And a Happy 4th Too!

I'm preparing for a special friend's visit, so I had to do something really quick today. I used Sketch #38 from the Clean & Simple blog. This uses our Uncle Ham pig, and the "Happy 'Pork' of July!" sentiment. Besides the basic blue & red (both by Stampin' Up!), I used some shimmery holograph paper by Crayola for the border & punched out star. I also used a bunch of Sakura gelly roll pens in metallic colors to add some twinkle to the pig's sparkler.

Jacki Jones, one of my computer friends is coming by today. We've never met IRL though we've been friends for years and years. I promised if she stopped by, I'd give her a personal tour of Hambo Headquarters, and that wasn't enough to deter her -- she's coming anyway! :) She's got the current "Card of the Week" over at Hero Arts, so I'll have to remember to get her autograph!

Happy Independence Day to everyone in the U.S.!! I hope you all have a terrific holiday weekend, and come out on Monday with all of your fingers intact! Be safe out there!

Danke schön

I was given permission to share these two wonderful cards that were emailed to me by Alexandra Menzlewski, a German customer:

Here, she uses our Popsicle Stand stamp to create a scene. I love how the clouds and grass are so seamless around the image. But that's nothing compared to this next one...

On this one, only the Sand Castle Boy is ours, though the rest of the scene is so fitting, you'd have thought it was a whole set meant to go together.

These two cards can also be seen on Alex's blog today: Funkelzauber's Blubberseite That link will take you directly to her post today, but click on her blog header so you can browse her other work. (And if you speak German, you can read what she has to say as well!)

Danke schön for sharing these Alex! :)

One Thing or a Rubber

Is there anyone out there who loves unmounted stamps AND an awesome deal?? If so, I might be able to help you out. I have a ton of rubber dies that I'm ready to move out, so I've marked them down to sell, with prices between 25¢ - $1.00 each. (Probably 75% are 50¢/ea. ... Is that too much math to throw at you on a Monday?)

These deals, along with a couple of others, can be found on our Seconds page. For instance, I also have several designs available on EZ Mount cushion. While these stamps are listed as "Seconds," there is nothing wrong with them at all -- they're just not how we normally sell them. If you're familiar with Hambo Stamps, you know that we normally sell our unmounted stamps with sticky cushion attached, so the fact that these others either have EZ Mount or no cushion at all makes them different, or "seconds." Clear as mud?

Quantities are limited, so I'm selling these on a first come, first served basis. AND... it should be noted, these all are our older designs, things that we are retiring, so in some cases, these are going to be the very last available of the designs, and once these rubber dies are sold, I'll be removing the designs completely from the website. I'll get the actual "Retiring" page updated to reflect accurate counts of what's left if we have any remaining on cushion (if you prefer mounted).

I think that's enough confusion for today! Just let me know if you have any questions!

Everyday Sundae!

Here's a quick little card I made with another of Tim's colored images - this time the new Sundae. It's paired with the How Much Chocolate? Fractured Funny saying from the spring release. Originally, I was going to do one of those clever "reveals" for the punchline, having the center circle rotate on a brad to show off the second part of the saying which would be hidden underneath, and I'm still not sure why I didn't. But there's an idea for YOU to try! LOL

My photograph isn't great; the dark paper is SU Chocolate Chip (apropos, no?) and that indistinguishable lump in the lower right corner is a faux bow.

This sundae looks remarkably like one of the ice cream servings Tim makes for himself when we eat at Jason's Deli. If you've eaten there, you know they have free self-serve low-fat ice cream. Or at least they DID. Because of Tim's abuse of the system, and his going back for seconds and thirds, they might rethink it. If it's discontinued, you'll have Tim to blame. That's right -- I'm completely willing to throw him under the bus, because if the ice cream is discontinued, that means that I would lose out as well. The judge would understand, I'm sure.

Thanks for stopping by!

An exception to the rule...

Libby nominated me for a "Kreativ Blogger" award (thanks Libby!), and while I usually don't participate in the "Tag" games that go around in blogland, I'm tired, I've done nothing creative to share, and figured why not give you more reasons to think I'm strange. So here goes ... 7 things you probably didn't know about me:

1. I've never had a cavity.

2. I used to be a total neatnik to the point that I vacuumed every single day, I washing/dried/put away dishes as soon as I used them, I couldn't stand anything on my counters that didn't serve a purpose there .... and then I had kids, and became normal. :)

3. I grew up in a town called "Mango" ... and quickly grew tired of hearing dumb jokes about it, like "Was the next town over 'Banana'?"

4. I was raised vegetarian ... and then I turned. LOL (Considering going back though!)

5. I dissected a frog when I was 10. That's when I decided I wanted to be a biologist. (I took Biology when I was 15, and changed my mind.)

6. In high school, I was voted "Most Mischievous"

7. I used to wear braces on my legs, the kind just like Forrest Gump wore!

and a bonus: 8. I absolutely LOVE stupid shows like "Wipeout" & "I Survived a Japanese Game Show" ... and my daughter is waiting upstairs for me to watch them with her, so I've got to run!

I'm supposed to nominate more people, but that's the part I hate doing, because I don't want to leave anyone out. If you'd like to play along, tell us some of YOUR deepest darkest secrets!

Just Fixin' to Say...

... "have a Happy Father's Day!"

This is the card I made for Tim this year. I used the "Fall-to Layout #47" sketch from the Clean & Simple blog. If you're not familiar with this blog, they have the best sketches and ideas for quick 'n easy cards!

I colored this plumber dude with Copics, trying to match the color scheme of the DP. I didn't have the perfectly matched colors, but was able to come pretty close by coloring over colors with grays to darken them up a bit.

The saying is computer-generated, and while the sketch doesn't call for it, I stamped and cut out the little screwdriver, because I thought it looked cute, and it went with the screw brad.

Well, speaking of "fixin'"... I was going to post this card yesterday, but our computer crashed in the morning, and I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to restore everything. I still have programs to reload, updates and service packs to download, and I have to get the Hambo mail system working right again. I lost my spreadsheets, which is one of the most frustrating things. Of course I had them backed up -- saved to a disk -- but when I try to restore them, they don't seem to be on the disk any more! This can't be right... unless they were already affected by the computer problems prior to saving, and I ended up backing up a tainted copy?? So I will spend a LOT of time trying to reconstruct all my records from the printouts I have, if I'm not able to find them on the disk. Sigh...

And ... Tim left this morning, heading for work in NC. (Melissa, he promised to wave as he passes!) Of course everything goes wrong just before he leaves, so now I get to try to figure things out on my own. Our washing machine is about to quit too, so I'm once again doing "laundry triage" -- trying to figure out which things MUST be washed next, since every load I do could very well be the last for a while. Oh well, sometimes you just have to laugh and do the best you can!

I hope the week has started off better for the rest of you! Thanks for stopping by. :)

Sigh...

For once, I planned ahead and had a card not only finished, but also mailed out early enough to reach its destination in time.

Sorry Dad, but your Father's Day card arrived back on my doorstep today... no postage attached.

Aaaaaaarrrrrrgggghhhhh!

All the card's a stage!

Tim finished turning the background of his juggler card into a new digital download, which is now available for purchase. There are several Hambo stamps that would work great with this background, including the Ballerina, Ballerina Hippo, Seal (not the Heidi Klum kind, the Sea World kind)... Or use it with a cutout photo of one of your kids -- perfect for a scrapbook page!

And now I'm off to enjoy the weekend. Please note that I will not return for an encore tonight, no matter how thunderous your applause.

Have a great one!

Restocked! (and a secret)...

Just a quick note to let you know that we just got a new shipment of rubber in! Anything that has been listed on the website as "Temporarily Unavailable" should now be restocked. This includes the "No Cracks" saying, the "Shopping Pig," a couple of Fractured Funnies, and more.

Also... we have a "Secret Sale" going on through noon tomorrow for our newsletter subscribers. You should have received all the sale details if you're on our newsletter list. If you're NOT on our newsletter list and you would like to be eligible for sales like this, please be sure to email us and ask to be added to our list. Please be sure to provide the email address for which you'd like these notices to be sent. Subscribing to this blog is not the same as signing up for the newsletter -- you can only be added to the newsletter list by emailing to request it. Just put "Newsletter" in the subject line, and we'll get you added. This is not a high volume newsletter, so you don't have to worry about us filling your inbox every week.

Now I'm off to decorate for a luau. I'm not having a luau -- I'm just decorating a room in that theme. The "Hammock Pig" would be proud of all the tropical stuff we have going on!

Later taters!

Little Houses and some Marmoots

Timbo here! I wanted to show some of the other stuff I've been drawing lately. These are some little houses I have/had for sale in my Etsy Store. The first one is available the others have sold. All of these measure 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" and are done on illustration board....they are ATC size, which stands for Artist Trading Cards in case you hadn't heard. When they are for sale they are called ACEO's ... Art Cards, Editions and Originals.

They are fun to do and very portable to work on. I didn't think I would ever be able to work so small but the practice of doing these has helped me to tighten up my work when I need to. Most of these houses are based on real houses around here. I borrow different elements and mix them up sometimes too. A lot of interesting houses in some of these neighborhoods.








Here are a couple of 'Marmoots' as I call them. The colored one is available. These are fun little creatures to draw. They are still evolving somewhat....below is the first one in color. Micah...our daughter.. thinks the girl Marmoots should have pink hair and no big teeth so I'm going to try one of those next.




Thanks for looking!!

The Birds and the Bee!

Timbo here! Just to let you know Monica was awake at 3 AM and told me what the title of this blog should be. Good title! She also let me know at 6AM too. She's very pleased with it so give her some love. Ok....I did a step by step demo on this one. When I first drew the little Juggler I wanted to do a scene of him juggling different things. I used one of the Penguins, a Chicken and the Tiny Bee. Just juggling the bees would be great too...maybe a new phrase would come from it...'I'm too busy juggling bees right now!' I thought it would be great to do one with him juggling baby stuff too like many busy parents do.

Here we go. I stamped the images on my GP 110lb card stock then I drew in the stage scene around him. I have done some doodles of a stage set for digital downloads so I had a little practice. I think I'm going to use this one....I'll put clear Mylar over the card and ink it in with Rapidograph pens and scan it.




Next I used one my my Col-Erase pencils by Sanford..the same fine folks who make Prismacolors. Like the name implies they are erasable. They come in 12 or 24 colors. Very inexpensive and a great little tool to have in your toolbox. A lot of CP (colored pencil) artist use this method to get the basic shapes in. I used Brown to put down some stronger lines. In all of these you can see my crop lines. Much easier for me to work like this then cut it smaller...I just go over the lines with my coloring.




I wanted the curtains to be green and the Juggler to be pinkish/red so what I did is the same thing I do when I color grass. I use complements of the final color as the first layers. So on the curtains I used Pink Rose and Mulberry. His clothes I used Pale Sage and Jade. The stage I just went strait Cream and Yellow Ocher. I like to do skin tones starting with Cream..Light Peach..Pink Rose or Blush and a little Tuscan Red.




For chickens and bees I used three colors mostly. Starting with Sunburst Yellow then Pumpkin Orange...you can get away with just that but I sometimes use Tuscan Red too. If the red gets too dark you can come back and burnish it with the Sunburst Yellow. Hard to tell in this picture but I used a little Greyed Lavender on the Penguin...that color works great on white stuff that doesn't have much color.




Ok so now I switched it up and go over the curtains and his clothes with the final colors. The curtains I used Pale Sage and Jade. I also used Olive Green, Dark Green and %50 Cool Grey to burnish some areas. The stripes were the same colors as the chicken and bee. The juggler I used Pink Rose, Mulberry and some Black Raspberry. I used some Greyed Lavender on the frilly stuff on the Juggler.




I cropped the image and did more more to the stage. On the front I used Dark Umber, French Grey %20, Warm Grey %50 and went over all of it with Perme Violet to give it some color. It might be the first time I used that color but it worked great.



Monica put it on a dark green paper. I scanned the final image so it looks a lot better than the others taken with the digital camera and bad lighting. This paper is good but I might try one on really good paper soon....something like a Stonehenge maybe. I'm really liking Strathmore Illustration board too so I might try that as well. I could have gone a lot darker in areas like the shadows in the curtains but the paper couldn't take much more. Look for the background as a digital image soon. Thanks for looking!!

Alohog!

A little "R & R" is good for the soul ... and for the sore neck/back. I'm feeling much better this week; thanks to all for your well-wishes!

Tim colored this "Hammock Pig" for me weeks ago when our summer designs first arrived. It's one of those things that has been piled on my desk ... along with just about everything else that I own. It was a fluke that Tim colored it in colors that matched this chunky ribbon that I've had for ages, and never found a use for. I'm not good with chunky ribbon. I have no idea how to tie it, so I just glued it down instead! The "Pamper Yourself" sentiment was stamped directly onto the kraft paper, but first I rubbed some chalk on the paper right where I wanted the sentiment to go, to allow for a little more contrast so the saying was easier to read. (I practiced on a scrap piece first.) I was afraid it would look weird, but actually you can hardly tell where the chalk is, so I think it's okay.

Tim is working on another tutorial as I type, so come back tomorrow to see what crazy things were going through his head today. There's a new background involved that I think it's safe to say will be a new digital download soon. I think it has a lot of possibilities, and I'm anxious to put my own spin on it soon.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week!

Race on over and see this new digital!

Happy Friday everyone! Timbo here. Monica still has a pain in her neck.....and yes I typed that very carefully. I had an idea for a new digital image last night and this is the result.




It's available on our new Digital Images page on Hambo Stamps. I was going to make a joke about this racer having a 'checkered' past but I won't. We need more kid's birthday or any occasion images and this is a good start in my humble opinion. I was 'revved' up to color him and this is what I did...




Monica drew a crowd scene last year on a card that was really good and I tried to do something like it. Hers was better I think. I think I could have done a better job on some of the elements as far as coloring but all in all it will do. As a kid I was never one to draw cars or planes or tanks like the other boys...I liked drawing people so I never really had much practice with cars.

On the subject of Digital Images.....some call them Digital Stamps which is very descriptive as far as what the purpose of them is...to be used like a stamp would. But they obviously are not stamps and that confuses people. Someone made a point that Digital Scrapbooking is now an accepted term and that Digital Stamps will be soon. Any one have any opinions on what to call them??

Have a great weekend!

A Real Pain in the Neck

Just a quick note as to where I've been: I messed up my neck/back, so I haven't been able to look down to do any stamping or coloring or card assembly. However, I can look straight ahead, so I've spent some time working on the website. Still more to do (there is ALWAYS more to do!), but I've now got a page set up on our website for Tim's digital designs, so they can be purchased directly from our site rather than thru the Etsy shop. We have a shopping cart and everything! The shopping cart can be used if you're purchasing digitals and ONLY digitals (since there is no shipping fee to be calculated) -- but if you want to combine a digital purchase with a rubber stamp order, then you'd still need to email your order to us as you normally would.

Since Tim's already paid the listing fees for the designs already on Etsy, he'll continue to sell there until each design is sold out; they will not be relisted. Therefore, if you're a fan of the digitals and have his Etsy page bookmarked, you should probably change the bookmark to the new digital page where any new designs will be added. The links to the freebies (the "Cool Cat" & "Shell Phone Pig") are included at the top of the new page. And, Tim has some new drawings in the works that might appear there soon.

I still need to make a gallery page dedicated to the digital designs, but I DO have some samples linked to most of the designs on the page. If you see a "+" next to any of the digital designs, click on the picture for a nice sample. I'll try to get the gallery page finished up soon.

Also, in case you didn't see Tim's note on Monday, the "Sale" page has been updated as well.

Here's hoping I'm back to "normal" and stamping again next week.

Have a great weekend everyone! :)