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The Old Island Stamp Company

Summer 2006

STAMP DRAW WINNER: I am pleased to announce our latest stamp draw winner is Marnie Anderson of Taradale, Napier, New Zealand. Our first New Zealand winner, and about time! Marnie has been a customer of ours for a number of years. So, if you too have been entering for years, the message is clear: do not give up. Congratulations to Marnie! The new stamp draw is ready to go. To enter the Draw, click on [Home] above, and then on Stamp Draw on the Home page. The prize this time is another three brand new stamps. Check it out and Good Luck!

'THE FINE PRINT': Please note, now that it is three months between draws, make sure you only enter once during that time. We had a lot more duplicates this time, and I cannot pick someone who has entered twice or three times...it is not fair to everyone else. Also we still have a lot of people putting their e-mail address as their first name, and I disqualify those too.

100,000 WEBSITE HITS/$100 WINNER: These were very good odds. We only had 38 entries. Because of the way the entries came in, I pulled the old dart out of retirement for this draw. I was admittedly a little rusty. After a few near misses the conclusive winner was Norma Nelson of Logan Lake, British Columbia. Congratulations to Norma!

AROUND THE STUDIO: We have just about completed all the new stamps for this year. I do not have enough stock to put all of them on the Latest Images page, yet. However, I will introduce all of them on the website over the coming weeks before the Fall newsletter. We also have completed two new unmounted text sheets.

Our Christmas shows are now settled for this year. We will do Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto again this year. We tried to do Ottawa again this year; however, they did not have a 4-day opening for us. Perhaps, we will try again next year to get back there. We also looked into doing Butterdome in Edmonton after Toronto; however, the shipping company cannot get us there from Toronto in time for the show.

"A Life in the Country" was a little book given to us by a friend when we moved to our property on Salt Spring Island many years ago. It was written by a local retired newspaper editor, Bruce Hutchison. It was a delightful personal account of adjusting to a rural lifestyle. I learned useful little things from some of Bruce's misfortunes. Like the little bridge he built that collapsed in decay a few years later, because he did not remove the bark from the cedar logs that he had built it with. As to be expected we too have had our little misfortunes. We planted a couple of fruit trees several years ago, and last year we had our first really good crop of Italian plumes. Trudy and I both love them fresh off the tree when they are still crisp and tart. Obviously, raccoons do too, because just when the fruit was as we like it, they striped the entire tree in one night! This year we have a bumper crop on its way, and knew I needed to act to protect our fruit. So, after much deliberation and many mental iterations of proto-types, I created "Sentry-man" to protect this year's crop. I took 1000 watt quartz construction lights on a telescoping stand, and wired in a thermal motion detector to activate an outdoor outlet. So, sentry-man quietly patiently waits 24/7 for the little masked bandits to show up near our tree. When they do, 'he' begins flashing 1000 watts in the culprits eyes and turns on a loud electric drill hanging inside a large sheet metal cylinder fastened around the trunk of the tree. If that fails to deter the little petty thieves, I can have sentry-man wake me up by running an extension cord to any appliance of my chose right next to my sleeping head. While sentry-man is not exactly subject matter for a quaint little book about our adjusting to life in the country, I am hopeful my little 21st century two-headed scarecrow will save this year's Italian plum crop.

For those of you who have followed Kerstin the tree frog saga, you will be interested to know that she returned on the first day of Summer. I felt it was definitely her (she was in her usual spot, her lime-olive complexion :) and her manner with regards to the lid); however, she seemed a little stand-offish, and only stayed for two days. Others have visited since, but they are not Kerstin.

FROM THE MAILBAG: After I wrote about cleaning stamps (about a year ago), I got a couple of interesting responses you might be interested in. One was from Barbara Tippmann. Actually, hers is also bit of a testimonial, so I'll include that part, too. She said:

"In the first days of May I e-mailed my first stamp order to you and before I had time to mark my calendar to count the days, my stamps arrived at my door. I was/am really pleased with the stamps, the fast service, and....the bonus stamp....and yes, now I am sold on the unmounted stamps. Much better to store and find one specific one without dumping the container. My first stamping experience was a few ago when I took a workshop.....There we were told to use a soft brush to clean the stamps. I can't remember seeing any mention, of how to clean the stamps, anywhere else. So I am using the softest brush ever. I buy it in one of my favorite stores, Lee Valley.....That's why I sent you a sample. You maybe way ahead of me, but if it is the right way to clean stamps, perhaps other stamps could use a heads-up."

I have tried the brush that Barbara sent, and it works great! The Lee Valley store she mentioned is also one of my favorites. I order via mail-order from them all the time (800-267-8767). Lee Valley is also an on-line business at www.leevalley.com. The brush is product # CA201, and a pair of brushes costs $1.40.

Lynda MacLellan also wrote on the subject. She said,

"I use two terry washcloths, purchased at a discount store. One is damp, one is dry. The stamp is cleaned by rubbing on the damp cloth. If necessary, it can be dried on the other one. Rinsing the washcloth effectively removes the ink. When it becomes really stained, toss it! I use different colours to avoid using the "dryer" as the "cleaner"! I keep the damp cloth in a zip-lock sandwich bag. Both clothes can be stored in plastic bags for traveling. I find that the nap on a washcloth is beneficial for cleaning the grooves of a stamp."

We also sell a commercial stamp scrubber in our studio. It is a shallow plastic tray. The bottom of the tray is lined with a bristly material. To use it, you just pour a little water in one half of the bottom of the tray. You scrap your stamp across the wet bottom of the tray a couple of times, then the dry portion, and "presto" it is clean! Trudy swears by hers.

MARGARET'S MUSINGS: If you have had an opportunity to see our display at anytime over the past several years, you would have seen sample cards by our friend Margaret Appleton. Margaret is always trying something new, and comes up with some great effects with our stamps. She has agreed to write a short piece for each newsletter on stamping in general and on techniques slightly beyond the basics.

Maybe it was eyelets or brads, punches or papers, flowers or the sun. Whatever the cause, I was thinking "circles" a few days ago. I have long avoided using circles in my stamping and on my cards. These days there are a lot of wonderful punches that simplify circle-cutting and I decided to do some exploring.

Here are some ideas that emerged from my session with circles on cards.

Use both parts of the paper when you punch or cut out a circle.

The Punch-out

The Circle-opening

1. Punch-out ideas:

Stamp on the circle shape and mount it to a card alone or 3 or 5, either flat or on pop dots.

Mount one whole circle or 2 halves of different colours. Put ribbon or rickrack down the center. (To get a perfect half circle, punch 2 circles , fold one in half and cut, and that will be your half-circle pattern to trace)

Use different sizes and/or different coloured circles on the same card

Use plain or patterned paper for your circle

Soften and/or tint the edges by applying ink or chalk

Remember some stamp images and some punch-outs are "roundish" so they could be one of your 3 or 5 circles e.g.. shell, flower, sun

Some unmounted phrase stamps will bend slightly to go around the curve of the circle

Punch a hole on each side of the circle and put thread or ribbon through so that your circle is "suspended" on the card

Use half circles or part circles as a container for stamped flowers or greenery.

Use the punch out as a mask �place it on paper and, using chalk or ink and brushes, daubers, or your finger, brush the colour off the circle in an outward motion. Work around the circle then remove the mask�.OR place a number of different-sized circles on the paper with repositionable tape and then apply colour all around them. (If you only have ordinary tape just take a bit of the stickiness off by touching it on your sleeve or pant leg before using it).

2. Circle- opening ideas:

Use the opening as a stencil. When stenciling use stipple brushes or daubers or colour dusters and try varying circle sizes in varying colours on the same card. You will get the most marvelous background.

Punch several circles of the same size or different sizes out of a rectangle of card stock (plain or patterned). Mount the whole rectangle to a card and "fill" the circles with images, greetings, embellishments or smaller punched-out circles.

I had a great time exploring circles. I hope you will, too. Try sharing punches with a friend or have a punch-session where you punch out a few circles in varying colours and sizes to have ready for your next project.

Happy Summer and Happy Stamping!

STAMPING UP STAMPERS TAKE NOTE: Find yourself envious of the unmounted system?...you should...being able to see right through the block to exactly position your image...storing and indexing a hundred stamps in an ordinary notebook...paying less than half price for your stamps? We cannot do anything about what you are paying, but we can very easily help you convert your Stamping Up stamps to the cling vinyl system. A letter size sheet of cling vinyl only costs a dollar. Instead of mounting your stamps on wood blocks, you just stick them on the cling vinyl. Peel off the paper backing and they cling to clear acrylic blocks that you use over and over. It is that simple! A few blocks is all you need for your entire collection. If you have mounted them on the wood already, you need to pull them off, clean off any tidbits of cushion and stick them on EZ-Mount. Peel off the paper backing and your are ready to go. If you have any questions about this, just let me know. (I also have some ideas for what you could do with all those maple blocks, but Trudy convinced me to edit them out of the newsletter as potentially offensive to some!...me offensive? We unmounted stampers can be such a smug lot!)

THE WEBSITE: I have added more new stamps to the Latest Images page since the last newsletter, a couple of mine, Emily's, Bert Small's and Doris Kennedy. I will continue to add more between newsletters as we have enough stock (and I have enough time to do it!).

I always put one of my favorite new stamps on our Home page to freshen it up a bit. Last time it was the Rose Lady. This time I put our new (very old) Italian Stamp 666-B.   I love this stamp. We found it in an old box of pictures from Trudy's family. It was on a very discoloured black and 'white' post card sent from Italy in the very early 1900's. Occasionally I get e-mails with attachments of pictures of postage stamps that people have inherited, and they want to know how much they are worth and where they can sell them. Of course I have no idea what-so-ever, but I always reply to let them know I can not help them. I know by putting the Italian stamp on the Home page I have opened myself up for more of these over the next few months, but it is a price I am willing to pay in order to feature this gorgeous stamp!.

The feedback on the ducks from the Drawing Board was about how I would have expected. People generally liked Bert's native-like motif, but could not see themselves buying it. The feedback on the woodcut engraving was generally was also positive, and many people saw it as a stamp they would buy. I have put a new collage of Emily's on the Drawing Board. Her Butterfly Collage 639-D is proving very popular this year. So, we are looking at another one with a tulip. Let us know what you think.

Happy Stamping!    - Steve Mueller