Sometimes we despair that we just don’t have time to make anything, so we make nothing.

Before the holidays, I know I often have big fantasies about how many gifts I’ll make, or I come up with gift making ideas that are so ambitious, they’re almost impossible to finish on time and I practically send myself over the edge trying to get them all done. (I’ve done some crazy sewing at midnight the night before christmas!).

But some of the best gifts that I’ve ever received have been quite small or inexpensive, and were things I used everyday.

Mini Gifts–A Little Bit of Handmade is Win-Win

So that made me realize there’s a middle ground there–what about making a little something, or part of a gift?

For instance?

For instance, if you’re going to give someone a book, how about making them a bookmark?

This idea is cool because it takes the pressure off since the main gift is the book, not what you made, AND YET, you’re still making it personal at the same time by adding this creative touch that you took the time to make. But not so much time you feel crazed.

The perfect Goldilocks amount of time.

Stamping and embossing is a great technique for this. It’s fast and pretty and there are lots of fun choices. You could choose a rubber stamp with a gorgeous all over pattern, a beautiful single image or a wonderful quote–something you know they’ll like or maybe a favorite of yours that you want to share.

Tips for Making Your Bookmarks

>Find a nice smooth solid colored cardstock that you like–it’s easier to stamp and emboss if it’s got a smooth rather than a “linen” finish (a slightly raised, crosshatched kind of surface). Cut out some strips–6″ x 2″ say. Or use your  rubber stamp as your guide for how wide or long you want it. Both Michael’s and AC Moore will have some solid colored cardstock to choose from.

>When you stamp your images, don’t be afraid to go off the sides or just use a portion of your rubber stamp image. The key is to make it intentional–come in from one side with part of the stamped image, for instance, and then repeat on the other side with another portion of the stamped image. Repeat until satisfied.

>If you’re trying to get a quote to fit, or center a single image or word, stamp on the uncut paper first, and then cut your bookmark out afterward. That way, you can cut exactly where you want and it’ll be easier to center your image. It reduces frustration in a big way and makes the whole process more fun.

>This is also all much easier with a paper cutter. I like “guillotine” paper cutters myself–the kind where you pull the handle down. But if you have small children around or the guillotine ones scare you, get one that slides as it cuts instead–they’re safer. If you do need a paper cutter and want to see a one that I like, here’s a link to one from Tonic that Amazon is selling (It’s a guillotine style.)

>Get a “corner rounder” paper punch to round the edges of your bookmark–you’ll be surprised at how much this positively affects the end result. Seriously, it will make it look really finished and professional. (It’s always the little details that do that.) A sufficient corner rounder is under $10.00 and fits into the palm of your hand. Here’s an example from Dick Blick if you want to know what they look like.

>Don’t be afraid to add color or to layer your stamping. Experiment and have fun–you can get a lot of bookmarks out of one sheet of cardstock, so who cares if you make a bunch that don’t work before you get into your groove?

>When you’re done, punch a hole in the top, pull a ribbon through (watch the end of my stamping and embossing how-to video for how to do that), and voila.

>Keep it simple. (You’re not cheating because you’re not suffering.) And complicated bookmarks are pretty, but they can be hard to use easily day to day, so I’d go easy on the beads, etc.

Small is Beautiful

I know I would love to receive something like this–many of my favorite gifts are small gestures like these that I use regularly.

And you know, (and maybe more importantly) it could also be a fun way for you to have some creative time in a hectic season–a little gift to yourself since getting time to make anything is so hard to come by.

And you can have the fun of increasing (or starting) your rubber stamp stash while feeling justified and virtuous (You had to buy them, it was for gifts for goodness sakes, and you were saving money because you were making things!).

This could be a nice teacher gift as well–even if you give the teacher a gift card to a bookstore, giving her a handmade bookmark to go with it is a nice personal touch. It’s also definitely something your kids could make, which is even nicer. Even if they just drew a picture.

(If you do that, where the kids draw a picture, cut the bookmark out first and have them draw on the finished shape itself–it’ll work out better. And have them do a bunch and then pick out your favorites together about which ones to give. Hey, good for Grandma and Grandpa as well–now we’re cookin’!)

This idea would also be perfect for homemade gift tags–another way to add a nice personal creative touch to a purchased gift.

If you need a refresher on how to stamp and emboss, just click here to watch a short video.

And if you need to get yourself ink, embossing powder and an embossing gun, you can get a complete kit here and you’ll be set to go.

Online Stamp Retailers

If you don’t have anywhere to buy stamps locally, here’s a few internet retailers to check out.

Stamper’s Anonymous: (one of my favorites)
http://www.stampersanonymous.com/cat-index.html

Rubber Soul: (good quote stamps)
http://rubbersoul.myshopify.com/collections/rubber-stamps/quotes

Addicted to Rubber Stamps: (kind of a rubber stamping super store)
http://www.addictedtorubberstamps.com/ProductList?ProductType=RubberStamps*

Inkadinkado: (some pretty all over stamps)

http://inkadinkado.eksuccessbrands.com/dept/Tin+Can+Mail.aspx

River City Rubber Works: (quotes and some humorous stamps)
http://www.rivercityrubberworks.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_id=99

What do you think of this idea? Are you planning on making anything for the holidays? Do you like the holidays? Leave a comment and let me know, I’d love to hear!
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The Color Wheel

Staring at 25 beautiful colors of ink pads–how do you decide what to get? They all look good! Oh lord, you think, at this rate, I’m either gonna break the bank or never get started.

I say, rely on the color wheel to help you get the most bang for your buck.

What the heck am I talking about? Let me explain.

Yellow, Blue and Red are considered the 3 primary colors, right?

(Unless you use Ewald Hering’s color wheel, which has four: yellow, red, blue and green.  I think this webpage does a great job introducing the basics of the different colors wheels before I get too far off track.)

Now, when you’re painting or dyeing, you can mix your colors from the 3 primaries plus black and white and save yourself a lot of money. Well, even though you’re not “mixing” colors in the same way when you stamp with inkpads, using the color wheel as your guide still works for buying great inkpad colors that you’ll use time and again in your stamping projects.

When you look online or go to the craft store, it can be difficult to figure out what to choose or to overspend and buy colors you just don’t use very often. What you want is a good range of go-to colors that you are drawn to again and again–a versatile selection that is still affordable. (Of course, buying all the colors is very versatile, but generally not affordable.)

So we all have our favorite colors. But the key word here is versatility. Sometimes just buying our favorites doesn’t give us enough versatility in creating things and we don’t find out until it’s 10pm and we’re waist deep in a project. Ugh.

What you really want to do is buy your favorites from each section of the color wheel.

Let me say that again: What you really want to do is buy your favorites from each section of the color wheel.

For instance, in the deluxe set that we offer here, the Topaz is my “Yellow”, the Turquoise is my “Blue” and the Raspberry is my “Red”.  I gravitate toward the pink-y end of red (most of the time), the orangey side of yellow, and the green-y side of blue. That is my palette.

Maybe you like aqua, bisque and coral. Or maybe cobalt, fire-engine red and lemon. Just pick your favorite color in each of the three “sections” of the color wheel. (It’s true that some secondary and tertiary colors are really starting to straddle two primary “sections”, but if you’re really not sure where a color lives, bring a color wheel with you to the store.)

Using this technique, we create a small versatile palette that speaks to us and still covers each main area of the color wheel.  And once you add Black, then you have a nice dark that functions easily as the focal point–stamp your image in black and add the other colors around it. Perfect. (You should try using this technique whenever your buying color–paint, beads, dye, etc.)

When I do overlap my stamp colors on a project, my turquoise and raspberry make a nice purple, my topaz and my turq make a nice green, etc. And if you don’t really “mix” them or overlap them by rubbing colors on top of each other on the page, they still look great next to each other–in either twos or threes. I love using just the raspberry and topaz on a project, for instance.

Have a few more dollars now and want to get one more? Buy a green! (See the color wheel link at the top of this post.) And then one more? Okay, one purple–but that’s it!! Any more than that and you’re just getting sucked into the marketing machine that’s endlessly trying to get you to part with your money. You’ve got other supplies to buy!

Speaking of buying supplies–want to skip the searching and just get one of our stamping and embossing kits using supplies that I rely on every time I stamp and emboss? That would be great! Click here to learn more.

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You can watch it here:

Here are some important additions or that I either didn’t mention or didn’t elaborate on in the video so that the how-to explanation wouldn’t get too confusing:

• I personally feel that metallic embossing powders are basically the only way to go. There are a few more styles out there that are also good basics–black is one, and clear is another–kids seem to dig clear because you see the ink color underneath. So if you plan to emboss with kids, make sure you get clear. But most metallics create a sophisticated end result that can’t be beat.
• How do you know when you’re completely done embossing? Check your image for dark areas–sometimes, they’ve been heated a little and don’t quite look powdery anymore, but they haven’t completely melted yet  and don’t glisten. Just hit the area again with the embossing gun, you’ll see it melt and you’ll know you’ve gotten it.
• If you get really close to the image/paper with the embossing gun to speed up the process, you could burn or discolor the paper. Just be patient, keep the embossing gun a couple of inches away and keep it moving.
• Generally, your ink doesn’t show through the embossing powder (unless you don’t emboss it completely–on purpose, which can be very cool–or had  trouble getting an evenly inked image), so the inkpad color doesn’t really matter for the embossing part. Multiple inkpad options are great for adding color before  or after you emboss, but if you’re on a budget, just get a black pigment inkpad for embossing. I use Versafine or Versacolor from Tsukineko myself. Both work great. We sell the Versacolor black in our basic kit and several colored inkpads in our deluxe kit.
• You must use pigment inkpads for embossing because they stay wet long enough to accept the embossing powder. Or inkpads that call themselves “embossing ink” stamp pads. Dye-based inkpads are really great for just stamping, but not for embossing because they dry too quickly. If you want to start stamping and don’t want to emboss, dye-based stamp pads are the way to go. Otherwise, stick to pigment inkpads.
• Be careful of some metallic pigment ink stamp pads as they never seem to dry. Never! On either your stamp pad or your project. And that’s a bummer if you’re trying to make a card in a hurry, as I know from experience. If you love metallics like I do, you’re better off using embossing powder to get them.
• I almost always rub color on the edge of my tags–I think it gives a nice subtle finished feeling to the project. Definitely give this a try. When I just press the edges of my tag or card in inkpad ink to add the color, I’ll rub it in afterwards with a paper towel to make it dry. But I do like the color to smudge a little, so experiment first with scraps before working on something you’re attached to.
• One fun addition to adding color to the edges of your tag is to emboss them afterward. I’ll pour out a little embossing powder onto  scrap paper and then place the edges of the tag  into the embossing powder until all the wet ink is completely covered. Then I just hit it with the embossing gun again until it melts. Very finished looking.
• Speaking of embossing the edges, remember that you can emboss your tag multiple times–in the video examples at the end, for instance, I show a tag where I stamped the central image and embossed it in gold embossing powder. Afterward, I stamped a small hearts stamp all over the edges and embossed those images with silver. Just keep going until your satisfied.
• That said, there’s no point in trying to exactly stamp over a previously stamped image that didn’t come out well–you’ll never line them up completely and it’ll just look weird. (Unless, of course, that’s what you’re going for–a  kind of vibrating or out of focus thing that could be cool in the right circumstances.)
• Once you invest in an embossing gun, a stamp or 50, embossing powder(s) and a few inkpads, you’ll be able to make A LOT of projects and realize that it’s really quite an economical creative pursuit.
  I’ve got a couple of great kits that make it super easy to get started right away.
• And finally, you’ll probably become a little addicted to accumulating cool stamps–but hey, it happens. At least, when you’re someone who collects a particular something, people know what to give you.

There are a lot of possibilities with rubber stamping and embossing. I like to use this technique in some really neat home decor projects, so keep your eye on this space for more cool projects using this technique that you won’t see anywhere else!

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