rubber soul blog

in the moment

 

i'm loving this new book we are carrying both in our storefront and in the on-line shop - 1,001 Ways to Live in the Moment. it's in a fun carry-along size - about 5"x5" - but super chunky thick and filled with lots of whimsical illustrations and 1,001 quotes and ways to be mindful and in the now. 

a few examples for you:

#79: jottings in the modern age, many writers use a word-processing program, and in the process miss the joy of handwriting, a craft that conjures thought to word intimately, via the medium of hand on paper. keep a notebook and fill it with your scribbles - relish untidiness, in the knowledge that the brain's serendipity is a major creative strength. 

#82: inspiration "fill your paper with the breathings of your heart." - william wordsworth

#468: gaze at a flame meditating on a candle, known as trataka in yoga, gives the mind a precise point of focus. light a candle and place it safely in front of you, at eye level. focus steadily on the flame, blinking as little as possible. try to empty your mind of everything but the flame. if your mind wanders, gently bring your attention back to its object.

#539: watch the sunrise at least once a month watch the sunrise, a refreshing experience for mind and spirit, especially at the start of new life phases.

#686: fluid be open to different viewpoints, and change your mind if you see new truth in a situation. this is wisdom, not fickleness.

#937: becoming the path "you cannot tread the path until you become the path yourself." - zen saying

it's filled i tell you, filled with good, positive, soul-filling and uplifting words of motivation. i hope you get a chance to enjoy it too.

the weather outside is still delightful.....

and i'm sooooo happy it's not frightful. i'd much rather be playing with snow on my holiday cards than shoveling it outside - at least until christmas has come and gone. when i asked ward jenkins to design some holiday stamps for us, i also asked for a dog and a cat stamp, because i always believe that they make the holidays that much sweeter :)

 

here is a card i made recently using our new snowman stamp - chillin' charlie, and i really do think that little pup is one of my favorite stamps this year. for this card i drew in the line for the snow drift, and stamped our new little winter tree on it several times. i did some very light watercoloring throughout, and then sponged on versamagic ink in aquatic splash to the upper edges. the snowflake is a little added extra that comes with the snowman stamp, and the cool winter wishes is always the perfect greeting for any snowy scene. and because no snowflakes are complete without it, i added little dots of glitter glue to their centers, and along the edge of the snowdrift.  

a jolly ho ho ho

we're busy busy here at rubber soul headquarters, but i wanted to offer up a quick card idea using a couple of our new holiday designs.

i love our new retro santa- he truly has that jolly feel, don't you think? the little bird is also new, and the happy holidays is one of our classic favorites. i just did some freehand cutting around the happy holidays to try to capture a shape with a retro feel. i gave santa his suit color with a red color pencil, painted on a bit of silver watercolor on his bag of loot and the chimney, and finished up with a touch of diamond glitter glue on the chimney's snow-lined top. easy peasy! hey, don't look now, but it's almost december 1st....shheeesh! wishing you all a great thanksgiving weekend.

snowflake girl

i was recently invited to do a make-and-take event at the stampin' in the rain shop in bothell. it's always a pleasure to do these, and i'm forever impressed with how nice this store is. the project we did was a modified version of this card: instead of the card as you see it here, we did a bookmark with the snowflake girl, same colors, and lots of snowflakes. isn't she sweet? she's truly one of my favorites from our new holiday stamps designed by ward jenkins. for this card i stamped snowflake girl and the curious kitty on the white card, and then stamped her a second time on red cardstock. i then cut out her boots and coat and dressed her with them. i used a white gel pen to polka dot her boots and create white buttons for her jacket. i used a fresh eraser on the back of a pencil to stamp the circles in versamagic seabreeze, then stamped simple flake on top of them in black. and of course, there's nothing like a good dab of stickles glitter glue to give a card that proper wintery feel. brrrrrrr! 

thank you for coming by!

gratitude

every year, on the second saturday in november, the rubber soul store has its holiday open house. and every year, sixteen of them now, there is a flurry of action leading up to the big day. the preceding week is all about the fluffing and stuffing. new products arrive, new sample cards are made, treat trays are ordered, decorations and fresh lights are hung, and we always make sure we have a hefty number of new candles to burn.

and every year on this day, we are invigorated by it all. we love the connecting with happy people eager to create their holiday cards, and the familial feeling we have with our longtime loyal customers. we love the sense of community with this family, even though several come from many miles away. we are full of gratitude for every customer that chooses to visit us, and chooses to share their creative as well as personal stories with us. we are so grateful for each day that we get to do this, and for each and every one of you that has played a part in this rubber soul family. just wanted to tell you all this, being the month of gratitude and all :) thank you, thank you.

a retromatic christmas

when i was in the planning stages of a new rubber soul christmas stamp release this summer, i thought how cool it would be for the line to have a retro feel, and then i just knew who to ask to draw them - mr. ward jenkins! i love his illustrating and animating style, and saw him as a perfect fit for the rubber soul holidays. he has a great blog which is always fun to check in on, and he recently finished illustrating his first children's book - how to train with a t.rex and win 8 gold medals by michael phelps. bravo ward!

many stamps from the new collection have a distinct holiday feel, but there are also a few that scream cold winter fun, as well as a couple of perfect furry characters. i've had some real fun making cards with these, and there are several stores you can see both the new stamps and cards in now, including all of the paper zone locations in the northwest. i'll be posting some of those cards over the next few weeks, as well as cards from other paper craft artists having fun with the new release. 

i met ward and his totally delightful two kids in the reals for the first time in portland in september, where i got to give them the new stamps - his first ever illustrations-turned-rubber! 

welcome again ward, to the land of rubber stamps, and thank you for the great characters and fun you've added to the rubber soul line! 

new friends

my day was made when these lovely women from out of town visited the shop today. i particularly enjoyed when one was sending a tweet to her twitter about rubber soul, while another was updating her facebook about us. this seriously tickled me, so i HAD to join in by blogging, naturally.  they were on their way to journal fest, a weekend retreat in port townsend. all three of them were so delightful, as you can surely tell by their warm smiles. 

thanks for the visit ladies.....until next time!

 

hello

i thought you might enjoy this lovely card created by melissa bickford. i always seem to forget about our cool mesh stamp, but then when i see it used so creatively i get all ignited to use it again. the pussywillow stamp is also another longtime favorite. the colors and feel of this card simply suit my mood right now, which is somewhere between waving summer goodbye and ushering in the fall. thanks for the great card melissa!

love mother earth

sunprints * part one

for years i've been wanting to do sunprints, and one day last month everything seemed to align just right: 

one day off + a sunny day + a hankering to be creative + one very zen deck = sunprint success!

the only other things needed were a bowl/tray of water, and finding some fine plant specimens from the yard, which was half the fun.

 

to make the sunprint, you just need to place an object on top of the sunprint paper, blue side up, and then hold it in place by covering it with the acrylic sheet. leave it to cook in the sun for a few minutes, then you are ready to give it a bath in some clear water for only a minute.

once immersed in the water, you'll see the print begin to develop. 

it was fun poking around the yard looking for just the right "designs" to use for my prints. here i used italian and curly parsley. the little purple flowers in the photo at the top are from my catmint plant.

i was particularly taken by this lovely greenery, which appeared to happily be living in its own weed patch in the shaded corner of the yard. the shape very much reminds me of a lotus flower, so i made several prints with this one.

i laid them on the deck to dry, one by one as they came out of their water bath, and enjoyed the decorative feel my deck was taking on.

 then i apparently started to lose my zen focus, and was printing anything within reach of my little creative station on the deck. pokey is always close by as he monitors all progress of the potted tomatoes, herbs, and snap peas. good pokey.

 

now that i have a nice stack of these lovely prints, i haven't quite decided yet what to do with them, but i assure you when i do, i will post a "part two."

the sunprint kits come in two ways: one that has a dozen of the print paper sheets plus an acrylic piece that is helpful, and the other kit is a refill of another dozen sheets of print paper. it also comes in a set of full-size sheets, which will be my next session out on the zen deck. i hope you get a chance to try this - it was very calming, and i always feel rewarded when i can be outside on a sunny day AND crafting. bliss indeed.

i can't hear you

i just won't do it.

i do not hear the sudden and constant media drone of back-to-school messages.

i do not hear the weather people as they predict rain for next week. 

nope. not going to listen.

instead, i'm going to keep staring at this happy-making summer card using our summer clear set, some punches, and our fun colored cardstock. yes, the perfect antidote to summer's approaching finale. 

because really people, we have ONE MORE WHOLE MONTH of official calendar summer, and i plan to enjoy every last bit out of it i can. 

well heck, ok, we'll give you a sneak peek at our new christmas images in a few days anyways :-)

keep on enjoying your summer, and carry on.....

it's a hot one, this week up here in the pacific northwest. oh no, we aren't complaining, we wouldn't dare, but we tend to look a bit wilted around here when it dips into the upper 80/lower 90 temps - we just haven't been properly acclimated in the preceding months. and so it goes....the search for ways to cool off. fred's been spotted playing in fountains, and jumping into the puget sound......brrrrrrr. i just love this set of images together, and the silliness of it. and for those of you who don't already know, this penguin is named after my niece hayley, who is even lovelier than this superstar rubber soul stamp. she has sunshine and blue waters in her every cell, just like her daddy-o. sure do love you hayley belle!

the out of towner

we had a delightful surprise guest on friday from one of our great resellers.....

marty's sister is having a baby, so she's in seattle for a spell. apparently she couldn't wait to get her mitts on our stamps in their original habitat :-)  thanks for coming by marty, it was a real pleasure, and best wishes to you and your family!

catching waves

i'm a big fan of our waves stamp. best of all, it's on mega sale in the shop right now. i've used it in a bunch of different settings in the past, and here are just a few of my favorites:

^{i remember the first time someone came into the shop asking for an "i'm sorry" stamp. it struck me funny at the time that one would be sorry so many times that they would need a stamp, but it's a great seller, and i've certainly found myself needing one quite a bit too since then!}

_{^{this is one of my favorite quotes - it reminds me how good things can be when there is just a lot of nothing but quiet going on.}}

i love the graphic design of this bbq. i used orange glitter glue for the coals for that extra sizzle.....ha! *ba doom boom.*

^{i adore this one (can i say that if i made it?) it epitomizes everything that makes me happy in summer. i think we've finally hit our summer stride here in the pacific northwest - hope you are enjoying some sunshine wherever you are!}

making buttons

.....and carrying on.

day break

we interrupt your monday to bring you a fine refreshment......mmmmm cold, fresh-squeezed and iced. we figured you might need it right about now. cheers!

 

 

 

wishing you all a good start to the week!

summer lovin'

summer sure is sly. so much time is spent wishing wishing wishing for it to arrive up here in the pacific northwest, and then suddenly it's here, just like that it would seem.  it always feels so unexpected somehow. but when it arrives, we covet each sunny day we get, honoring the dry days and warm rays by spending as much time as possible outdoors during the fleeting season. and if i can't be playing outside, well then making cards with our sunny summer set feels like the next best thing. 

i love this card because it perfectly sums up MANY years of my life growing up near the pacific ocean. day after day through my summer vacations, i lived on a beach towel, and had all the most important beach-going wares in a bag that looked oddly identical to this one. i created the flower patterned look of the bag here by stamping the bag stamp onto a paper from our meadow's edge pack, then cutting out just the front facade of it and adhering it onto the second version i stamped onto the card itself. the towel i just cut loosely by hand, and the sun and little flowers were created with punches.

on this card, i stamped the beach ball on white, cut it out, and adhered it with foam mounting tape for a bit of dimension. i like this combination of colors, and adding a bit of diamond sparkle glitter glue gives it that simple finishing touch that seems to complete the card.

speaking of beach balls, we drove out to a quiet park on saturday, and here was this one, all by itself on a big open area of grass, not a kid in sight to claim it. 

looking lonely, and out of place, so far from the place of it's namesake. even though i didn't take it, it felt like a treat somehow to find it nonetheless! here's hoping your summer is off to a good start.

peace and love

This is what my garden looks like right now…..ok, well sort of. The vibe and cat are there anyway. My garden inspired card has our new Peace Flowers stamp – I just drew in the little stems – and I included my favorite stamp of the year thus far, Kitty. Using a Tsukineko dauber, I smudged around a bit of sky in Versamagic Seabreeze on the limeade cardstock, and punched out an orange circle for the sun. Tied to Kitty's tail is our tiny peg flower stamp (seems I use this on nearly everything!) Some of my favorite finishing touches are Diamond Glitter Glue, which I used on the grass, and a white gel pen which I used for accentuating the letters in Peace, the cat whiskers, and for the dashes all around the edges. This mini scene is placed onto one of our Leek A2 notecards, definitely my favorite color as of late (although I DO love that Aqua, and you'll be seeing plenty of that over here!) Hope you are all enjoying some summer sunshine, and thanks for dropping by here! I leave you with a peek at what my hippy cat is REALLY up to in the Rubber Soul garden:

                       Owen at le barre catnip.     

 Peace out.

we are what we do

Ain’t that true? I just noticed a new book in our store: “Change the World for Ten Bucks”. Being curious about how you can change the world for ten bucks, I opened it up to find all these cool things we can do to make this world a better place. The premise is that many people x many actions (even small ones) = big change. Then I noticed that there is a web site  where you can track your actions and see how many others have performed the same one(s). The “We Are What We Do” movement also invites you to send pictures and stories of actions you’ve taken.

posted by fred

keep calm and carry on - the rubber stamp

like so many others, i've been enchanted by the poster that has been slowly making it's way into the public eye over the last 9 years. this last year especially has done wonders for it's transition from obscurity, by the likes of popular magazines like domino, blogs, and newspaper features. people everywhere are finding reassurance in this distinctive design originating from a propaganda poster printed by the British Government’s Ministry of Information in 1939. it was one of three different designs, and the only one of the group not to be distributed even after the print run of 2.5 million posters. almost all were destroyed, but a few made their way out of the pulping, and there are only two decent originals known to exist to date.  UK book shop owners stuart and mary manley discovered the poster at the bottom of a dusty old box of books more than 50 years later. they later redefined the art of the crown of king george the VI for a clean version they could print and sell to satisfy the many requests they received from patrons who admired it hanging on their bookstore wall. thanks to the very kind and generous stuart and mary manley, rubber soul is honored to be a part of conveying this historic attitude of mind. 

we started on this idea of making it into a rubber stamp in january, and have had so much fun making it a reality. with the daily challenges as of late that we can all relate to, it's given us a skip in our step to have something so positive and fun to think about. i mean, perhaps it's just my rubber soul, but i can't remember ever being THIS excited about a rubber stamp before. my brain is a buzz with ideas! 

for more on the interesting history of the poster, please check out this page at barter books. i also enjoyed reading mary manley's blog post on what the process has been like for them since their discovery of the poster. 

thanks so much for visiting! ok then, carry on.