Gift Wrapping Goodness

I received my sister's wedding book that I designed, plus a copy for my mom and dad so I thought time for some kawaii wrapping! Oh then I thought my friends' kid just had a birthday too, need a cute gift and wrap! Out came the supplies. Stamps, ink, washi tape, lace, pom poms, glue, needle & thread, everything that I could think of. A little thinking and a lot of letting go my imagination took over and brought me these.










I almost forgot, I have a secret project I'm working on, I'll have a little store opening up soon for this blog called usagi por moi and some of the first items will be gift wrapping items like the little paper flowers in the pics above. Check in next week when I make the announcement I'll have another give away.

New Stamps and Nifty giveaway!

Hello Pidgeons! I have a nifty gift giveaway coming up tomorrow, which I will share a sneaky peek with you today. Also just wanted to show you the stamps I carved this weekend, one will appear on your nifty gift.

Alphabet stamp set Mizutama and friends!

I got the Stamp book by Mizutama and other Japanese stamp artists, a couple of weeks ago and it came with a wonderful stamp set including a whole alphabet letter set, but it needed mounting to be usable. It's taken me a week and a half to frakin' finish this stamp set, and obviously A LOT of BSG (Battle Star Galactica). I made myself crazy finishing this project while I was also making the galletica stationery set. I was trying to figure out how I could make the letter stamp set compact and much like the one I bought at Loft in Tokyo, where it neatly fit into a little box. SO! I thought balsa wood, it's easy to cut and I could buy long square dowels for a couple of dollars. So the first part took a while because I had to cut two sets of 26 wood mounts, so that's 52 pieces, then another 10 for the numbers. I glued all the rubber letters onto the wood pieces, next I needed to make a cute box to keep them in so I recycled a cut priority mail box, and made a small box with a lid. Then I had to make it pretty, so I used some of the cute polka dot origami paper I had and some pretty matching mt tapes for the edges. After I was done with that I realized I had to add identification to the tops of all the stamps so it won't take me hour looking for the letter "a". First I hand-lettered all the tops but wasn't loving it. Finally I printed letters and glued it to the tops of the mounts. I also mounted all the other stamps only a few are pictured here. Done! Eeep!

Little Korea and a tricky pooch

This weekend started off with a trip to the InkPad in the West Village for some stampy goodness, and then headed up to midtown to K-town for some yummy Korean tofu stew at BCD Tofu House.
The InkPad was a bit overwhelming, so I'll definitely have to head back to take my time and really peruse, but I scored nonetheless, with these great stamps and a bag a paper goods from Just Enough Stuff, that contains lots of vintage tears from books and mags great for stationery making.






Next up, BCD Tofu house was a delicious treat indeed. When you get seated, they bring you an assortment of pickles and a fried fish as a complimentary appetizer. You can get free refills too, to your already freebee. I had the Soondubuchigae, a spicy Korean tofu stew, but they'll adjust the level of spicy to your taste. They also offer a variety from plain to pork. I got the beef one. It comes with a raw egg that you crack open over your stew and it cooks in with the heat of the stew. A sticky rice is also served to everyone even if you got a rice bowl like Bibembop. Then at the end they come and pour water into the individual rice container and stir up water left to make a rice porridge for the end of your meal, waste not want not.






The next morning we headed to the Rockaways for a chilly day on the boardwalk for the honey festival. The festival was small but there were creatures a-plenty walking the boardwalk. Best of all there was Tilly, a Jack Russell, who used her naroticism (don't think that's a word, but whateves) for good, and made art! She basically barked and scratched the bejesus out of a scratch board and then her father peeled away the cover and there were Tilly's scratches.








getting there:

The Inkpad
37 7th Avenue (between 12th and 13th streets)
NYC 10011
212.463.9876
Take the 2 or 3 train to 14th street, walk south on 7th ave to 13th and 7th ave.

BCD Tofu House
17 W 32nd st (between 5th and 6th ave)
New York, NY 10001
(212) 967-1900
Take any of the following trains:
34 St - Herald Sq (B, D, F, M, N, Q, R)
33 St (6)

Handmade Stamps

This Sunday I wasn't feeling so great so I put a movie on and made these stamps. The little stache'acorn dude was inspired by some acorns I collected earlier on my walk with my dog.


La petite fille, Miko.

Donguri-san!

Dotty notebook and stamp carving

After my trip to Kinokuniya this week I used my new supplies to make a new little notebook and I used the carving set I just got to make a couple of new stamps. Not the greatest first try but I still love the imperfection of them. You can see the label stamp at work on the notebook. I will start putting up some of my notebooks and other stationery this week in my store.

The Stationery Trinity

Today I hit Kinokuniya, AI Friedmans, and Paper Presentation, all offer different materials for some awesome stationery making and buying. At Kinokuniya I got some MT tapes, origami paper, and a lovely stationery book, Paper Paper. Then when I went to drop off some film I went to 18th street and I picked up some artist carving blocks, for stamp making at AI Friedmans. Then across the street is Paper Presentation, I scored some kraft cardstock, stamps, gold brads, and a large circle punch hole, here! While at Kino, I went upstairs to grab an onigiri and I yummy black sesame frappe, yummmmmm...