HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Just like probably everyone else out there, I, too, made resolutions for 2014. Here are mine:
1. Write a blog entry twice a month
2. Focus more on my Etsy shop
3. Create at least one YouTube video per month. (Going to try to aim for 2)
I'd also say "exercise everyday", but I'm going to be realistic and not even say it because we all know that one doesn't last too long! haha. Hopefully I'll remember to exercise at least one a week though :)
So for the new year, I'm excited to say that I picked up a new hobby. And as you can probably tell from the picture above, it has to do with stamping! I discovered rubber stamp carving around late November to early December, actually. It looked so awesome so I started surfing the internet for blogs and YouTube videos on how to carve stamps. Unfortunately I didn't find too many videos or blogs that went into great detail about this hobby. I wanted to learn the technique of carving with an knife rather than the popular Speedball tools. I was only able to find a few videos in Cantonese that showed this technique, which was quite disappointing. I suppose I will have to slowly learn how to properly do this on my own! This wasn't my first attempt at carving a stamp. I tested it out with smaller & simpler designs before.. well, here is the final result below:
The tools I used:
I must say that it came out better than I expected! It's a stamp for my Etsy shop. I wanted to make something that I can print onto all of my thank you cards. How does it look? I didn't carve this out of the proper rubber blocks though. I bought the Polymer Erasers from Target to test out before I carved from the real stuff. It is quite pricey! I think for my next stamps, I'll attempt at carving from the rubber blocks. I bought one off eBay for about $7. If I ever start selling stamps in my shop, I think I'll buy the thicker blocks from Blicks Art Store though. They have a discount online if you buy in bulk and it seems sturdier than the eBay ones.. although the eBay ones come in such pretty colors!
As I mentioned, I want to focus more on my shop in 2014. I hope to one day be able to turn this little hobby shop into a full-time job. I'm trying to find a new direction to take my shop - something that I can do everyday and not ever get sick of it. It's such a hard decision because I can't possibly have like 4 different focuses on my shop. I think at most I can do is 2.. decisions decisions! Hopefully I'll have an answer for myself by the end of 2014. :)
That's all I have for today!
See you next time~
