Stamps, Stamps, and More Stamps!

So, I really have a tendency to learn how to do something, whether artistically, culinarily, or just whatever, and then go crazy with ideas of how to put this new talent/knowledge to use. More often than not, the interest fades out, or money subsides, halting production on whatever I was working on. For this reason, I own stools that I was refurbishing in my own quirky way that are half sanded and in dire need of another run over with the wood burner, and have recipes that I never wrote down, swearing that I'd remember them, and no, of course, I don't. Most recently, as a by product of trying to find some way  to put our own logo on the back of homemade Harry Potter Apples To Apples cards, I stumbled across stamps at Michaels. Suddenly, while searching for stamps that didn't exist, I saw a few wedding ones and got the idea of making my own wedding invitations. I have currently done two trial invites and think I finally have a good idea as to the design for  the outside, it just requires patience and a few more materials.

Of course, this is sideways, but you get the picture.

Anywho, that led me to my next step, searching Etsy to find someone who will make a single stamp containing all of the information that needs to go on the inside. While I'm still toying with this idea, it turns out to be more expensive than I'd like, so I might have to go back to stamping it letter by letter with a smaller packet of letter stamps. Back to the story however,  this prompted me to search and see just how hard it might be to make your own stamp. After just a few minutes on google and youtube, I was equipped with the knowledge to at least go make my own HP AtoA stamps. In case you're wondering, here's a video on how it's done.                                                                                                                    

So I went to Michaels to purchase either a stamp pad or an extra large eraser.  I found the pads in no time, but they were more expensive than I wanted to spend. When I was about to check out however, I looked over at the $1 bins and saw this huge pink eraser that was perfect for the job, as well as the idea I had brewing in my head about making a stamp for the bookmark wedding favor I'd been trying to design.

I was pretty excited, and thought the quote on the front was kind of funny. If only I knew how true it would turn out to be. Sorry by the way, all of the pictures from my web cam are mirrored, which may or may not be ironic, I can't tell.

 So I went over to Thomas' grandparents' house, cut one of the erasers in half and went to work with my pen and carving tools. Everyone else thought it was pretty neat, with several of the cousins who helped telling me it was sort of therapeutic work. In no time we had two lovely apple-with-a-lightning-bolt stamps reading for the cards we still had to rewrite.

As you can see I even became victim of being stamped myself, as Kallan decided to go around stamping us all while we waited on dinner to be made and could not work on the cards because it would take up too much room. I'm actually pretty proud of how these turned out, except the fact that I should have gotten a better ink pad, and of course, I forgot that it would stamp a mirrored image rather than the one I cut out. Oh well, the lightning bolt works okay on either side.


So today, is when I thoroughly failed. I started to work on the bookmark stamp, and instead of planning it out, which is always my downfall, I got too excited and went ahead and started drawing and carving.

The result is what you see on your left. What is funny is that, using my computer's camera, the image actually looks like it should. However, when you actually see it, I didn't take the time to mirror the writing. I spent something like an hour and a half on this, and had half of it carved out, as you can see. I went to test it since I had a portion big enough to ink and not smear over the parts I hadn't worked on yet, and saw, whoopsy, it was backwards. I wanted to scream and laugh at the same time. Of course, I can go back to the store and get another eraser, and perhaps thinner carving tools to make the letter's a little bit tighter and less matisse font-like. For now, I'm frustrated and am thinking about just using whatever smaller letters I buy for the inside of the invitations, but maybe I'll stop back by and grab another eraser or two and try again soon. If I am I need to do it before they move them and I can't ever find  them again. Even if I give up on this idea, I may make some smaller, simpler ones for the kids at the wedding to play with while the adults are doing their socializing. The lesson after all of this though, is to plan ahead as much as possible. Don't let your excitement get the best of you, or you'll be out of several bucks and a few hours of time you could have been using to not fail at other things.
Oh well, you live and you learn. I'll probably definitely update again soon with how everything's going. Wish me luck!

Cheers!

For you're own tools to for stamp making:
  

Superheroes part dos

So, obviously, I've been meaning to finish this for a while, as I always am.  A lot of stuff has come up and there are some crazy changes going on in my life.   Moving on though, when I think superheroes, I think powers, and which ones I'd actually consider having.  Some of you might be like, "Dude, of course you would want a superpower,"  but on the contrary, I see a lot of them as flawed.  In a way they are almost like a hamartia, a "tragic flaw," though not one the hero can really be blamed for as you might normally would for say, Oedipus.  Lets look at some of the more attractive powers

Super Strength
I think this is probably the most popular power, which is probably due to the fact that I think it was one of the first in the comic book realm.  People didn't really get creative about powers until later. Anyway, Yes, super strength is rather attractive, especially when you think of how much good you could do when things go awry. Just right to your left, Superman is stopping a bank robbery. My only issue is with controlling it.  Is one able to turn it on and off, or do they just make a point to be extra, extra careful when doing anything else in life?  If its the former, than fine, the only issue you might have is if you got really upset and purposefully hurt someone who just made you a bit angry or jealous. If its the latter however, I can't imagine how difficult it might would be to be so gentle.  Unless you got really good with it, you would constantly be hurting those you loved or breaking fragile things like teacups and lightbulbs.  Of course, there are even more picky issues with the power like, how does your skin withhold the pressure of so much force when you use the power, or what density would  your muscles truly have to be (unless of course its just magic)?  These things aren't really of any consequence though because you're suppose to suspend your disbelief on the issue and just accept that the power is a truth.

Healing
So I know there are a lot of different heroes, villains, and other various characters with this ability, but my favorite is Wolverine. I also think he's the perfect example of all that can go wrong with this power. First of all, he's been a horrible lab experiment and had adamantium fused to his skeleton (twice I believe). Not only is that horribly painful, but inhumane. Also, it set him up for the time that Magneto ripped the metal from his skeleton during a battle. There are some forms of injury and pain you just don't want to come back from. Of course, one thing does have a big impact on this issue, the speed of regeneration. If you heal almost instantly, then okay, that's not so bad, but if it takes several days or even weeks, that would be ridiculously painful. Anyway, another thing to refute over with this healing power, is how long it allows you to live. Sure, especially with all of the vampire literature about, living forever does seem to have it's perks, but I think it would be boring after a while. After you've lived to see everything, if you're the kind of person to care about culture and what not, what are you going to do. Yes of course, there are constantly technological advances that one might would want to see, but after a while that might even begin to seem like the same thing over and over again. Unless you're power was recognized in the public, which for someone born even today, that is very unlikely, you'd have to live a secret life of mystery and deception, not ever letting anyone truly closed to you. Also, those that you did let get close to you, would eventually die, or even be killed because of you. You could just become immune to death, but really, would you want to live a life like that and not have any stock in human life?

Telepathy
So I've always been into this power, I guess because I'm extremely aware of my surroundings and am always worried I've made someone think ill of me. Shamefully I have even thought something merely because I was worried someone might somehow hear it, and then immediately worry that somebody has.  I'm not crazy, just a little quirky with an open mind to the possibly paranormal. So, of course I have always been aware, at least partially, of the side effects of this ability. First of all, unless you can turn it off, you run the risk of going a little bit insane. Your mind makes you who you are, excluding you soul for the  moment, and if you lose it, you're nothing. You're just a body, a vessel for a soul that can't express itself because it has no mind to convey any aspect of itself. One thing I hadn't thought of so much until the last few years since I read the first Sookie Stackhouse novel by Charlaine Harris, is how just how horrible it would be and how self conscious you might get if you did hear everything everybody though about you. I had thought about it on the more general level of just hearing what passersby had to say about you, but not that you may never have a healthy, working relationship because of it. What's especially worrisome is the idea of hearing what your loved one is really thinking of while he or she is consoling you, kissing you, or even making love to you. I'm not a prude, but I know that would pretty much scar me for life.

Super Intelligence
This is an ability I would actually like to have, as long as I knew how to keep my ego down and my mouth shut at the appropriate times, which is something Tony Stark definitely needs to work on. If you don't, obviously, a whole ton of crap can happen to you.  You can get kidnapped by the enemy, create vendettas worldwide, and on a smaller level, never have a friend that thinks he's on your level. The only issues I think there would be if you theoretically used the power right, is the distance that would be created between you any anyone you loved because they are not on your intellectual level, as well as the issue of learning too much about the world.  When I say this last one, I mean that you learn about so much evil and pain in the world that you lose all hope in humanity or even the existence of being.

Telekinesis
So finally, this is the power I find the most practical, if thats even what one should be  thinking in terms of having a special ability. Yes, my example to the left, Jean Grey does end up turning evil, but I would argue that that is because she also had mind reading capabilities that made her extra susceptible to being controlled by someone with similar powers. If you simply just had telekinesis, you could definitely do damage if you wanted to, but if used right, it would really just be like being that young wizard who uses his powers to do his chores rather than actually doing them. I guess you could get extra lazy and have develop weight issues, but that already happens. I think telekinesis would be really nice for getting things done on a busy day, or doing those menial chores that would normally take up the time you could be using to do something more important. Really, it would just make things a little easier, like holding a book you're reading or grabbing a really hot pan out of the oven. My fiancé and I had some other ideas the other day, but for the life of me I can't remember what they were. I do think at one time we were playing with  the idea of whether or  not telekinesis would allow you to heal yourself because technically you would be able to connect your veins, tissues and what not back together.  It would all boil down to whether or not you could fuse them back together or not, or if you could, in the time allotted before you passed our or died from a serious injury.

If you have any arguments, feel free to give them.  I do not claim to be a comic book guru or anything of the sort.  I've just read and seen some things that fill me in here and there. You might complain that I left out things like x-ray vision, shifting, or even magic as a whole.  This was a conscious decision made because then I would just be writing for hours about every little power I could think of.  This way, I just took the several powers I thought I could talk about and focused on them. Focus is a main issue for me so I wanted there to me as little leeway as possible.  Speaking of focusing, I need to get back to work and jump in the shower.

Cheers