That's great... but what do ya DO with it?

Sometimes running a one-person rubber stamp business is a very challenging job. I forget simple things like, even though I had a ton of ideas on - how - to use the stamp images I was making, it's not always so obvious to other people. I spend a lot of time collecting and drawing new images for stamp theme sheets. Then, I'm somewhat surprised when the sales are really bad (sometimes it takes many months/all year to make just the investment cost back.) This isn't all bad, once the initial materials are paid off, I'm potentially sewing the seeds for future profit and business sustainability. Though it's hard when I think a design would make an appealing/popular stamp and I'm proven wrong.

While I have always imagined lots of projects for each image, and have sometimes added one or two example art pictures to each
rubber stamp page, I haven't dedicated enough of my time to providing you with project ideas. That's why I've been kicking it into over-drive lately with the creation of this blog & new tutorial pages around my site.

Last week
Tim Holtz was giving away these t-shirts that said "Do you see nothing" on blank space, and then on the other side "Or possibilities?" surrounded with a pretty collage art design. Obviously, most of us need a little help getting started with creative projects. Inspiration is everywhere for me, especially when looking outside at the fauna and flora. If I see a simple line-art stamp I imagine what it would look like colored and what materials it would look good on. Getting from that starting point, the "that might be neat" idea, to the finish project just requires the inspiration and daring. That's right, - bravery - is helpful when stamping/crafting. You have to be prepared to accept a failed project with grace, but if you allow yourself to play - just go for it - you also risk coming up with something AWESOME!

Easier said than done, I know. I spend much much more time thinking about a project than doing it. Now I'm making an effort to change that. As the saying goes, it's better to have tried and failed, than to never have tried at all. Also, I think that once you get going you'll find that you'll succeed more often. How cool would that be?



To start, I think that a few of the flower images on
rubber stamp sheet #Roma-119 may not show their true potential in the undecorated preview form.




I started by stamping the image a couple times on pink and lighter pink cardstock. Cut out the flower shape, then cut out only the center shapes of your duplicates. I've colored the image with color pencil and stickles glitter glue. When the glitter glue dried, I stacked the cut out shapes onto each other with a foam mounting square to create a dimensional look. (Other items used for tag: long rectangles large nestabilities die cut sets, computer fonts for type, birch leaf paper punch by punch bunch.)




This gift tag could technically be for any occasion, I thought about substituting "Merry Christmas" with "Happy Birthday" etc., but something about the flower seemed christmasy. Had I thought of that before starting I may have made this a deeper red theme instead of the pink.

I've also imagined another project with the flowers as wall art. Hopefully I'll get to it soon, but I think it would be neat to cut little green paper vines that creep up my wall and place some of these flowers along the vine. There are also butterflies on this sheet that could be nesting on the flowers or vines as well. These pieces can also be used as embellishments for card making (a replacement for some of those expensive pre-made stickers at the craft store?)
Off to brain storming I go!

<3
Kimberly