I just added to the shop this rubber stamp. This stamp is not hand carved but it looks just like my 'little girl' personalized hand carved rubber stamp. These are way better and I love the fact that they look more professional without loosing the hand made feeling, besides, I am more productive this way and I will have more time to come up with more and new designs with the same hand carved look.
I recently made this 'Ex Libris' bookplate stamp and I just love the way it turned out. I have had a drawing of this stamp for long time on my little sketchbook and decided to give it a try. It came out much better than I had anticipated.
Another thing I am giving it a try is Adobe Illustrator. It is so much fun and it gives to my illustrations a more clean and nice look. I am pretty new at it but I am working really hard to learn the technical part of it, if you are not familiar with this program it can be a little bit frustrating. Here are some simple and quick drawings I made using Adobe Illustrator.
Banner for Blue Nest Boutique at Etsy
Monkey Button vector using Verlee's blog Tutorial
I hope everybody had a wonderful holiday season! I indeed had a nice vacation and enjoyed spending time with my family. But I am finally back, ready to work , energized and creative.
Despite of the cold weather and tons of snow that we are receiving from mother nature, I have been quite busy doing lots of crafty things this month. I have updated my shop and added new stamps, they are all available now and here you can see some pictures.
I have been "baking" like crazy, but not regular baking since I am not very good at cooking and baking :P. I am talking about "baking" little shrink plastic projects such as brooches, hair clips and buttons (some of these are available at my shop).
This is a lot of fun and these are some photos of what I have been making with this wonderful material (I will have a free tutorial on this pretty soon too).
Another project (this came out of an unfortunate situation) is this t-shirt I made for my daughter. Well I did not make the t-shirt but I made the iron-on design shown on it. This came to me after a friend of mine wrote me to tell me that she found a photo of someone else that copied my design to put it on t-shirts. But the problem is that this person never asked for permission and is giving herself credit for the design. I have been reading a lot of stories like this around the Internet; it is very frustrating and disappointing. The picture below is the t-shirt I made using my own design.
In another more happy note, I want to remind you that I will continue posting free tutorials and more embroidery patterns. I have new designs for embroidery that I am very impatient to try and share with you. The next tutorial is coming soon and it will feature the shrink plastic projects.
I leave you for today with some pictures of the snowstorms we received a day before Christmas. Happy New Year!
I love drawing so I came out with these owl designs that I will be using to make a hand carved collection of owls. These are not the only illustrations I have been working on for stamps, I got many many others, just can't find the time to scan all them. That is my project for next month. 
In the meantime I am just selling a limited edition of hand carved stamps on my shop, the next batch will be more affordable since they will be exact reproductions of my stamps but made on red rubber. They will be more affordable and that will allow me to have more time to design new items.
Hope you had nice weekend!
I have made plenty of resolutions for this year. Although sometimes I still don't know what path I will be taking in life, I think I am getting to know myself a little bit better. That makes it easy to picture myself in the future.
New Etsy shop Avatar
But in any case, as you can see I have a new banner. Occasionally I need some change to feel renewed from time to time. I have been thinking on a new haircut too, I used to change hair styles very often (and dramatic changes too). I have been longing a cute short hair style for long time... maybe one of these days. But that is who I am; I like change, but the kind of change that is obvious. It gives it a new atmosphere and sensation to the everyday life.
OK, I just wanted to share with all my visitors my new banner and hopefully it gives to my blog a fresh image. I leave you with a LINK that I posted last year (when I had no visitors :() Check it out, it is a very nice Japanese website that shows how you can make nice children bags from old children clothes. Love those sites :)
LINK: Kid's Remake Bag
Hello everybody!
I am here again trying to catch up with my blog. Don't think I am lazy :) because I have truly been very busy and it is taking me very long to come back to normal after the Holidays. But finally, I got a quiet little piece of time to write about all that has been going on in my crazy crafty life :)
Tiny stamps I made
First of all I want to wish every person that reads my blog a very happy and prosperous 2008 year. I received a lot of comments and e-mails wishing me a happy holiday and new year, I thank all of my blog visitors; I truly appreciate the time taken to come and say hi to me. And in gratitude, I want you to know that I am working on a couple new tutorials, but I want to ask you too that if you have any questions or suggestions I would be very happy to create a tutorial about anything (crafty of course) that may interest you. I am not very good at cooking and baking, so don't ask me anything from the culinary arts (unless is Mexican :)) So keep and eye on my blog to see what I am crafting and sharing with you.
Well, talking about crafts, I have been very fortunate (and crazy busy) with the shoppe. Yes, my etsy shop is doing good with the stamps, a lot of people like them and that is good because I can't get enough of it. I love to come up with new designs and ideas, even though my wrist and fingers are sore of so much carving. My husband keeps nagging at me about being careful so I don't "cut an artery", lol. He is so funny! :) But yes, I did cut myself a couple times (no an artery though), so if you want to try this craft just be careful because it hurts!
Valentines
I am showing you here some pictures of the new stamps that I carved. I carved these to make some Valentines for the upcoming Valentine's day. Last year i could not decide on any of those that they sell at the store, there were so many and I bought them in a rush. But this time child and I are going to stamp many Valentines for everybody, which is more fun than buying them.
I am working on many custom stamps as well and here is one that I made for my child. It kind of looks like her a little bit. People are loving this one and I got several orders for similar stamps.
Name stamp
But with the continuing snowstorms around here I am getting a little behind on the shipping part. You see, I have to go to the post office to ship international orders and I am very afraid of driving on snowy roads. Being from a warm place where the only ice you see is the one from the snow cones (and the freezer) I guess that is normal.
Stamped Twill Tape
But anyway, I am dying for doing some sewing too. I miss my sewing machine :( I wanted so bad to sew a coat for my child this fall that I think I will have to wait for the beginning of the spring to sew one. I don't know but I have a thing for homemade winter coats. I always loved winter, even when I lived in Mexico I made several winter coats. And yes, people there thought I was crazy, specially in the afternoon that is when the sun really burns your skin :)
I love sweaters too and I remember my mom saying that how in the world I was wearing sweater in the middle of the summer, and in Mexico! OK, I don't want you to think that I am crazy and don't want to bore anybody here.
Well, thanks a lot for the nice comments received and I wish everybody a very Happy New Year!! :)
I am so excited about Christmas getting close since we will have more family with us this year. I am really looking forward for this season and I have not even started the shopping. Well, I am not worry about it very much since we get things for each other during the year so it is difficult to think about presents by this time of the year.
Anyway, just wanted to show some new stamps for this season and tags that I made. Friends and visitors have been asking about how they can make their own tags, round and square, because they can not find in their area. So I will post a tutorial and tips very soon so you can make your own tags, it is very easy and you only need to invest a little bit of money and time.
OK, here are some pictures and you can find all these goodies at my Etsy Shop
Oh boy! What a week! So busy around here, but it is getting better and I am getting the hang of it with the shop, the house, errands and everything else. I guess it takes time to have every little thing under control, specially when when you want to do it all!
Anyway, this post is about showing my visitors one of the other things I like to do (if you have not noticed it), and that is drawing. I am not what you can say "a real artist", I least I don't consider myself that way; I just like to draw when I feel inspired.
I remember when I was in middle school I used to doodle a lot! All kinds of doodles, specially geometric shapes. For some reason I used to draw everything in triangles and I don't know if that meant anything but I remember doing that. Anyway, I am back into my old habits and I have been drawing little things in a more consistent manner. This time my doodles are less abstract and have the shape of what I like now. At this time I am into round shapes and swirls! What a contrast! For some reason I think that has to do with my emotional state, I don't know.
OK, getting back to what I wanted to tell you is that I am enjoying drawing! I just love it! And taking advantage of my minimal drawing skills I have designed some graphics for two very nice people.
I have used my skills to design a blog banner for Mette from ERLEPERLE (check her blog because it is really nice)
And a website banner, etsy banner, avatar and ad logo for Kelly from Banana Showcase (she makes great bags!).
I was very glad that they were happy with my work and I just want to say that it was a blast to come up with something that other people appreciate and makes them unique. In addition to that, I have met two very nice ladies and that is what it counts too.
I hope I get more requests to design something for other people, because I am loving it! Thanks! :)
This is a new group of stamps that I hand carved. I use erasers because they are inexpensive and a good way to practice.
With this new batch I used some erasers that I got from a swap with Barb (aka craftsty), the are a little crumbly thought but work fine. The white polymer ones work really good.
I am working on a little one (a tree) as a special order that I received from Melissa (Wishes Dreams Love). Yes I make special orders, so if you are interested just send me a message.
But anyway, I make them too on linoleum which is the right material to carve stamps and there are several websites on the Internet that sell this material.
I will post a picture later of the one that I will be making for Melissa.
This time I want to share with all my blog visitors and readers this embroidery pattern. I made this drawing for my Illustration Blog and I thought that this same drawing will make a beautiful embroidery design.
You can use the design for a pillow, a quilt, a dress or whatever comes to your mind. I embroidered this one for the center of a pillow. I will add a border with different fabrics (patchwork) that match the embroidery thread colors.
Here is a tutorial created by Floresita about how to use a transfer pencil. You are going to need Floresita's tutorial in order to trace this free pattern onto your fabric. LINK
Make sure to visit Floresita's blog because she has wonderful ideas, patterns and nice crafty and embroidery articles (she runs a couple more blogs too).
I hope you enjoy this pattern and if you have any questions, just leave a comment and I will answer right here.
Click the picture to get the pattern
The pattern is a jpeg file. If you want to make it smaller or bigger, you can reduce or enlarge it on a photocopy machine OR use a picture program like photoshop to resize it.
Another way to enlarge or reduce the pattern is to open your print preview option from your browser window, there you will have a little window on the top that says "shrink to fit" click on the arrow next to it and you will have a series of percentages and even a custom size option. Select the desired percentage and you will be able to see the desired size of your pattern.
Today I start selling my illustrations printed on greeting cards and note cards. The address to get them is: www.cafepress.com/tapazolli. There in cafe press they have a lot of products that can be customized with personal illustration. I really think that is a great idea, I myself got some greeting cards with my own illustrations. I will be adding some apparel and baby stuff too, so keep checking. I am working on some new very beautiful illustrations too and some photography.
I too have been working on some new bags ZAKKA style for my etsy shop, I love all the Japanese style handmade goods so I am working and making some really neat goodies. So as I said before keep checking.
I forgot to mention that I got some special promotion at my ETSY shop too. I am giving free shipping on some items so why don't you go and take a look for more details. OK enough for today. have a great week and thanks to all my readers for such nice comments and for visiting my blog.
P.S. Got a new tutorial in the oven and is coming soon :)
OK, as I commented in the last post I finally started my new Illustration Blog. It's name? Tapazolli, which is a Nahuatl word and it means "bird nest". Nahuatl is the most spoken Indigenous language in Mexico, just in case you don't know what "Nahuatl" means.
I think it will be way more practical for me to keep my illustrations and artwork separated from my crafty posts and pictures since I want to continue adding tutorials and show my latest creations on this blog.
In my illustration blog I will be more concentrated on creating a particular style as well as a way to promote my Illustrations for custom work, banners, headers, logos and so on.
Here is the link, take a look.
Today I was playing with the pens that my hubby gave me as presents while my daughter was trying to imitate what I was doing. We were waiting for the plumber (the water heater broke)and in the meantime we were doodling around together. I wanted to try photoshop and doodles for long time now. And since I stop sewing for a little bit, I wanted to finally give it a try to photoshop. Here is what my doodles ended up looking like.
I have been looking on the Internet a nice tutorial about photoshop and hand drawings but I could never find anything helpful. I have to admit that I have been afraid of photoshop before. It was to confusing for me to use at times, and I did not want to get frustrated. I do photoshop some pictures and that has been a good way to practice and get to know the program a little bit (I know, I sound sort of photoshop illiterate).
I do have drawing skills and I want to make it more fun with photoshop. lets see what else I come up with...I am getting ideas now (oh no!).
These are being added to my ETSY shop. Take a look.
The wonderful iSew blog has a great idea on how to make your own labels for your crafts or sewing projects. I really had to give it a try and I was very pleased with the results.
I made a batch of cardholders for my ESTY shop and I love the fact that the labels make the cardholders look nicely finished. I thank iSew for sharing this great idea with others. If you want to know more about how to make your own labels, visit the iSew blog following this LINK. Make sure to visit her online store or Etsy shop because she makes beautiful quilts and wonderful handbags.
I spent this weekend crafting with a little person around here. We were sitting together at the little desk and spent hours creating. I carved some stamps using some polymer erasers that I got from a swap from Mexico (I can't find them locally.) And this is what I came with:
And the I made a couple more ATC's. For one of them I wanted something colorful so I had to borrow the markers. The other one was using just paper and my gel pens, and I like how it turned out. They are part of some bird series I want to make. I'm lately with the bird-tree fever, maybe because spring is close. Here they are:
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