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Today I am celebrating the new release of Birthday Wishes.... the latest Chicken Girl Design photopolymer stamp sets! This is one of my favorites- you can find it at I {heart} Papers for only $10!

My Chicken Girl Design photopolymer stamp sets are featured over at Paper Crave today! The blog features wonderful delicious paper products and related accessories for everyone to drool over. Thank you for the mention and kind words, Paper Crave!

Speaking of my stamps, there are sneak peeks right now of another set that will be coming out called Birthday Wishes, one of my favorites out of all the sets. It will be coming out on November 16th exclusively at I {heart} Papers, of course!

Check out what the Chicken Girl Design Team is up to:
Lori
Meredith
Natasha
Shelly
Kate
Shannon
Judy
Tammy
Kendra
Loretta

In other news, I just spent my birthday weekend in Canada, (I'm actually still there right now!) but I'm heading home today. It was a lovely getaway but once I get back to my routine, I promise to have more fun posts here. Cluck cluck!

Ok, I'm pretty excited about this. It is, I have to say, my most favouritest piece of work I've ever come up with. And, there's hardly a drawing in sight! But, if I tell you I am a mad Peter Blake fan it might just explain it.

The response I got to the call for stamps has already stunned me, and they keep on coming in. Originally, I only needed them to fill up this inner cover of my travel Moleskine, but I'm loving them so much that I've already started another big mad drawing collage using them. To those who sent me stamps, if you can't see yours in this one, keep tuned in. Because this could be just the start of a new stamp based obsession.

Thanks for helping me out guys. I knew I could rely on you.

Winter is on my mind already because it is cold here in Michigan! No, I'm not a fan of the cold, but I think it keeps me alert and actually get some work done. So sometimes its a good thing.

Today I'm celebrating two new winter stamp set releases over at I {heart} Papers:

It's a Snow Day!
and
Just Skating By
They are $10 for each set over at I {heart} Papers.

The fine ladies over at The Chicken Girl Design Team is doing fun things with them- they are filled with fabulous ideas. Dare I say, get a head start on holiday crafting?!? Check them out:

Lori
Meredith
Natasha
Shelly
Kate
Shannon
Judy
Tammy
Kendra
Loretta

Cluck cluck, and stay warm, everyone. I also have two new book releases this fall (yay!), so stay tuned!

Halloween is just around the corner and I'm celebrating another 2 set releases from the Chicken Girl Design stamp line over at I {heart} Papers!

and Happy Halloween:
They are wonderful polymer stamps made in the USA:

I would love to show some fun projects using these stamps some time. For now, I have a fabulous design team whipping up some wonderful things, check them out:

Lori
Meredith
Natasha
Shelly
Kate
Shannon
Judy
Tammy
Kendra
Loretta

I'm quite excited about Halloween this year because I just might get some trick or treaters!! When I lived in New York, I was quite fascinated by the fact that kids went to the stores to go trick or treating instead. I never had anyone knock on my door (or was it because I was out and about?) Now that I live in a house in a small town, I'm looking forward to the kiddies. Signs of old age, maybe!?!

Have a good week, everyone! And oh yeah, hope over and check out my stamp line, ok?

Television graphics

Absolutely stunning work from Stefan Kanchev (1915-2001) who was a Bulgarian graphic artist. During his prolific career he designed hundreds of logos, posters, stamps, book covers, labels as well as graphics for TV. Much of his work is inspired by Bulgarian folklore and traditions.

In 1994 Stefan Kanchev was recognized as one of the top ten designers of trade marks in the world along with Paul Rand, Saul Bass and etc. The title was awarded by the International trademark centre in Ostend, Belgium. His logo work will blow your wig back.  I highly suggest you spend a few minutes browsing his archives.

Television graphics

New Year 1980 stamp

New year 1988 stamp

Converter Magazine Cover 1971

(via designboom and delicious industries)

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Also worth checking: Modern Stamps From Israel.

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I know I've been absent for a while...with the move happening in two weeks, its a little crazy here!

But some great news! I'm happy to announce that I'm having my very own stamp line! Exclusively through i {heart} papers, the first two sets will be released August 9th. I'll be revealing them then!

If you want a sneak peek, here are the talented stampers that make up the Chickengirl Design stamps design team (!!!), who will be posting their creations with my stamps this week:

Lori
Meredith
Natasha
Shelly
Kate

1975 Hong Kong festivals - official first day cover and stamp set designed by Tao Ho

Tao Ho is a Hong Kong-based architect, designer, teacher, and writer. He studied under Sigfried Giedion and Josep Lluís Sert at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and worked with Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius at the Architects Collaborative. In 1975, Tao Ho designed this first day cover and stamp set to commemorate Hong Kong’s Tin Hau, Dragon Boat, and Mid-Autumn festivals.

Tin Hau, Goddess of the Sea, is celebrated as the protector of fishermen and sailors. During the Tin Hau festival, fishing boats covered with colored streamers and flags sail through Joss House Bay in Sai Kung.

The Dragon Boat festival features teams of up to eighty oarsmen who race against one another in long wooden ships.

In the 14th century, a Chinese man named Liu Bowen planned to rebel against the Mongol overlords. Liu organized this uprising by concealing the message, “Rise against the Tartars on the 15th day of the 8th moon,” inside mooncakes (pastries with a lotus seed paste filling and a crust made with salted duck egg yolks). Mongols didn’t eat mooncakes, so Liu’s secret message was spread across the land and the rebellion was a success. The Mid-Autumn festival, which falls on the autumn equinox, when the moon is at its brightest, celebrates Liu’s uprising. Traditional festival activities include eating mooncakes outside under the moon, wearing pomelo rinds on one’s head, and carrying brightly lit lanterns.

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Also worth checking: 1966 Norway first day cover.

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©2009 Grain Edit

One of my new favourite crafty blogs that I’m excited to read every time a new post appears in my RSS reader is Geninne’s Art Blog.

She posts watercolour paintings:

Journal pages:

And hand-carved stamps like this one:

Don’t miss her Hand-carved stamp tutorial. I can’t wait to make some of my own stamps like this.

Slideshow: Simpsons Stamps Unveiled

You guys were right (and had some cute ideas) the mysterious green item was a vintage carousel for rubber stamps. I use my stamps for adding my name and copyright on the back of my illustrations and for adding the return address for packages and letters.

If you'd like to try it yourself I found a great place online called Simon's Stamps. You can preview your image online and once you've approved it they will make up a stamp and mail it to you. So easy! I love mine.

Just a reminder, the Hunt & Gather trunk show is this Sunday at the workroom from noon - 5pm. It also happens to be my birthday. I've made some new colourful phone cosies, and lots of pretty earrings which would make a very nice Mother's Day gift. I also have lots of fabric scrap packs and mixed-up button grab bags. See you there!

I love stamps. I'll admit it - a lot of my childhood was spent hanging out with albums and sticky hinges. I'll get to the main point of this post in a moment, but first, let's do my geeky younger self a favour and show a few beauties from my early years. Happily, this also serves to illustrate the fact that stamps are great design objects.

So when Penguin made it onto a stamp alongside other British Design Classics such as Harry Beck's London Underground map and a Routemaster bus, it was an honour for Penguin, underlining once again its part in this country's great
design heritage.

I found that the book featured on the stamp was just hanging out on my art director's desk. So I thought I'd do a spot of investigating and ask the stamp designer about how he
choose which book to feature on the stamp. If you ever saw
me on the blog before being interviewed, its all changed...
The interviewed becomes the interviewer, hahaha.

I went ahead and asked my question to Pierre Vermeir the creative director of HGV who designed all 10 stamps and he said this:

"The first selection was drawn from the list of the first twenty paperbacks published by Penguin featuring the classic design grid. We looked at all of them in terms of colour to compliment the rest of the stamps. The final choice was a female author
as the majority of the icons featuring on the stamps have been designed by men, our client thought this was right and so
did we."

The decision to feature a female author for reasons of balance is an interesting one. It's thoughtful and shows attention to detail. Of course, the fact that such lengths were necessary in order to bolster the female representation - of the ten design icons featured on the stamps, only Mary Quant's mini skirt is credited to a woman - tells its own story about the design industry in the twentieth century. That's a subject for another day, but for now, back to Vermeir's elegantly designed stamps, of which in case there is any doubt, I shall declare myself a fan. Setting the credits in Gill Sans - the same typeface used on the featured Penguin cover, and a British design classic in itself - is another nice touch.

I particlarly like the fact that Edward Young gets the credit he deserves for the classic tri-band Penguin design, and that the stamp features a Young cover from before the design received its makeover from Jan Tschichold. Young, who famously drew the penguins at London Zoo when designing the logo, has been rather overshadowed by Tshishold in design history, so it's nice to see his efforts recognised here.

So this weekend I was visiting Thorpeness, and in my usual trawl of junk shops the perfect book seemed to be waiting for my arrival. One of Our Submarines, written by Edward Young himself, was granted the honour of being Penguin number 1000. (I bought it for the design connection, but am now reading all about life in a submarine, which is a good deal more intriguing than I initially imagined.) The back blurb recounts Young's contribution to Penguin design hisory, and goes on to say that, after the war, he became director in charge of production and design for a new publishing firm established by Rupert Hart-Davis. A quick bit of research says that Hart-Davis's books were famously well designed. I expected nothing less. So now I am off to hunt down some of these beauties to judge for myself.

Penguin is very proud to be on such a prestigious set of stamps. Thanks to all the people involved who thought us worthy to hang out alongside something as exciting as Concorde among other greats.

Coralie Bickford-Smith
Senior Designer

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Top: Postcode typeface designed by Christophe Stoll 2008- Bottom: POSTCODE stamp designed by Gert Dumbar in 1978.

Christophe Stoll recently emailed to let me know of a cool typeface he designed called Postcode which is based off a stamp in the Iain Follett Stamp collection we featured. Check out Christophe’s website to hear the story behind Postcode and to download the typeface for FREE.

After you download the typeface, put some time aside to browse Iain Follett’s amazing stamp collection on Flickr.

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stamp commemorating 100 years of Professional Baseball c 1969 - printed on a Giori press.

One of my favorite stamps from the US. It all works for me, the use of negative space, the colors, and the 6 cent price tag. Makes me miss the days of buying big league chew at the candy store and watching TWIB.

Also worth checking:

vintage modern stamps from Israel

modern sticker, label and stamp club

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Israeli environment stamps - 1975

Beautiful stamps addressing both noise and industrial pollution.
Be sure to check out this modern stamp from Israel as well.

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1871-1971 census stamp

Pretty bugged stamp from the Canadian Post.
Designed by Hans Kleefeld.

(via the great Canadian design resource)

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Portland based designer Gavin Potenza (Exploratory Design) has cooked up a series of sweet stamps. The series which was inspired by the work of Otl Aicher is entitled Homage to the Stamp.

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Vintage modern stamps from Israel - 1975 Arbor day collection

Ok we’re back. I hope everyone had a great weekend. Pretty chill one here. Watched Dial M for murder by Hitchcock. Tonight it’s either Stray Dog by Akira Kurosawa or Brute force by Jules Dassin.

Now onto the stamps….
Great stuff going on here. Johnny blue bird is eating cherry nugs off a psychedelic tree. Meanwhile on the left, rectangle legs is rolling deep in lollipop marsh.

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I can't believe it took me all week to remember this little gem for "Soar". These stamps are sending love via angel mail.

The set

Postmark

Die cut first day cover

I went back to college this year to top up my skills and am doing the last year of a BA (Hons) in Communication Design and have just sat back after producing this set of stamps for the RSA design directions brief in assoc with the Royal Mail.

The brief was to attract teens and young adults as buyers and collectors and as they were looking for innovation in all aspects of the design they are actually printed on nice and shiny biodegradable acetate. I'm up against probably 80 - 90 other students from round the country... the award is £3000 - about $6000 - and a load of great publicity for the winner!

(All the images except the photo element are hand drawn and no vectors were hurt in the making of this production)

I received my new "needle book" labels! I've wanted some for a while and looked around at other people's blogs to see what they had and where they ordered it from. I finally settled on namemaker.com, based on the price, delivery time and existing templates that I could use with nice styles. They were featured in Martha Stewart and if it's good enough for Martha it's good enough for me. (Hmm, I wonder how often people say that? Well I googled it and there's only three of us that I can see. I would have expected more than that.)

Nancy from Sew Nancy asked where I bought mine a while ago, so sorry for the delay replying. One tip I found for Canadians is that they charge more to deliver to a home address, so if you can have them delivered to your office you can save there. This is what they look like when you receive them, rows of three labels held together with tape:
I ordered two batches (brown text on white), the other ones are the same but on a wider tape for larger items, those go on bags and pouches. These go on my needle books.
Another great item for your craft business, are rubber stamps. I have two now, I was so happy with the first one I ordered another. The first one I bought is for stamping my info and copyright onto postcards. I created lineart of one of my illustrations in Illustrator then added the text and uploaded to the site. The stamps are very nice quality and you can buy your own ink for them in any colour. These were from Simon's Stamps. The site is so great, you can upload your image yourself and preview it and do it a few times until you're happy with it and then you place your order. I think the prices are very reasonable too.
The second stamp I bought was for a reply address with a new lineart version of a recent watercolour. This is so useful I can't tell you, I used to print out colour labels with an illustration on them but it became an extra chore when sending packages. Of course you can just write your address, or print labels with the text only but where's the fun in that?

I got tagged a while ago by Khadija and didn't get around to it (until now). I think I was thinking about it too much. So here it is, finally,

7 Random Things About Me

1. I am hooked on Bubbleblaster. When I'm planning my day in the morning I play Bubbleblaster and kind of space out and make mental lists. I like video games where you don't have to think and can just stack and group things which then disappear with a satisfying little noise. This is why the only game I ever played before Bubbleblaster was Tetris - it took a long time to wean myself off that! Then Bradley introduced me to Bubbleblaster.2. One of my all-time favourite shows is "To the Manor Born". It used to be on Tuesdays at lunchtime when I first started freelancing and I would actually run and turn the t.v. on. I even wrote it in my datebook so I wouldn't miss it. It's not on anymore but Bradley bought the dvd for me. In case you didn't know, it's a 1970s British sitcom about a widow who is forced to sell her estate after her husband's death and continues to live nearby. It's hard to explain why, but the bossy main character is just so funny and lovable.
3. My children's book illustration hero is Beatrix Potter. I think her artwork is magical, and have ever since I was very little and was captivated by Squirrel Nutkin and Miss Tiggywinkle. When the movie "Miss Potter" came out I rushed to see it. I thought it was so beautiful and generally wonderful that I actually got teary.4. I'm a sugar addict. I love cupcakes, what am I saying, all cake, cookies, puddings (all kinds), pie, jam, fruit, ice cream and chocolate bars. Preferably with some kind of nuts and/or caramel. I'm the person over the age of 9 that still wants cotton candy when I go to theme parks.
5. I love small kits. Compact containers with little things in them that are useful. I once bought the survival sardine can at a camping store. It's a sealed sardine can with everything you need in a survival situation, such as firestarting cube, matches, hook for fishing, small candy (to keep the spirits up (see #4) and string, etc. I had to open it up, and then added a miniature copy of The Arabian Nights so I would have something to read and resealed it all in a small tupperware container.
6. I read all the time. I'm currently reading "Lady Chatterley's Lover" and I have to say I'm a bit shocked. Not because it's shocking now, so to speak, but I keep imagining what they must have thought of it in 1928. Incidentally because I'm a children's book illustrator I don't put any racy content on my blog. So if you're a parent you don't need to worry.
7. I collect bird stamps. I started collecting stamps when I was little, then stopped for around 27 years. Then recently I found a collection of used bird and flower stamps at Goodwill. I loved the vintage illustrations and I bought a couple of lots on ebay. I don't mind if they're used stamps so it's very inexpensive. I spent a few evenings soaking stamps to peel off the bits of envelope on the backs and it took me right back to cosy times doing the same thing while sitting at our kitchen table when I was little. This post has some pictures of some of my favourites.