Crafts

DIY Stamps

9:58 AM

I've been carving small and I mean, small eraser stamps with zeal last week. Since I've been practicing, I figured I'd make medium sized stamp using my digital panda drawing.

I transferred the drawing onto the eraser and started carving away using my new lino cutters. The stamp didn't turn out exactly like the drawing, but it still looked good. It just needed a couple of minor touch-ups.


I also wanted another medium sized stamp. Since I don't have a lot of Hello Kitty stamps, I decided to carve on, with Hello Kitty wearing a hibiscus flower instead of a ribbon. I wish the flower turned out nicer than it did, but it does take practice. I wonder how many eraser stamps I'll be making until I get the carving done right?


Life

Decluttering

10:43 AM

After a few weeks of slacking off from studying for the CBEST exam I'm scheduled to take in November, I decided to trek into my office and actually study for it.

As I dove into the guide, fifteen minutes later I found myself overwhelmed as I looked at my desk.  It's a fairly large L-shaped desk, but it had so much stuff on it.  I had books stuffed in one corner, in another corner sat mounds of unused flashcards and at the end of the desk was my all-in-one printer.  I felt claustrophobic and the feeling got worse when I opened my desk drawer and found I have crap stacked on top of crap.


I felt sick.  I had just organised my office not too long ago and now its back to a state of utter chaos.

My first order of business was to get all those books and pack them away into my bookshelf (despite the little room I have left).  I realised that I don't use those books that often and if I do have a need for them, I'd just pick them off the shelf and put them back when I'm done.  I did keep a couple of books such as my American Sign Language, The Craft of Research, Writer's reference, two thin moleskin notbooks and my dictionary and thesaurus.

The next step was to get all of my eraser stamps packed neatly into a box along with the inkpad.  I've been such a carving fool the last few weeks and probably will continue to make stamps as I've just purchased linocutters and a carving kit.  

I've also noticed that I have an overflowing vase of pens and a set stashed in my bag as well as inside my bedside table.  I have to go through these and maybe give some to Michael to take to his office.

I'm also planning to take out the speakers and the sub that used to belong to a PC that Michael bought several years ago.  I used to use it when I watched my lectures online, but now I have no need for it.  I'm tempted to put them in my charity pile, but somewhere down the line, I will need it and wished I had never donated it.  So off it went into the closet.

The final step is my top desk drawer.  I need to get my stationery organised and to use it all up.  I'm quite hesitant to use them as some of the Sanrio ones were made in Japan.  now, all are printed in China.  But I can't be sentimental about that if I'm planning to keep my desk in perpetual order.  Guess I'll have to scan the pages to keep as a reminder.

I didn't spend much time this morning cleaning it up and I was surprised that it looks good.  I'll be decluttering my desk quite a lot as the weeks and months go by.  My plan right now is to type of all of my university notes and put them in PDF format to get rid of all the notebooks I've accumulated over the years.  Now that will take some time, but for now, I will relish in my accomplishment that I've made my desk look clutter free.





Planner

Stampin' Up!

3:35 PM

I love the Sunday paper, particularly the Sunday advert inserts.  I love browsing through them whilst eating breakfast and I can find pretty good deals.  I never usually peruse through the Staples advert, but for some I did yesterday and I found something pretty cool.

It's the Scotch Expressions Tape in a variety of colours and it's removable without damaging the paper for $1.50 each.  So I head on over to Staples and buy four colours ... Green, orange, purple and blue.  I though these would be the perfect things to label and decorate my Filofax without damaging any of the sheets.


At first I was skeptical.  A tape that won't damage paper?  RUBBISH!  But I stand corrected.  It does do the job.  



I think it's the beginning of a new friendship with me and Scotch Expressions Tape.  They'll do the job, but they won't replace the other things I seem to put in my Filo -- such as my doodles, stickers that I purchased from the Dollar Store, and of course, the stamps that I've been making.

I've been so obsessed lately with making rubber stamps.  The last one I made, which was this morning was that of an apple.  The more I make rubber stamps, the better I get ... I guess.  But I think it's time to move on to bigger more intricate stamps rather than the small ones I've been making.




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