Holidays 2011

Posted on November 27, 2011 by admin

Late August through October was a busy time, full of vending and other work including a big art show at our local Paradise Art Center. We also updated the web site and I got busy making stamps in preparation for the big Holiday Sale. I felt that we all could use a break this year and offering a sale is my way of providing a win-win for my business and our wonderful customers.

I am working on some new designs for early in 2012 and  will want your feed back on which designs are of most interest to you. I will be sending out a request for voting before production soon after Christmas. I hope to be bringing on a new artist who draws the most darling little fairies. My latest art interest for potential stamps are crop circles and sacred geometry – both of which may be found in ancient Celtic art. For example, the Book of Kells is full of geometry in the creation of the designs, some of which are in the Highlander Celtic Stamps collection.

I hope you take advantage of the Holiday 25% off sale, and thank you for checking in.

Here is a Welsh Christmas card (which could have any greeting instead of the Welsh one) and a 10″ x 8″ collage piece featuring G300 Horses/Epona design.

G300 3 Horse Knot / Epona in a layered collage design

 

Welsh Merry Christmas with Celtic "snowflake" and stars

Rubber stamps used are S100, C438 and 047 with white embossing ink and powder

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New Dog and Cat Rubber Stamps

Posted on July 29, 2011 by admin

New Rubber Stamp Images available mid August

Paw Prints were introduced in the July 19th newsletter. Today I want to show you some more of the new stamps. All images are watermarked which is not part of the stamp image.

• Scottish Terriers / Scotties – 2 sided stamp

Scottish Terrier / Scottie Rubber Stamps

 

Scotties continue to be popular, especially since the Scottish Terrier, Sadie, won at Westminster twice in recent years. The new design is a 2-sided stamp with mirror image silhouettes. This will be a fun stamp to play with as the 2 dogs can be facing each other or have their backs turned or be lined up in a row like a parade.

UPDATE POST PRODUCTION: I goofed and made both the Scotties face the same direction. Laying out a new plate can be nerve wracking as once it is in production what you get is permanent! I will have to make the opposite Scottie on a future plate. I sincerely apologize for this mistake.

• Shetland Sheepdog / Shelties

Shetland Sheepdogs / Shelties showing both new rubber stamps

 

2 views for your stamping pleasure, sold separately.
I took care in studying show conformation to make these images correct.

 

• Cat in Clover

Cat in Clover Rubber Stamp

I drew this image from a photograph of one of our cats. She liked to lay down in green, shady, cool places on a hot day.

 

 

 

DISCOUNTS for our RETURN CUSTOMERS

YOU are the reason I make these stamps and I Thank You. To show my appreciation I will continue to offer special discounts to return customers on all new releases. These new dog and cat stamps will be available for purchase online about mid August, and will definitely be available in our vending booth at the Caledonian Club of San Francisco Scottish Highland Gathering, Alameda County Fairgrounds, September 3rd and 4th, 2011. In the next issue of my newsletter and blog I will show the other 3 new stamps.

Tips & Techniques – Reconditioning Rubber Stamps with Glycerin

Glycerin is an excellent product to keep handy for your stamps.  It moisturizes and protects the rubber from drying out making them last longer (expecially in dry climates like Arizona). You can get glycerin in most drug stores. Rub a little on with your finger or a soft cloth.Glycerin will not interfere with inking your stamp and can even help in cleaning.

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Paw Print Rubber Stamps

Posted on July 20, 2011 by admin

New Rubber Stamps to be available in August

These new Paw Print Rubber Stamps will be great fun for decorating envelopes, cards, business cards, scrapbooks, temporary tattoos and more. Use them for fund raisers for local pet societies, as hand stamps, give them as gifts, and use them in the classroom. Appealing to kids and adults alike.

The Mini Dog Paw Print rubber stamp and Mini Heart Paw Print rubber stamp were introduced last year and customers loved them. So this year I decided to add a Dog Paw medium size, a Heart Paw medium size AND Cat Paw Mini and medium sizes. These will all be available about mid August, from our website and our retailers.

Here is the line up of paw prints (these have a watermark on them and the approximate sizes shown at the bottom)

Dog, Heart (generic), and Cat Paw Prints Rubber Stamps

In addition to these Paw Prints will be more dogs and cats images. As I am just finishing up on designing the plate of rubber stamps for manufacturing, I will post more about the new images in a few days.

One of our own cats helped me get the Cat Paw designs. My husband and I used non-toxic water based ink to get the impression of her right front paw print. She didn’t mind helping us with the print but really didn’t like the foot bath afterward. I then scanned and traced the impression in Photoshop.

The Heart Paw designs seemed like a logical idea to me. We all love our pets and I wanted this to be a universal symbol for that. (This is my original artwork, as simple as it is, yet I felt it was important to make sure there weren’t any others out there as rubber stamps or otherwise, and I couldn’t find any. I am very sensitive to copyrights and want people to honor mine as well, so weartists need to look out for each other.) The Dog Paw is also my original design..

Please tell your friends and family about these new stamps.

Thanks a lot,
Kim

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Resist technique ideas

Posted on July 2, 2011 by admin

RubberStampMadness (RSM) is a super resource magazine. I always like to make new samples for the vending events I attend and it was the same before the 2011 Sacramento Valley Scottish Gathering and Games. I received the Summer 2011 edition of RSM (still available) just in time to inspire some completely different designs for my displays. Pages 15 through 19 were all I needed to create all the samples you can see on the current Gallery page:

http://www.highlandercelticstamps.com/Sample%20Stamps%20Gallery%202011/index.html

plus others. Since then I have tried these techniques with more of my stamps which I offer to you for inspiration. Get all the instructions from the magazine http://www.rubberstampmadness.com/

It is really simple to do, just emboss an image with clear  powder on glossy card stock (pre-colored or left white), rub ink over the top with cosmetic sponges. Remove the embossing by laying absorbent paper over the image, pass a warm iron over the paper and lift quickly so it doesn’t stick. Then cut and layer as desired.

Happy stamping, Kim

Highlander stamps 201, 043, 044, 045 on glossy card stock, Memories Dye Ink, Tartan paper, ribbon

Highlander stamps 432 & 384 or 434, Memories Dye Ink, glossy card stock. I cut a slit in the fold to pass the ribbon through.

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Hello world!

Posted on July 1, 2011 by admin

I studied tutorials on and then started a blog on Word Press. Next, I got a lesson on internet marketing and was advised to put WP on the Highlander web site. This took awhile to do and figure out. Meanwhile, I was stressing on my ability to keep up with my original idea for the blog as the words were NOT flowing and I was spending way too much time researching and not having any fun at all with it. I have been doing a lot of introspection and have come to understand that I am primarily a visual person. I prefer and am happiest when I am communicating visually. So, I changed direction and focus and started to play. Play is important. I am playing more with my fine art and have a whole new direction going there as well. It will be interesting to see how this all goes. Now that I feel better and have had time to practice using WP it is getting easier and easier and faster, too. As I grow in my new understanding of myself you will SEE more and more and I won’t worry about writing very much. I hope you enjoy it all.

Thank you for visiting!
Blessings upon you,

Kim Victoria

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