On my craft table: Hand carving rubber stamps.

I'm a craft supply junkie. I've had tools and materials to craft my own rubber stamps, plus books, for a little over a year now, and I'm only trying it out now. Sometimes I'm in the mood and sometimes not. Luckily, this time I was. I decided to do a little weiner dog from my own illustration. The first stamp I carved out a little too much than I wanted to, so I started another one. Then I realized that I wanted my dog to face the opposite way so I carved out a 3rd one. It's a lot of detailed work in a tiny area, my eyes are all crossed and I'm starting to see stars.

P.S., Japanese craft books are the best. I'm browsing through mines and getting so inspired!

Love the kraft paper in this book (below) and the cute stamped donuts.

I was asked for the ISBN #'s on these books. Here they are from left to right, according to the photo above.  ISBN4-309-28040-4, ISBN978-4-391-12991-5, ISBN978-4-8347-5631-9. 

If you would like to try your hand at stamp carving you can find supplies at your local craft store. There are a lot of places online too. I found this carving block similar to the one I have, on Misterart.com. And you can also find one by Dick Blick at Dickblick.com. 

And too, if you need more help, my lovely friend Ishtar has an awesome tutorial that she put together on her blog: {tutorial here}

A cute little shop in Hawaii

Wanted to share photos of a cute little shop here in Hawaii called Cupcake. They are a children's boutique but they also carry a bunch of stationery and goodies that I definitely love! I believe I've mentioned them before, it's where I got my Snow & Graham wrapping paper and cupcake notecards. 

I also purchased this tiny teddy bear charm a few years back. I wear it on a necklace.

Cupcake also has the cutest little party room inside of the boutique. Can you imagine having a birthday party or even baby or bridal shower there? I think it would be the perfect spot to have a girly fun time! By the way, I couldn't stop taking photos of that cute room! Love the lights and chandelier, the pom poms, the garlands, the branches....all of it!

More photos of my finished page

The little photo in the corner attached by the paper clip is a little inspiration piece that I gathered together and photographed. I'll try to post those photos sometime.

It's about time I posted photos of the completed page from Debee's class {Inspire Lovely}. I fiddle so much with my photos on the computer that it takes me forever. I just need to learn how to properly use my camera so I don't have to do as many adjustments with iPhoto. I am so sad too, I don't have Photoshop CS5 anymore, as I've previously cried about in an earlier post :(.... Oh it's so hard to make my photos the way I want them without that program :( By the way, the striped pennants that I handstitched were made from the security lining of envelopes that come in the mail with bills..hehe, I guess you can say that there's a good side to receiving bills in the mail.

So whatelse is up?

Today, I've been working on making a handmade greeting. I've got so many ideas in my head that I don't know which one to take on. I'd like to say I will photograph and post...crossing my fingers on that one :)

Last night, I went to see Eat, Pray, Love. I cried, and I hate crying at the movies. The locations for filming were gorgeous. Makes me want to take a relaxing voyage to get inspired for art and of course take a kazillion photographs. Loved Liz's (Julia Roberts) outfits, they looked so light and comfy. I haven't been to the movies since Clash of the Titans..haha, not the 80's version, the 2010 Clash of the Titans :)

Have a creative and relaxing weekend everyone :)

Crafting today: Paper and stitching

Wanted to share a few pics of my craft project that I'm working on over at {Inspire Lovely} the art class. This will be a page in my inspiration binder/album. 


Here's a peek:

Trying to download, straighten, crop, etc., the rest of my photos. Geez, that part takes forever, especially since most of my pics come out blurry when my hands shake :( I don't have a tripod that can move in an angle that I want it to. That angle is: straight down. So in the meantime, I'm on a chair or sofa standing and leaning over my work, trying to get exactly over, so I can shoot down. I know there is some fancy tripod or armature (whatchamacallit) for this type of photography. In the meantime my coffee shakes cause me to retake photos over and over. Hmmm...B&H Photo might have what I am looking for.

Gathering Inspiration

Gathering inspiration for a creative project today. I'm taking a class this week, taught by the awesome Debee Campos of {Art as Life} blog. We are painting and splattering, getting our hands inked, and having fun.
Today, before I started my project, I went through my stuff looking for things to inspire me, and in the process decided to capture a few things in photos. Sometimes when I see one thing, may it be a paper cut out, or bakers twine, it can lead to a little photo opp once arranged. So here's what I photographed on the side of my class project, a little gathering of things white and beige.