My name is Jane. I am a stampaholic.

Hello readers,

Miss me?

Since I attended my first rubber-stamping workshop, I had been fantasizing about the stamps I would carve. You know how obsessed I get when I'm sewing my bags? It's true for stamping too. My obsession has not reached Intervention level yet as I don't have my rubber blocks. While waiting for my rubber blocks to arrive (and I was prudent enough to buy just 2 blocks), I went out to buy more ink. I buy the little ones. They're so darn cute. I wanted to buy EVERY colour available. Fortunately my kids were with me and I have to set a good example. I only bought 5 colours.

These are all the little fabric ink I own. I have a brown ink which I use for my label but it comes in a big tray. 

The problem I have with buying ink is I can't tell how it will turn out on fabric. I am most happy with Poppy Red, Cerulean Blue and Emerald. They look fantastic on fabric. Have you heard of Cerulean Blue? It's such a gorgeous name. If I have a third child, I would call him/her Cerulean Blue and ruin his/her life forever. Alright, I'm kidding.

Cerulean Blue.

I'm hating Bubble Gum which is just pink. It barely shows on fabric. I'm thinking if I ever use pink ink, I have to use white fabric. But ewwwww.

I couldn't wait for my rubber blocks and used a tiny bit of leftover rubber from the workshop and I carved a simple leaf. My leaf has no veins as it's so small I have no idea how to make the veins.

Here I've sewn stem stitch for the branches. As you can see, I'm totally fine with cliché ideas. The apple is done in long and short stitches.

Yay, more Houses. I did not have any round rubber so I used a cork to stamp the tree and the flowers came from the rubber behind a pencil.

I have to admit that using cork is a last resort. Cork does not hold ink well.  I searched my home for something round and flat and couldn't find anything! The next time I'm at the stationery shop, I'm checking out the round or oblong shaped erasers. And I'm itching to carve a REAL tree.

Over the weekend, I looked in one of my many messy drawers and discovered a bag of treasures. Inside were professionally-carved stamps. They were all used before but they look fine. I have no memory of how I came to possess them. See the little girl I stamped all over? I did not carve that. I'm nowhere near that level of superbness. I dunno why. When I see a girl, I automatically think balloons. Or maybe I just have the cork in my hand?

Here I've added the balloon strings. Doesn't look so weird now, does it?

Here I used  more stamps I found in the Treasure Bag. The heart stamp is really intricate. The flowers look doable. Will try and carve me some next time. And I discovered a leaf with veins!

I'll be honest. Using professionally carved stamps is a lot of fun too. And so much less time-consuming. But once you've carved your first rubber stamp, I believe you'll be hooked. My rubber blocks have arrived. What shall I carve? These are just some ideas:

♥ Tree

♥ Skull

♥ Baby

♥ Bunny

I'll see you real soon.

I'm a happy stamper

Friends, readers, total strangers,

A confession. I thought I knew a little about stamping as I had read up a tiny bit on it. I had drooled over stamps and stamping and ink and thought all I needed was the desire to learn.

As I found out at yesterday's rubber stamping workshop at The Little Happyshop, you need to be steady with your hands. Let me just say this first. I enjoyed the workshop a lot. It might not show on my face but I did.

Who is this homeless looking guy? (Just kidding, Joe) He's the rubber stamp guru - Mr Joe Chiang of Monster Gallery. Yep, this is the man. Honestly, I took a bad pic of him. I blame it on the light.

Here's a better shot of Joe. (I pinched the pic from his facebook.)

There were five ladies in the class. It was held at The Little Happyshop and it looked like a happy shop. I kinda felt happy when in the shop so it's a good name. Very good fengshui!

These are the essentials for the class - rubber, scraper, sharp pen cutter, tracing paper and dark pencil.

The easy part is transferring the image to the rubber. A reverse image is transferred. Must remember this. I had to do this twice because the first time my outline was too thin. So I got left behind! I'm the slowest "kid" in class. At some point during the lesson, I heard Joe saying "Let's wait for Jane!" hehehehe

Cutting the outline is the hard part. If you're a stamper you'll know about the valley you have to carve out. I'm quite clumsy and was a little nervous about hurting myself. At home when I cook, it's common to hear me yell out in pain. In fact, my kids are so used to it they won't come running unless I cry out "Help."

Where was I? Ah yes, the valleys. They are harder to cut then expected. So I cut and I cut and at the end, my result is quite crude. My lines are jagged when they should be smooth. Also, I did not taper the waste enough so the stamping gets additional lines. But I got the idea. I'm the sort who gets better with practice.

When I reached home, I worked on the stamp a little bit more and it looks a little better.

This morning I had a few minutes to spare and decided to work on a new stamp. I made a tulip because I like using tulips in my embellishment. It looks like a crown. I'm not even sure I've seen a real tulip. Well, a tulip is pretty easy to carve but I managed to not get the precise outline again. Much more practice is required. Once I get additional rubber, I'm carving every day.

Ah, a peek at my inspiration notebook. Meet Teddy, my new bear. I named it after a dog. I have limited ink colours . I would love turquoise, teal, red and hot pink. I settled for this dunnowhatkindofblue blue. The pink was too light.

I combined the stamped tulips with some embroidery. I'm soaking it to see if the colour fades. If it doesn't, it'll become a coin pouch. What do you guys think?