New Packaging!

Hello friends!

I'm excited about my new packaging I have been working on! After receiving such amazing wrappings from my dear friend, Karen Totten I decided to step up my packaging!

So first I had always seen my logo as a stamp in my mind. I could use this stamp for all sorts of things like hand stamping my own cards, bags, boxes , whatever...

Here is my stamp. The one on the left is my silicone stamper. On the right is a traditional rubber stamp. I bought my logo stamp from my rubber stamp 

So my original idea was to use acrylic paint, brayer the paint together to make a gradient and stamp.

The paint was kind of thick....

So I tried, and tried, and tried. I even tried some old stamp pads I had lying around and those didn't quite work right either....

 

This was about the best one I got. Dang.... still not quite right.

So off to the store I went in search of an ink pad. My rubber stamp suggested using adirondak stamp pads. I went to my local crafty stores to see what they had. While looking I found these amazing inks by Color Box. Mmmmmm just my colors all in one stack!!

 

Here is a photo of the stack with my stamper, a stamped box and my matching sari silk. the photo is a little dark since I took it with my cell phone, but you get the idea ;)

 

Now to make the cards! My friends have a Silouette machine(its like that Cricket scrapbooking machine). My friend Brandon created me a circle shaped card . While Brandon is creating the image he ask me "Do you want perforations?". I said "Perforations?! YES!!". So I'm thinking it's just a line, right? NOPE, it's a cut dashed line so that you can fold the card perfectly in the middle! Wow, fancy pants machines they make now a days!

Here aer some of the cards cut out. They look like boobs or bikini tops. Lol. When the machine cuts out the images it sounds like an evil circus. If you have ever heard those engraving machines, that is exactly what the sound is. All these funny pitches and noises. I think its some sort of weird robot language. It may have been trying to rally my printer and keyboard against me! Why knows... 

After the cards are folded they get inked. They  are ALL INDIVIDUALLY INKED ONE at a time by my hands. I take the colors and hand mix them as well to get that pretty gradient. So in short, THESE CARDS ARE A LOT OF WORK! So when you receive one, just at least keep it for a little while? ;)

Like little soldiers.

 

Here's a close up. Again the photo is a little dark from my phone, but you get the idea. I had some ask me why I didn't print on white. Well here is why... I wanted my items to have that hippy recycled feel. Kraft colored paper seemed like the perfect way to give my work that look and feel :)

Now onto the silk. I have loved recycled sari silk since the first time I have even realized it was around. I am a super green girl, so I LOVE all things recycled. So this recycled sari silk was PERFECT for my new recycled hippy packaging!

 

I purchased my lovely silk from Nancy Camp-Zolun. When I ordered I told her what my ideas were for my packaging so she kindly sent me a variety of her silks for me to see in person and decide on my color :D Wow, huh?! They were all so beautiful, but the multi-colored greeny/teal/aqua "Tropic Seas" was my absolute favorite!

 

Here is my bundle of silk that arrived today! It's even prettier all unraveled! 

 

So here is what some of the finished packaging looks like. I love the idea of having a silk tie around my packaging. It's a little extra bonus to be used for designing as well as looking awesome! Again, if you don't end up using the silk, please recycle it, give it to  a friend, tie up a gift, whatever, just re-use it! :) In the future I plan to order some kraft colored boxes like in the photo above. 

I also received some wonderful goodies recently that I would love to show-and-tell.

  

I received these lovely beads from Karen Totten! I can't tel you my plans for them yet since I don't know who reads my blog(they are gifts) ;) Anyways, I am super excited about these and can't wait to get them worked up into something! 

Well it's still crazy hectic around here so hopefully things will settle down after our friends wedding this weekend.

See you soon!

xo Genea