Lost ones... new ones...!

Some time ago I had a give away. I made a lot of tiny and bigger stamps (have a look here *sniff*) and send them over the ocean. Sadly as much as I love snail mail... sometimes snail mail and I, we don't go too well together. The stamps were lost somehow, somewhere on their way. Strange how much it hurts! 

But also there was one person waiting for the stamps she won... which never came. Also a really bad feeling...!

Therefor I carved some new stamps and send them on their way. Hopefully they'll arrive this time!

The tiny ones: Some numbers, tiny ornaments (look great if you make patterns with them!), a book, a tree... and time... everyone needs time!

The silhouettes for the swallow, the owl and the pegasus I got from Karen's graphics fairy :)

As you may see (the numbers are cm), it is not the smallest stamp :)

I changed the owl a little bit. I gave her some white "ornaments" ^^ 

Stamp your frames

This is my newest stamp. Nothing new in the design because I already made several frame stamps. But this one is nevertheless something really special: I made it just for myself! ^^ 

Now the question came up what to do with a frame stamp. Most of the times I use little frames for post adress on snail mail envelopes. 

Here I used some (rather cheap, you can see the colour spreading a little bit) red and violett ink pads on old cardboard... and cut out the inner part...

From the same old cardboard (you can see some glue dots and stuff like that on the surface, I just recycle good cardboard I get from packages and co :)) I cut several small and long pieces for the sides...

...just glued 4 pieces together... I wanted a little 3D effect in the end...

...glued the finished pieces on a different (also recycled) card board...

...you see the layers?

...and just added my stamped frame with the cut out on top.

The finished frame :)

Dream - a lot of new stamps... and all for you!

You know, I take part in several linking parties (I think most of you know, that's how many of you stumbled over my blog... or I over yours! :) ). In the beginning of july Katie from Sew Woodsy (aka Mrs. Sew Woodsy) featured my hand carved stamps I made for Silke from "für große Mädchen".

Katie asked me whether I could think of having a giveaway together.

Hey, of course I said yes!

There are a lot of good reasons for...

• I just love to carve stamps!


• How can I say no to her while she loves my stamps? :)


• I am taking part in her linking party nearly every week


• She asked me at the right moment. Just a short time ago my blog reached the 100th follower... and I didn't even celebrate it somehow. I thought about a candy already for some time (Lachafa could tell you ^^) but let alone the decision about what... mh... 

So I failed to make one. Not so much because of the lack of ideas but more to the real lack of time and energy. I didn't have (and still don't have) the time because my computer time is mostly dedicated to make the last corrections for my thesis. I even cancelled an great event this weekend which dear friends hold around this time for some years now. It is a kind of summer ball and I am sniffing not to go and also feel bad to disappoint my friends (although they are understanding!).

Therefore the moment was more than perfect because all I had to do was to ask Katie what she thinks about this or that... and she managed all the work! She also has every week a linking party (which I think is so much work I never can believe someone is hosting one voluntary!). And she gave me weeks... months... to carve the stamps in my own time :)

So go over to her to have a closer view of the stamps (if you like them but I hope you do! :) ) and maybe let them be yours?

And if you go over to Katie... have also a look here! Because this is her working area which I am sooooo jealous of! :) I already asked whether she and her man could make some shelves for me! Hey... just across the ocean! ^^

Before I forget it... Did I already mention how much I love to carve stamps? ^^

And before you ask: Yes, if the mail delivery reaches you, I'll send it to you! Just don't forget that I am sending from germany so it may take some time until the mail reaches you :)

Giveaway will remain open until 11:59 pm EST on Thursday, August 25, 2011.
Which would be 05.59 am CEST on Friday, August 26, 2011 (for all the ones with central european summer time like germany) :)

Bronce tentacle envelope

The tentacle is made with acrylic paint (again ^^). It is just the best choice if there is only one colour is used to paint the tentacle because with the thick consitency it is possible to work not only in colours but with structures on the surface of the paint.

I overlayed the tentacle a little bit with black artistic water colour. But I used nearly no water and just a little bit of the colour itself.

The whole envelope: Just bronze tentacles and a little frame :)

The basic is this cardboard which you normally use to organise your stuff in paper folders. They are of a nice quality and stability to work with. I folded it...

..and cut one side a little bit so I could fold the other side over the smaller one and glue it down.

A book page was my basic material for the little frame. I just cut it out freehand...

You may draw lines where to cut before but I like a little bit of imperfections!

A space in between cutted out... The adress will be written down there!

I painted it over with artistic water colours: Two shades of brown and a little bit of black. The transparency of water colours is great so the text can still be seen through.

By the way:

Liebe Mama = Dear Mum

Lieber Papa = Dear Dad

This was really just by chance but somehow cute, no?! ^^

And the tentacles followed at last...!