Carol's Stamps and Stickers

At 2.30am, I manage to finish carving, printing and cutting stickers for Carol.

Carol request for the same stickers like Fliffy's, with the name and URL changed, but I decide to make a new one for her, using her favourite colors; pink, white and baby blue, and the heart-shaped candy is inspired by her current blog header. The design is really simple, as I don't have any drawing or photo-editing software, I have to draw it on paper and scan. The process is so time consuming, tiring and unflexible method as I can never undo any mistake. In fact, the drawing I made for the stickers are ATCs (maybe I can trade them one day, hehe). Please bear my limited design till I get myself a compatible laptop and appropriate softwares, namely CS3 and Illustrator.

I'm working hard for it, haiyahh!

My Carving Tools

People have been asking me the tools that I use to carve my stamps. They're art knife and wood carver (see above pic). And the stamp? It is just ordinary eraser. Yes, the same one like you have in your pencil case.

I just start to use the wood carver a couple of week ago when I start to receive custom made orders, just to make the removal of the outside area of an image a little bit faster. But without the wood carver, the art knife alone can still do everything. The knife has a few different type of blade, but the one that u see in the picture is good enough for me.

Yesterday, my husband told me to wait in the car as he need to meet someone at the person's site office. He did not tell me the meeting would take so long (maybe he also don't expect that). I waited about an hour an half in the car, and I tried so hard to be patient and restrain myself from turning on the aircond (fuel is so expensive nowadays, remember?) I tried to occupy myself with some sketching job for my recent orders. My neck and lower back start to ache and I felt like having a sauna eventhough the windows were widely opened. I could get moody anytime, but I tried to be rational and took out the knife and an eraser instead.

The above stamp is the one that I did in the car yesterday.

More Handcarved Stamps

Since the past two weeks, I've been wearing only jeans and t-shirt to office with absolutely nothing on my face. I spare no time for ironing my blouse and some of them are a bit tighter nowadays, so having less choice, I might repeat wearing a shirt just after it get dried on a hanger. Ironing is only for scarves and my husband's shirts. I carry my black jacket almost everyday, as it helps me to look a bit neater when necessary, rather than just looking like somebody going to market. I sacrifice the time for self-attention and sometimes spend too much on my artsy interest and stamp-making.

Above are some of my latest handcarved stamps.

Pupu's Stamp

Pupu's sketch

Finished stamps

In my previous post, I mentioned that Fliffy's stamp was my first commisioned stamp, right? But to be more accurate, Fliffy's was my first completed commisined stamp. Pupu's order came first but it takes time to complete hers.

She emailed me her own font, icons and kokeshies sketch. I think the blank Kokeshies idea is so cool! We can add details later and produce different characters using the same template. To those whose still don't know what a Kokeshi is, I leave it to you to discover it yourself in Pupu's blog (one of my favourite blog). I think you need to look for the Kokeshies in her older post as recently Pupu has came up with something totally different from her line work style. I like all her recent works (and kokeshies of course), as they always picture something dreamy and magical.

Oh ya, congratulations to Pupu as she has been accepted to continue her study in a local university in Brunei. Pupu, you rawk!

Blue Bird and Kitsune

I was jumping with joy when I received two mails containing ATCs yesterday! Both the cards are gorgeous! I keep looking at them, again and again...and smile.

Mangosteenskin Mermaid (by me) & Blue Bird by JC, San Leandro USA (succesful swap -July 2008)

I saw this bluebird ATC in M.A.D ATC and straight away fell in love with the simplicity and composition. I like the use of color too, as their combination somehow reminds me to my childhood, especially the ochre background (actually JC recycle an envelope). It reminds me of my aunty's cushion cover and curtains, while the blue and red, reminds me of the dolls me and my sister once had. Whatever stuffs bought for us, it usually either pink and light blue or red and blue. Then, if she get red doll, mine would be blue. If she get pink pants, mine would be blue. "Eh, asyik2 saya saja yang dapat biru ni?", Yes, we did quarell over that issues long time ago. Haha!

Okay, back to the blue bird story. I told JC that I would like to have this cute bluebird but I don't have any available card to be traded with her. She said she collects mermaids and would like to have one from me. So, my mermaid is born. I've sent her to San Leandro USA to stay with JC, and I hope she will feel belonged living with the other mermaids from around the world.

Kitsune, The Fox Deity (by Beeble from UMS) & Finding Heart Shapes by me (succesful trade -July 2008)

Beeble was my childhood bestfriend, and after that, eventhough we went to the same secondary school, we're not close anymore. In fact, we became totally strangers to each other. We've lost contact for years, eventhough we share the same village. I met her again during my final year at the university, I was leaving the place and she came in to work there. Now, she's a student again. I must say, our friendship is revived through blogosphere! All these days, I never knew she could draw. Look what blogs has done to us, sometimes in reality all we know is just skin deep but through blogs we could learn a litle bit more!

Beeble produces Folklore themed ATCs (find her other Folklore series ATCs in M.A.D). She reads a lot and I appreciate that she likes to share her readings. She includes some description about Kitsune in M.A.D. Meanwhile, my Finding Heart Shapes is one of the cards where I learn to use watercolor pencil few months ago. I was lack of idea and use heart shapes to create everything in the drawing; the butterfly, the flowers and leaves.