I don't know about you guys, but I *LOVE* getting mail. :-) It's one of my favorite things to do during the day.. walk down to the mailbox and get the mail. Unless it's a day that the mailman can't fit a package into the mailbox (since we have a locked box because of past identity theft issues.. ugh!), he walks it up to the door... and honestly, there are MANY days when the mail doesn't fit in that little letter slot. ;-)
Ethan would groan in agreement - I get ALOT of packages. Whether it be "business" stuff, or frivelous stuff for Danielle (of which I usually pass off as "oh, it's just business stuff" if Ethan sees it sitting on the kitchen table, as to avoid any nagging. ;-)
I also love PRETTY packages. Usually mail is very utilitarian, no matter who your package is from. But when I started shopping at Etsy several years ago, I noticed that many people took a little more care in packaging items, and would even add some fun Cram Cream tape to the outside, or give you some freebies with your purchase.
Since I have my own Etsy shop now, I've always wanted to *cute-ify* my packages in some way. I might add some cute stickers or printed packing tape, but it has just never felt like ENOUGH. I've had the idea of creating custom packing tape for a very long time, but could never find a place that could do it for a reasonable price, so I gave up looking for a while. I was happy to see that Emily Martin from The Black Apple jumped on that idea creating her own *super-cute* packing tape! I definitely haven't abandoned this idea, I just need to find the right printer. :-)
And then I was thinking that I could create a digital kit (of which I still might do!) where you could print your own cute address labels, "Do Not Bend" labels, "Fragile" labels, etc. I send alot of photo prints and cut-out sheets in the mail in those flat mailers and always have to hand-scribble "Do Not Bend" on them, and i KNEW I needed to create something cute for that.
SO, all of that to say that I ended up deciding on a CLEAR STAMP set to prettify my packages!! And in turn, YOUR packages as well. :-)
I'm so excited to offer this very cute "Happy Mail" Clear Stamp Collection that you can use on your very own packages. Send mail in style... no more boring packages!
And they are available as a set here, or individually here, here and here, all in my Tiny Bazaar Etsy shop! (limited supply)
**Edited: These links might be sold out, but you can go to my Etsy shop and I'll be relisting them as their sold!**
***Edited again: they are selling fast! I only have a handful of each stamp left, so I'm putting in a new order to the manufacturer today. I'll have these still available to purchase as Pre-Orders once they run out. The production time is usually 2 weeks or so. Just FYI. :-) Thanks so much if you've placed an order!***
Set includes:
- One Super Kawaii Soft-Serve Ice Cream "To:" stamp which you can handwrite the addressee's name, address, etc. inside. I made the inside area extra big for those International addresses that seem to go on for days! :-) Size: 5.25" x 3.75"
- One "Hay there! This package is FRAGILE... handle with care." horsy stamp. Size: 4"x2"
- One "PLEASE DO NOT BEND, precious goods inside." stamp. Size: 3"x2"
Here's how I used these stamps in some of my Etsy packaging....... :-)
I use the "Please do not bend..." stamp on the front and back of my flat mailers. If you are going to use this stamp or the horsy "Fragile" stamp, be sure to use them on all sides of your packages. That is usually what the Post Office does with their "Do Not Bend" and "Fragile" stamps (since packages get tossed around en route) although their's won't be as pretty as these. ;-)
I had thought about getting a customized Tiny Bazaar "from" address stamp, but thought that would be too many stamps for one package, and went with a round label instead. I used some circle labels from Onlinelabels.com (LOVE that company!). I ran them through my ink-jet printer. They really turned out great. I love that i don't have to handwrite my return address anymore either. Yippee! :-)
The faux postage stamps I made from this font... so fun! I couldn't mail these of course, but wanted to use something *for position only*. ;-) These would be fun to use in scrapbook art, art journals, etc. I printed them onto self-adhesive ink-jet label paper.
The "precious goods inside" is something that Ethan and I always say when we're on long drives on the interstate.. always reminding each other to be safe while driving, because we have "precious goods inside"... and no, it's not my camera equipment, or Ethan's DS Lite (although quite obviously VERY important!).. it's those little boys, of course! ;-)
I created the envelope below out of vintage wallpaper (of which I've aquired quite the collection lately) using a template I found online. It was fun stamping the ice cream and horse image on that...
As you can see, that ice cream addressee stamp is quite big! I love that. So much room to add your address.
Another GREAT thing about these is that you can not only use them for your packages and letters, but also your artwork! All you have to do is add ink to select areas, not the entire stamp area. I use the Color Box Petal Point Pigment Ink Pads.. the pigment ink goes on nice and thick and really fills in your stamp nicely. I also like that since the "petals" are pointed, it's easy to selectively color certain areas on your stamp while leaving other areas inkless.
If you really want easy application when selectively coloring your stamp, you could also try these Marvy Le Plume watercolor markers. It's dual-tipped (brush point on one end, fine tip on the other).
On these tags, I only inked the girl on the "Do not Bend" stamp and the horse on the "Fragile" stamp. On the very bottom tag I inked the word bubble as well as the girl. You could add your own message in there! These would all be great for scrapbooking, card-making, gift tags, you name it.
(The green floral and yellow striped "tags" were cut from the "Jack's World Journaling Cards" sheet from Cosmo Cricket.)
I also added the horse image to this awesome patterned paper from Sassafras Lass. :-) A great way to embellish your patterned paper and make it even more interesting and fun!
Some more selective inking on the "Fragile" horse stamp.. you could add a name or your own message in the blank banner area. I stamped the entire image onto some Woodgrain paper, cut it out and gave it a scalloped edge for the tag at the bottom. The dotted green and pink tags are from Elle's Studio. :-)
Below, I made some gift tags from the Ice Cream stamp... :-)
You could also just ink the ice cream cone for a fun embellishment by itself! :-)
Here are close-ups of the actual stamps...
If you've never used this kind of stamp, they aren't like your typical rubber stamps that already have mounts. These clear polymer stamps do not come already adhered to a mount. These are great because #1: you can see through them, and when you stick them to clear acrylic mounts, you can also see through those, allowing you to see where you're stamping! SO much easier to use than typical rubber stamps when you're essentially stamping blindly. Here and here are some great tips on how to use the stamps, how to take care of them, how to store them, etc.
I just picked up a clear acrylic block/mount from Michael's Crafts, the Martha Stewart brand. The nice thing about this one is that it has grid lines on the mount so that if you use an alphabet stamp, it's very easy to line up your letters/words!
There are lots of brands that carry these though and you can easily find them locally. You can also of course find them online.. here's a place where you can get them. The starter set would be great to have lots of different sizes depending how big your stamp collection might become. I just used the one mount for all of my stamps, which you could also do. The stamps can be stuck onto the mount, taken off, restuck... they keep their adhesion indefinitely.
And lastly, this is how your stamps will come packaged!
They come in some very pretty aqua blue vellum envelopes...
I hope to design more Clear Stamps in the future... Such a fun product to design and (even more so) to play with! :-)
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