What I’ve been working on:

1. New patterns for my Spoonflower store (these are still being proofed so this is a sneaky peek) —

2. A new wedding invitation set featuring stylish animals —

Whimsical Forest Cats Wedding Card by poptasticbride

Whimsical Woodland Foxes Wedding Card by poptasticbride

(You can see all the elements of the entire collection here)

3. More custom couple cartoons. (Nothing to show here yet as they’re still in the drafts stage but I’ll update the other blog once the drawings have been finalized.)

And as you may have seen on my Instagram feed,

4. Shrink plastic jewelry



???? #shrinkydinks of my #cat drawings that I’ve turned into bracelet and necklace charms — prototypes for an upcoming collection (chos) in my still non existent store. ??????????? #artph

A photo posted by Cynthia Bauzon-Arre (@arncyn) on Jan 19, 2015 at 6:50am PST

I’ve been wanting to make accessories for the longest time. In fact I have an unused box full of jewelry findings hoarded from the Kamuning Market when we were planning our wedding… yes, it’s been that long! However, there’s so much competition and I didn’t know what I could do that would showcase what I can do best so i focused on other things. Until I discovered shrinky dinks — thanks to wedding blogging actually. Some of my brides would talk about shrinky-dinking stuff and I was all like “shrinky-WHAT-ing?”¹ After much Googling and Youtube-ing I learned that specially made plastic can shrink into a harder & thicker version of itself if you stick it in a regular toaster oven. A little light bulb lit up in my head — what if I shrink my illustrations and make them into few-of-a-kind jewelry charms? Of course I still had no idea then that I was already late to the game and that there’s already a whole movement devoted to shrink plastic jewelry on Etsy. [insert embarrassed emoji here] Still, I ordered a pack of Shrinky Dinks sheets from Amazon. That would take at least a week to arrive and I couldn’t wait anymore so when I learned that I can also shrink #6 plastic (essentially, plastic used for take-out containers) and yay, we had one on hand², I did this experiment, again documented on Instagram.


These started out as doodles on a used plastic take-out container which I then colored, cut, and ‘baked’ in a toaster oven. Next time I’ll punch holes (so I.can use them as pendants) AND draw neater. (*^^*) #craftsph #artph #upcycling #handmade #shrinkydinks

A photo posted by Cynthia Bauzon-Arre (@arncyn) on Dec 1, 2014 at 8:04am PST

My shrinky dink-brand sheets (as well as a few unbranded ones) arrived in late December but I couldn’t play with them until this week. I got several types — white, clear, rough and ready – so I tried different combinations. Frosted sheets with colored pencils, white with sharpies. Here’s what came out of that experiment.

Shrinking adventures, part 2. I used an actual #shrinkydinks sheet this time (remember how I used a plastic take-out box a few months ago? ????). These ended up so tiny — see blue thumbtack on the upper right for size reference. I still can’t predict how the colors will turn out and how tiny the drawings will shrink down to so this entire project is still a #wip . ?????? #handmade #artph

A photo posted by Cynthia Bauzon-Arre (@arncyn) on Jan 18, 2015 at 8:35am PST

In the photo below you can see how big the original artwork is compared to the miniature version. You’ll notice that this time I printed my vector illustrations directly on the plastic sheet.

Some pieces already look good but I have yet to perfect shrinking the plastic without forming dents in the miniatures. This is all still a work in progress and I will update you once I come up with designs that I am completely happy with.

UPDATE: I made a YouTube video of how I make my shrink art pins!

1. Not sure if art schools here are using it now but I’ve never encountered the stuff.[ back]
2. it had cake on it which I quickly, um, got rid off [ back]

When I posted some of my eraser stamps on Instagram, some crafty friends were surprised to learn that the X-Acto Knife is all I’ve been using for carving¹. It seems that most rubber stamp crafters — and I’ve noticed this on a lot of web tutorials I’ve read and watched  — prefer to use lino cutters, more specifically, the Speedball Linoleum Cutter set which I want myself. That set contains a thin, V-shaped blade that looks especially useful for gouging out narrow “canals” between outlines — a pain to attempt with the straight-edged X-acto blade.

X-Acto Knife vs. a V-Gouge

See what I mean? (via Lime Green News)

As mentioned previously, I’ve already ordered the set but while waiting I had to train myself to carve using the humble, easily available, and familiar² pointy blade. Drama aside, if you want to start carving and like me, a craft knife is all you have, I will now share the process with you. I’ll even start from the very beginning — a very good place to start. *cue Julie Andrews*

** I’m by no means an expert at this. I just want to share what works for me so far. 🙂

Materials:
– a 2B lead pencil
– tracing paper
– a rubber eraser
– an X-Acto knife
– an ink pad
– blu tack (optional)

1. Plan out the image you want to carve. Shade-in the areas to keep solid to guide you when you carve later. These doodles are “parols” or Filipino Christmas lanterns and I plan to use these on homemade gift tags.
2. Trace your “master” illustration onto tracing paper with a 2B lead pencil.

3. Place the tracing paper on top of your eraser or carving block, penciled side down. Rub on it with something firm like a pen’s bottom or a bone folder to transfer a mirror image of your sketch.

4. Totally optional but if I’m not using a two-tone carving block, I like tinting my surface lightly with some color. This is so I can easily see which areas have already been carved. Just dab a piece of tissue paper into your ink pad then pat it onto your eraser / carving block, just gently enough to tint it with color.

5. Start outlining your image with the X-Acto blade at a 30-45 degree angle << — very important. Remember to slice lightly because if you insert the knife too deep, it will be difficult to maneuver the blade which will result in tugging and therefore risking (a) ruining your stamp, and (b) piercing the finger you’re holding the stamp with. (Unfortunately for me I encountered all of the above on a couple of my initial carving attempts).

6. After you’ve outlined an area, lift the blade and turn the eraser around. Again with the blade inserted on a 30-45 degree angle, carve a curved line a short distance away from the outline you made towards the opposite direction from where you made the cut earlier. Try to “meet” the already-sliced areas with your blade’s tip, you’ll see that areas will begin peeling off. This is my favorite part. 🙂 (Gosh I hope that made sense. Please see photo above for reference.)

7. Soon your stamp will look like this. See how all my cuts are angled?

8. Completely optional again but if you have some Blu Tack (mine’s about 15-years old and it still works and lol it’s not blue) lying around, you can use that to remove pencil marks as well as stubborn little bits of eraser stuck inside crevices.

9. Trim your stamp using a box cutter. Trimming it to size will help in stamp positioning later on.

10. Make a test print. This will allow you to see which areas still need fixing. It doesn’t really need to be perfect though — part of a rubber stamp’s charm is its rough handmade quality. (Such a good excuse, ‘no? 🙂 )

A photo posted by Cynthia Bauzon-Arre (@arncyn) on Dec 12, 2014 at 5:57am PST

11. And here are the finished stamps. 🙂

If my instructions — especially in #6 — weren’t clear to you, watch this demo by the amazing Tsukui Tomoko. She uses both a box cutter (!) and a V-gouge in the video but the box cutter method at the beginning of the video is what I’ve been doing with the X-Acto knife.

Did this help you somehow? If you have other carving tips or techniques, I’d love to hear all about them!

1. Our discussiions are here and here [ back]
2. oh X-Acto, how many frisket films did I cut with you back in college? [ back]

Because I have a new efficient workspace, I thought of giving my nearly two-year-old yet never-been-used Print Gocco a whirl today.
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Finally! It’s been sitting inside that box for too long. These pics were taken in October 2006.
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I bought my Print Gocco PG-5 at the Shibuya Tokyu Hands in 2006 for an amazing 6825yen (or US$63.60)¹ — I say amazing because it can cost as much as US$195², about thrice what I paid for!, in some US Gocco supplier shops so I would say that Japan is the best place to get it from³. Just remember to pronounce it this way, Purinto Gokko, to avoid awkward Rost in Transration moments. 😉

UPDATE (9.20.08): Exciting news, everyone! I just found out that the Gocco and its supplies are available here in the Philippines! Tin, a stay-at-home-mom based in Iloilo sells Gocco kits, inks, bulbs, and other paraphernalia you will need to lead the Gocco life via her cute little shop, One Tiny Party. Her site also features pics of her pretty Gocco’d artworks and a lot of helpful tips and links for everyone interested in going Gocco. [go!]
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So let me take you through my enjoyable Print Gocco experience.
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1) Aww, that’s little PeeGee with all her accessories inside her crib. Since Gocco supplies are hard to come by in the Philippines⁴, I made sure to stock up on inks, screens, and bulbs when we were in Japan.
2) I wanted to conserve my bulbs and screens (the bulbs especially since you need two bulbs per print and they can only be used once) so to make the most of them, I made 4 gift tag designs to fit one 4″ x 6″ screen. I used the special carbon ink based pen that’s specially made for use with the Gocco to sketch my master.
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3) The bulbs are now screwed onto the print hood and my master has been inserted into the PG window.
4) A quick, heavy press on the lid will cause the bulbs to flash, indicating that the master image has been burned to the screen.
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5) And the fun begins: here’s my screen after I squeezed paint on it. I made sure to put blocking tape in between the portions where I didn’t want color to bleed into each other.
6) The screen is now positioned inside the PG’s lid again and we’re ready to get it on. Printing via Gocco produces results similar to silkscreen printing except that the process is easier, less messy, and lots of fun but, okay, more expensive because of the limited availability of supplies.
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7) Tadah, my very first print!
8) Here they all are, waiting to dry. Incidentally, the wooden case is a cassette tape crate given to me ages ago by my brother. I haven’t used it in a while⁵ but I discovered that it makes a good card-drying rack.
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Not so bad for a first print although I would’ve wanted it to be less colorful. And now I can’t wait to try using layers and different paper patterns and textures so I guess you’ll be seeing more of these printing experiments from now on.
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(For those who ended up on this site looking for Print Gocco PG-5 instructions, allow me to point you to the excellent tutorial by Felt Cafe which I myself referred to while working on my prints.)

1. PHP 2,565.20 according to the XE-UCC[ back]
2. PHP 7,868.25[ back]
3. But if you can’t wait and must have it NOW, then it’s worth coughing up the dough for.[ back]
4. And ordering online internationally is mucho expensive.[ back]
5. Who listens to tapes anymore?[ back]