Reading is fun. Hence, book is the essential design element for this card~

When your gift is a book, a handmade card like this one will be a perfect compliment to it. The tiny book on the card was done with an intermediate skill level Origami, made by Japanese paper. I stamped the Chinese characters on its blank pages and then sewed it on the card.

Shao

Personal journal…for you~

Because I wanted to enhance the innocence of a personal journal, I used only black and white colors for this card. I added a bit of cream and aged copper to warm up its appeal.

Give someone you deeply care for this card, along with a tiny journal book. Let him or her know something from you heart: I cherish you and respect your privacy, but remember: I am here for you if you need me.

Shao 03/28/08

My Easter bunny is different from others seen in the market. It represents me, with my style and my taste. Completely me. I kept reminding myself that while designing this Easter bunny last year~

My Easter Make-and-Take event last year was a success. My old customers and new acquaintances came during the three-hour event. Everyone enjoyed making a free Easter tag with this cute bunny and delicious coffee. I also had a sale on my art stamps at the site. It was bustling with joy and excitement.

It doesn’t matter how much I can earn by hosting this kind of event. All my profit was instantly gone after treating all my helpers and guests with an afternoon tea and sweets. The main purpose for me is to interact with my customers and friends, express my affections and show my appreciations toward them. Ha! I bet you already knew!

Shao 03/18/08

Happiness is easy to get, but we often fail to perform this life’s simple trick~

Once, I was always extremely busy and had done almost everything in a hurry.

It wasn’t until last week when my lower back pain forced me to stay bed-rested periodically. Enjoying the beauty of the peach blossoms outside my window to pass the time, I suddenly realized that I haven’t slowed down enough to have even a brief moment of ease or peace for a long, long time.

Happiness is easy to get, but only if you slow down your pace of life a bit. Take a glance of your garden’s flowers, listen to the music, or make a really simple but pretty card like the one shown above. Just stamp the flower and stamp your happiness. It’s zero hurry and all happiness!

Shao 03/17/08

It’s all her “fault”~

When I helped out designing a fish-shaped card for my son’s school party, when I began cutting the silhouette of a fish on a red construction paper, and when I decorated it using a silver leafing pen, I couldn’t foresee that there would be a line of fish stamps in the future.

I have designed and drawn 12 fishes ever since. Every single one of them has his/her own look and personality. The one shown here looks like the most fortunate to me.

I am amused every time with a picture of these cute creatures “swimming” around their underwater world in my mind. That’s why I named my line of these fishes “Out for a Swim”. You can find my other fishes, like love-struck fish and material-girl fish, in my website. Or I will introduce them here later.

Shao’s design note

Hey, you, give me a kiss~

Two of my good friends, born under the sign of Pisces, both love this card very much. One begged me to make a copy for her, and the other announced that she would do it herself.

No matter what happens, I have barely seen these two busy girls lately, so I better make the cards for them despite what they may have said…Ha! At least I have two birthday cards settled.

The truth is: this card is time-consuming to make. Buying a card is much easier than making the card yourself.

Shao 03/11/08

Spring has come. The flowers are blooming vivaciously outside my studio~

There is a picture window on a corner of my studio. The view outside is filled with blooming flowers. Those flowers are all smiling under the sunshine and enjoy spring’s breeze. My mind followed suit and brought me much joy.

It was no surprise that I came up this card with such a blissful mood. I “installed” a window on my card too, which represents a window to my heart. As you can tell, my heart was “blooming” at the same time.

Shao 3/10/08

P.S. The meaning of the Chinese phrase is “In a good mood”.

Love is sprouting~

There was no difficult technique involved in making this cute Easter card. The only requirement is to do it with care. I used copper metallic ink to stamp the nest and light green ink for the egg and “sprouting” hearts. I just lightly stamped the hearts to make them visible then colored them with various metallic color pens.

Shown in the above picture is another card done with similar idea. To make the card even more interesting, you can add some dry twigs or leaves in the nest. Hey, it’s spring now. Did you notice that the branches are sprouting all over the places just like these hearts too?

Shao

Love blooms~

When I designed this “Love” stamp, I had the shape of a corolla in mind. Hence, it made perfect sense to follow the idea when designing my last minutes Valentine’s card at my Valentine’s Make-and-Take event this year.

How to make eye-catching cards/tags within a relatively short period of time is a task and challenge I faced when designing my Make-and-Take projects every time. A big portion of the participants are beginners in this field, and many of them are not confident of seeing them doing this kind of projects. So the cards/tags must be easily done but look like a pro’s jobs.

I am very satisfied with this love card I designed this year. It only takes 10 minutes to finish. It was easily done for novices, and even “mistakes” would bring out a beautiful and unique result. When seeing my customers wowed themselves with the cards they made, and when thinking about how their love ones would be so pleased with this handmade card, I feel like all my hard works are worthy.

Hey, do you figure out what’s the “secret” of making this lovely card so easily? Oh, yes. It’s the doilies that used as the petals of this “love” flower.

Shao 03/09/08

It is an ancient Chinese art form to carve Chinese characters on various materials such as jade, ivory, and stone. This art form has a history dating back to 2700 years ago. Craftsmen carved these seals either in relief or intaglio, or sometimes in combinations.

At their inception, craftsmen mainly carved these Chinese character seals with an individual’s name and that individual would use it for personal authentications. As the years passed, it has become a popular art form among artists, calligraphers, and craftsmen. These artists not only carved their names on the seals, but they would also carve seals with poems to express their thoughts and feelings. The artists would then stamp these seals onto paintings and calligraphies as finishing touches. Some people call these particular seals “Mood Seals”.

It requires great artistry and intense labors to make these mood seals. Often the artists chose the seals’ phrases or verses from famous ancient poems, but sometimes, these artists had the reputation as a great poet, as well, and so wrote their own accompanying poetry. After deciding on the accompanying poetry, the artist would then design the seals’ layout: character arrangement, calligraphic style, size of the seal, and shape of the seal. The seals were quite small, usually less than one square inch. Afterward the artists would write down their calligraphic phrases and marked their reversed versions on the stones. In the final step, the artists carved the stones. Since the areas in need of cutting were relatively small, the artists had to master carving techniques, and they eventually became skilled crafts person themselves.

Today, Asia still widely uses character seals carved with personal names for government documents and banking purposes. Most are carved from cheaper materials, like soapstone. Modern artists still carve mood seals, but most of these seals lack the artistic quality of their ancestors’.

The collections Seesaw Graphics released came from famous ancient artists of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. These mood seals range from about 100 to 600 years of age. In order to retain their aged looks, we did as little touch-up as possible. Just as they functioned as complements to paintings and calligraphy in times past, they will serve as an excellent complement to your scrapbook pages and handmade cards as well.

We individually wrapped each mood seal stamp with a booklet, which includes a general brief history of Chinese seals, its translation and our suggestions of usage.