Stamp addiction

With my last 2 posts being about obento, you may think that is my latest craze ... maybe. But what I have been doing a whole lot more of these days is stamp carving.

I love it. It is so addicting to carve the rubber sheets. It's the same sort of strange pleasure I used to get from peeling dried elmer's glue off of my hands. The material is so fun to cut. The handmade stamps have a rustic and imperfect quality that makes them look cool and unique. You can carve pretty much anything at all so it is a great gift for kids, parents, and great as a kit for older kids to do themselves.

Here's the material I love:
It is called Harunabi, made by a japanese company called Seed. It comes in various sizes and colors. The rubber itself is white but it has a thin layer of colored rubber on the top to make carving easier - so you can see what you have already removed. It is really handy.


The tools are kind of like linoleum carving tools. The one I use the most is a v-shaped gouger. The other one I use a lot is a flat edge like an exacto knife.

Here's my box of stamps of inks. It grows bigger every week as I just cannot seem to stop making stamps.




I am a sucker when it comes to immediate gratification.... totally immediate gratification here - draw, carve, stamp, done. Okay, I guess not quite immediate. Buying a pre-made stamp would be more immediate but not nearly as much fun!

Today I was determined to finish a very cute stamp of laundry hanging on a clothes line... I'll have to take pictures of it tomorrow because It is nearly midnight and my kids wake up early. Oh, and I still have to make obento.