Stamping with Erasers & Paper Smooches

I have always been a fan of Kim Hughes! Not only is she an amazing designer, she's super sweet. Her stamp company, Paper Smooches offers incredibly awesome quality clear stamps, with the cutest designs. She also just released great metal dies this past CHA. Paper Smooches hosts a challenge blog; Paper Smooches Sparks, and I decided to finally play along in the Anything Goes challenge that's open until May 5th. As you know, I have serious issues with towing the line, design-wise. I love stepping outside the box, and trying new things, so it'll come as no surprise that I squealed with delight (my husband even heard me upstairs, and wondered aloud what was going on) that the Anything Goes challenge is just that---open to any project, and design, anything you like, as long as you use at least one Paper Smooches stamp. So, with that in mind, I stepped out of the box---just a teeny bit!

I'm a font girl. I love fonts of any sort, whether they're a lovely script, cutesy hand-writing, or clean and simple sans serif, I'm a fan! One of the things I like best about Paper Smooches stamps is Kim's signature hand-writing. It's a mix of fun, whimsical and cute all in one. I wanted to make Kim's font take center stage in the card's design, so I created a set of miniature cards that used erasers as stamps, working perfectly with the stylized Paper Smooches fonts.

Stamping with pencil erasers is super fun and quick and easy to create. You can design your own stamps anyway you like, playing with shapes and lines to develop your own signature stamp! All you need is set of pencils (plain and simple--I got mine at the Dollar Tree) and a craft knife. I should mention that you should get a box of 12 or so, you may mess up and need an extra or three (like me).

Make sure to also grab your favorite Paper Smooches sentiment stamps. I used Sentiment Sampler and Chit Chat; older sets, but perfectly fabulous.

|1| Draw your design on the pencil eraser with a pencil. Color in the parts (positive space) that you're not cutting out.

|2| Grab your craft knife and stand the pencil vertically.

|3| Trim the eraser with your knife as you cut away the parts that are not colored in (negative space). NOTE: Do not trim the eraser down to the metal, or else the eraser will break apart because it's too weak. 

materials: Sentiment Sampler | Chit Chat | Pencils | Aqua Mist Dye Ink | Lemon Tart Dye Ink | Lavender Moon Dye Ink | Rose Bud Dye Ink | Angel Pink Dye Ink | Cantaloupe Dye Ink | Lady Bug Dye Ink | Teal Zeal Dye Ink | New Sprout Dye Ink | Sweet Plum Dye Ink | Ink Blue Dye Ink