Three New Stamps For Tonight

I am really trying to get the hang of letters, I am not that good at it.
But the new material I am using is WAY better than my previous stuff, so yea!

I am going to just keep practicing :D



I think I can improve this little guy too...



Just in case you were interested in the stamp material... "Cuts like Buttah"

Homemade Valentines

So the kid stayed home sick (again, sigh) today.
When I got home from work we decided to make some
handmade Valentines. We haven't had the craft box(es) out in awhile!!

We raided my Mom's box of buttons that she's had since before I was born!!

We used rubber stamps, buttons, markers, paper and GLITTER!!!

Happy supervised

She was really disappointed that out of everything on the counter, none of it was edible!

The kid's first Valentine needed lots of tiny little hearts :)



It was a 3D Heart Tree! She thought of it and made it ...all by herself!
She amazes me every single day!!


Hearts on a String (mine)


Be Mine with Buttons (mine)


Raddest Valentine on the Planet!! (The Kid's)


Pink Birds (Mine)


2nd Raddest Valentine on the Planet!! (the Kid's)



My hand started hurting from trying to get the craft glue out of the bottle, so I got
lazy & used Elmers Glue. Then like an idiot, I lightly dusted my Valenitne with shimmer glitter. Well, the Elmers glue wasn't dry and the glitter stuck to it in all the wrong places and made my cute Valentine ugly :(


I tried to fix it by adding more glue & glitter (lolz) but I just made it worse (go figure).


But I think it is so cute, so I'm going to make it again :)
We had so much fun...


Look at them all together! Ooohhhhh, aaaahhhhhh :P


After we cleaned up we made dinner and watched Whip It...now we both wanna be Roller Derby Girls!! Yeah!!!
xoxoxoxox

Not quite as I had imagined...

So, the same people that ordered the 20 Christmas Cards from me asked me to make up some Gift tags for their customers.They left the design up to me, just want them to be "Christmas".
So, I went to Micheals today, hoping to find blank gift tags. They had one pack of white large tags...that was it!
I also picked up some readymade Christmas themed stamps, thinking they would be useful, instead of having to carve a bunch of new Holiday stamps myself. I bought this set.



However, once I got home and tried out those handy dandy pre-made stamps I realized they were not that good :( They are very fine lined and don't have the "punch" my hand carved stamps do. And they were hard to print with and got blurry almost everytime!



I think the designs are so cute and I really wanted to use them, but I think I will try again this weekend and maybe carve a couple myself.

I did try a few with my own stamps and liked those much better :) However, I lost my hole punch and couldn't add the ribbon!! Guess it's back to the store tomorrow! Maybe they sell pink holes punches!!


Here's a couple with my snowman stamp...



and my little swirly...




and my snowman compared to the pre-made reindeer...



The reindeer is so cute, maybe I am being to critical...

I guess I'll sleep on it and decide tomorrow.
Before I go, just want to show you all the cool ribbon I found today. Now all together now...
"oooooooo, ahhhhhhhhhh"



Hee hee, xoxoxoxox

I FINALLY tried out my YuDu Machine!

For my birthday, over a month ago, my friends and co-workers all chipped in and got me this...




So... I had the day off today and decided to finally take my new Yudu Screen printing machine out of the box! I had high hopes!!

The design I chose is one I made a couple of years ago and have been asked by so many people to have a shirt made with it.



So...I plugged in the machine & printed out my design on the transparency the machine came with. So far so good...



Then, I got the screen wet and attached the sheet of emulsion and stuck it in the little drying drawer. Took it out twenty minutes later & realized I had left the plastic sheet that separates the emulsion sheets on the emulsion! Took off the plastic sheet, re-wet the screen and stuck it back in the drying drawer for the second time. I must have used too much water the second time because it took an hour and a half to dry!!! I was frustrated!



I finally dragged out my blow dryer to finish the job!
However when I went to remove the plastic from the emulsion side, a tiny bit was still wet and it tore the emulsion in one little spot. But at this point I was so out of patience I went ahead and burned my image anyway. It actually burned very well.

However, once I rinsed of the emulsion I realized that some of the lines in my design were way to small & they peeled right off and actually ended up tearing some other parts of the design :(







So, really wanted to make shirts tonight, and was sad that I didn't get too...
But the experience was not a total loss.
Thanks to the handy dandy emulsion remover I was able to clean off the messed up design.




Which means the screen is nice & clean and can be used again for a different design another day...yea! I'm not scared to try again, but next time I will use a cleaner image with LARGER lines!

New things!!

So, a lot has been happening!!

For the first time ever, I have a retailer carrying some of my products!
Check out http://www.acupcakery.com/ featuring new pins from Designer Nicole Underwood!! yea!!

Also, I got invited to be a featured artist on this blog, for Brides that use handmade goods in their wedding. So, working on some bride/wedding things :D







and tonight I made this little guy, because you know the holidays will be here before you can blink!! (Yes, I said it!)



Things are heading in the right direction! And I'm so happy!
Don't forget to check out my etsy store regularly: www.nikolina100.etsy.com

Need a logo, ad, mailer or something crafty made? Contact me! http://www.facebook.com/nicoleunderwooddesign