships with others, be they humans, animals, and even the plants in my garden, are so much better when I am in good relationship to myself.  This art quilt is my reminder of this personal reality.

Happy Birthday Party. Wednesday Stamper

We are partying as you read this because today is my daughter Emma's 16th birthday! A very special day for me, since she is my firstborn, and it marks the day I became a mother.

This artist trading card (ATC) is my entry for this week's theme of "party" at
Wednesday Stamper.

It uses a beautiful swirly stamp from the Michelle Ward series, just like ribbon party streamers. I've added stamped circles using a handmade stamp, made from foam pieces. I've also stitched and embellished with transparent flower confetti, sequins and glitter.

Three Muses. Legs. Kitten Art Quilt.

This is my entry for this week's theme of "legs" at the Three Muses.

For over 8 years now, we have fostered kittens for the Seattle Animal Shelter.  We do not do this all year round, just during kitten season.  I thought I would honor all the four-legged creatures who have passed through our home and blessed us with their presence.

Hand dyed fabric, photo transfer, vintage charms, stitched transparencies, stamping.

It's so much fun to watch the really tiny kittens find their sea legs. Their legs are so tiny that we have to teach them how to use the litter when it is in an old cookie sheet on the floor - they can't handle anything higher. The bottle babies have to practice just walking at first.  And they walk through everything, litter, food, water, it's pretty messy for a while. Pretty soon, though, they figure it out and start tearing around the room we reserve for our fosters, and then it's just crazy fun to watch them slip and slide on the hardwood floors.

Our family came to this choice after losing our 17 year old brown tabby, Alu. She was really my cat - I got her when I was in graduate school. I really did not want another animal, but my children really did want a pet, so we compromised and decided to try fostering, and it has worked out wonderfully well for us. To see one of our foster babies, see this Monday in Seattle post.

Three Muses. You Are What You Eat

This is my response to this week's Three Muses challenge, "you are what you eat".  And I eat a lot, A LOT, of chocolate. I have a studio chocolate bowl... I love just about everything that is chocolate, including the chocolate wrappers...

This is an ATC made of fabric paper - where I have collaged layers of paper chocolate wrappers onto muslin, added metallic threads, put on an overlay of netting, then burned, stamped paint circles, stitched, and used some vintage embellishments: ribbon, beads, and a mother of pearl button turned to show the mottled shell on the back. Like a little white chocolate, with drizzles.

Luckily, Seattle is home to a number of great chocolate companies, such as Seattle Chocolates, Fran's Chocolates, and my favorite local company, Theo Chocolate.

If you visited my post for last week's Three Muses challenge, you know I also love tea.  With tea and chocolate together - oh my, life is fine indeed!