Adding a handle to your clear mounted stamps

Just a quick tip today, something I found useful when using clear stamps that are mounted onto thin acrylic blocks. I realise this is a bit of a niche problem that I found a solution too, I'm sharing just in case anyone out there finds it useful too! This post contains affiliate links to the products I used. If you purchase an item using a link you will not be charged any extra but Sum of their Stories will receive a small commission.

I was originally going to call todays post "How to use clear stamps mounted on thin acrylic blocks with a traditional office ink pad without getting your hands dirty" Snappy title eh?  A few months ago Sum of their Stories had a makeover and a bit of a rebrand. I designed myself a new logo and the lovely Fran at Little Stamp Store made me some custom stamps. I am SO pleased with my stamps and the custom service from Little Stamp Store was amazing.  I use my stamps for a few things, one goes on the back of greeting cards that I make for sale, one is just the logo which is handy for all sorts of things and one I used for mass producing my business cards. 

I make my business cards from old greeting cards and packaging. Kleenex tissue box are one of my favourites, they are so pretty and perfect for turning into business cards.  When I make these I use a regular office style ink pad and this was where I ran into an issue with my lovely mounted stamps.  I didn't take any before photos so this is a bit of a spoiler! You have to imagine this but without the cork.

See how my fingers end up in the ink? I know for fancy stamping you are supposed to do ink pad to stamp so the whole thing is upside down but for speedy mass production on business cards or stamping on the back of 20 handmade greeting cards I want to do a quick stamp, stamp, stamp.

The solution was easy. I glued a cork to the stamp and now I have a fine and dandy handle. 

For some reason I felt an action photo was necessary. Maybe I felt this would be too hard for you to visualise! 

You just need to make sure you use a super strong glue. I used Gorilla Glue 60ml which expands as it sets hence it is a bit messy around the join, but this baby is not going anywhere. I'm sure other strong glues would work just as well. 

That's it, old corks turned into handles for my mounted stamps.

I have a small collection of clear stamps, the rest are the cling ones (mostly freebies that have come with magazines) that you pop on and off the acrylic blocks. I have a couple of the acrylic blocks which are thicker so this issue doesn't arise with them, it was just these Sum of their Stories ones that were already attached to their thin blocks that left me with inky fingers. Anyone who stamps will know once ink is on your fingers it's on your work, your table, your face - everywhere!

Anyway, this has worked for me. Maybe one day you will have a similar issue and have a vague recollection of this simple solution.

Handmade Monday #31

Welcome to another Handmade Monday Craft Link up!

Hellloooo and welcome to this weeks Handmade Monday. This is the place where we share our makes, bakes and other handmade craft ideas, find some new inspiration and connect with our fellow bloggers.

How's your week been? 
Most of this week was an absolute scorcher in the UK, we've all been getting outside to enjoy it as much as we can. UK people know to grab good weather whenever they can, for some reason we think it won't last!! I've not had much crafting time but I have been continuing with the fun instagram challenge #ColourMyEveryDay and when the prompt was 'Natural' I stopped for 5 minutes on my way home to take these photos.

This is the style of planting our local council have been doing for a few years now. Instead of old fashioned planters full of expensive bedding plants they dig up a strip of grass either in the central reservation of main roads, on road sides, and large roundabouts and sprinkle wild flower seeds instead. The results are stunning, last all summer and come back again for several years without them having to do a thing. I admire this section of planting everyday as I zoom past in my car so it was lovely to stop and really appriciate it.

Here are the features from last weeks linky:
Has everyone been following the progress Catherine from Hillview Embroidery has been sharing over the last few months on her beautiful canvaswork castle? I have loved seeing it develop over time and now it's finished - YAY! What an achievement.

What would you do if you saw a broken chair and a scaffolding plank in a skip? Me - I would probably just walk on by but Claire from Pillar Box Blue has other ideas. She made a bench - of course she did - so now her family have somewhere nice to sit when they put on their shoes whilst we still plonk ourselves on the stairs in our house!! 

Congratulations to both of you, here is a "Yay! I was featured" button for your blog.

<div style="width:100%;text-align:center;"> <span style="margin:5px;padding:5px;border-radius: 5px;border:1px solid lightgrey;display:inline-block;"><a rel=_nofollow href="http://www.sumoftheirstories.com/"> <img style="border: 1px solid gray;width:150px;height:150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJK6GjfiYCihYs7yN5bI2KiuuM6RlAoPTFz8KVoDUqHF3puN9_2mSVFcI9FdaVhyf8DJULWyM24nNIqTYSdh2Fbjj24s7SvAQHhry3rWdocC8lEPpqg59szjVwSiNCeCOKKFS5YEIADQ/s200/Handmade+monday+featured.jpg"> <p style="allign: center;"> </p> </a></span></div>
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Handmade Monday is all about building a craft community, please so take a few minutes to visit some of the other links, leave a comment, and maybe share your favourites on the social media of your choice if you can.
We have a facebook group where we share useful or interesting things too so send a request if you'd liek to join us. 

The rules for Handmade Monday are simple:

• Did you make it? Yes - hooray, we'd love to see it!
• Add the link to a specific blog post, not your main site URL.
• Link up to 3 posts each week.
• Mingle - visit some of the other links - comment - share - let's support one another and grow our craft community.

If you're not sure on anything, more information can be found here.

An InLinkz Link-up

Watercolour and doodle cards

I have had so much fun recently getting a watercolour effect just using regular kids colouring pens then doodling over the top when they were dry.

I'd seen on Instagram a few people using Tombow pens as watercolours and it got me to wondering if those regular, inexpensive felt pens the kids had loads of over the years for colouring would work to. What I discovered is, that if they are the ones that say they wash out of clothes, then yes, they do - huzzah!  I do have a pack pf pastel coloured Tombow's as well and I can confirm they work really nicely too. 

To make your own watercolour and doodle cards you need: Washable felt pens A fine line permanent pen - mine is a sharpie Paint brush Watercolour paper A card blank & envelope

For the mandala cards I started by drawing round a tin lid, then filling in concentric circles with colours of your choice.

Then wet it with your paint brush until it's all smudged, the colour will start to spread immediately but your circle will still be pretty "line-y"

Leave it to dry, after about an hour mine looked like this:

Nice, but still a bit lined. At this point I thought it wasn't going to work with the cheaper pens.

Next morning when it had completely dried I was super pleased to see the lines had almost disappeared. Now you are ready to doodle with your fine pen. Mine is a sharpie but i think other fine liners would work too. These ones I did freehand, you can see they are a little wonky but I'm not unhappy with that look. 

You can see my tutorial about drawing more symmetrical mandalas here if you want some more ideas. 

Next I simple cut them out and glued them onto card blanks.

Next I tried a more rectangular shape of felt pen 'watercolour' and drew feathers on top.

I added the greetings with stamps.

There are no step by step photos here but they are done in exactly the same as the mandala ones. Scribble with the water soluble felt pens, wet with the paint brush and then leave to dry completely.
Then doodle whatever you fancy. I did feathers filled with doodle but I'm thinking they could easily be tweaked into leaves.

The colours don't blend quite perfectly but I love that you can get this effect with something as simple as a kids felt pen or two.

I do have some bits and pieces of actual water colour and some water soluble colouring pencils that I had as a teenager (never throw anything away that might be useful!) so I'm going to do some more experimenting soon. 

There are millions of ideas online for zentagling and doodling (I have a board on pinterest if you want some more inspiration). If you are not feeling very artistic then you could use stamps, but honestly the doodling doesn't have to be complicated to look pretty. It's all about overall effect rather than expert drawing - have fun! 

Handmade Monday #30

It's time for another Handmade Monday!

Welcome to Handmade Monday, the place to share your makes, bakes and other handmade craft ideas or just find some new inspiration.

How is everyone? Spending time making a fuss of any Dad's in your life I hope. Have you had any time for making or baking this week? I rustled up a quick Father's Day card for my dad inspired by the idea shared here last week by The Crafty Lumberjacks. I did mine a little differently from their tutorial in the end, just using what I had, but "Thanks guys" for the idea!

Now, without further ado, here are the features from last weeks linky:
I'm amazed by the beautiful attention to detail that Lina from Sew Historically put into this beautiful Edwardian Lace combing jacket. To be honest I'd never even heard of a combing jacket so it was a little history lesson at the same time.

Wendy from My French Twist shared this beautiful macrame hanging herb garden. As a child of the 70's I have a soft spot for macrame so I love to see a modern take on it like this. 

Congratulations, here is a "Yay! I was featured" button for your blog.

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Handmade Monday is all about building a craft community, please so take a few minutes to visit some of the other links, leave a comment, and maybe share your favourites on the social media of your choice if you can.
The world is full of sadness at the moment with a host of tragic events so let's spread a little kindness but taking time to support one another.

The rules for Handmade Monday are simple:

• Did you make it? Yes - hooray, we'd love to see it!
• Add the link to a specific blog post, not your main site URL.
• Link up to 3 posts each week.
• Mingle - visit some of the other links - comment - share - let's support one another and grow our craft community.

If you're not sure on anything, more information can be found here.

An InLinkz Link-up

Mandala Painted Sewing Box

I'm really excited to share this sewing box makeover with you today. It's been on my 'to do' list for a few years so I'm happy it's finally done and that it turn out as well as it did. 

This sewing box belonged to my mum, I think she had it as a wedding present back in 1967. Growing up it was always in the corner, stuffed full of sewing bits and pieces. I remember we always used it as an extra seat at the dinner table at Christmas and other family get togethers too. 

It had definitely seen better days, the legs were very scuffed and the top was quite badly scratched and watermarked. I use it as my sewing box now and it sits in the corner of our dining room which is all whites and greys so it looked a bit out of place. Time for a makeover.

I unscrewed the hinge, took the lid off and the "don't open too far" chain thing, gave it a good clean and a light sanding. The green fabric lining inside was ok and so I didn't even try to remove it. I just taped it up carefully and painted the sewing box with 3 coats of Painter's Touch Satin paint.

Once it was all put back together it already looked much better.

I wanted to do something a bit fancy on the top and after a little thinking time I decided on a simple mandala.   I drew some circles with a soft pencil, just drawing round a mug, a saucer and a plate, then filled in a mandala pattern. You can see a more comprehensive tutorial about drawing mandalas here. I've not balanced the colours on these photos - it is all the same thing, honest! - but any messing about made it impossible to see the pencil lines!

I painted the lines with a grey acrylic paint and a fine paintbrush. The finished mandala is clearly hand painted, it's not perfectly symmetrical or even but I like that. If you wanted to try a more perfect look or were just not confident to draw your own design then a stencil would be a good way to go.

The sewing box has a tray that sits on the lip inside. No 'before' photo I'm afraid but it was the same wood as the main box. It had 3 coats of the same Painter's Touch satin paint.

I lined the base with some scrapbook paper. I didn't stick it down, this way I can change it easily if it gets grubby. 

I needed something to keep my sewing machine bobbins under control so I took a small cardboard box (this one had had pritt glue sticks in it) cut it down and covered the 2 halves in the same scrapbook paper.

Ta-dah! This is as tidy as my sewing box has ever been, or is ever likely to be!

I'm so happy with how this turned out. I was a bit worried that I might mess it up and wish I'd never started but no, all is well.