The entire Bread Basket Team would like to loving sing this little ditty...
(Ahem...ahem...cough...cough...)
A 1 and a 2 and a...
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday.....tooooo youuuu!
Happy Birthday dearrrrr KELLEY!!!
Happy Birthday to you!
And many mooooooooooore!
Do you ever watch those shows on TV about how things are made like "Made in the USA" with the Cheers guy, Norm? I LOVE those shows. Even the Food Channel has food factory shows on how Twinkies and other things are made. I love them not just for their entertainment but also becasue of the fact that these products are MADE IN THE USA!! Not too many businesses can claim that anymore!!
Well, here in my little small town USA, I am proud to say that my rubber stamps are MADE IN THE USA!!. Don't get me wrong..nothing at all against Canadians, who I love, but everything is being made in China now!!
I always wondered how rubber stamps were made and less than 3 months ago I found out and want to share with you the process. It was pretty difficult finding this information but Thank God for Google!! lol!!
First thing you need to do is make your image and verses and put it together in a program. You email the file to a photoengraver business. The photoengraver business than makes a magnesium plate out of your images. It is very technical, lots of talk about acid etching.....blah, blah, blah. Who cares, as long as I get my plate! They mail it to me and than I'm ready to roll! Here is a close up of the magnesium board:
Next, I use a special material called a matrix board to make the mold for my stamps. I put the plate on top the matrix board and bake it in the vulcanizer. 
After the board comes out it looks like this:
Here's full size view:
Now it time to make a stamp! I cut a piece of rubber the size of my plate , layer it on the matrix mold and throw the whole thing in the vulcanizer. When its all melted it comes out like this:
It is very HOT!! (yes, I have burned my fingers a few times..)
After it cools it can either be mounted to a smart cushion that sticks to acrylic, or a 2 sided adhesive cushion that sticks to a wood block.
Here is a roll of 2 sided cushion:
Now here comes the hard part. I had decided, since I thought it would be great customer service and a better product presentation, to cut out all the stamps!! Well, after killing my hand one day cutting and cutting and cutting..I asked my friend,Google, to help me out. He found me a great You Tube video on cutting out your stamps with a scroll saw. Light bulb moment for me!!
So now I consider myself the Queen of the Scroll Saw....or the Scroll Saw Diva. (those are the only 2 nicknames I came up with) lol! Even Rick is amazed how quickly I turn that rubber and get the stamps cut out.
After creating, molding, melting and cutting comes packaging! The backing from the cushions are peeled off and the stamps are put into the containers. I chose the clam shell packaging for the wood mounted sets because I have a lot of Stampin' Up sets and I love this box! (that took forever finding these boxes!!) 
And there you have....a stamp set!! I is a lot of labor but I like it and I love the emails and wonderful comments I have been receiving from people!
I hope you enjoyed your lesson for today! And yes, if you looked close enough you saw some new things coming soon!!
Well, finally after a few months preparing for the opening of my new stamp business it seems like the Grand Opening is nearing..within another week or two! I have been busy designing and ordering my new stamp and store supplies and loading them onto my new website! Just figuring out how to design the website was an adventure, let me tell you!! lol!!
When I first decided to start all this I emailed a few of the "other" stamp companies to ask for some help and advice. Many of these wonderful women were very helpful and gave me some great tips! I told them of my desire to design and manufacture spiritual verse stamp sets and they happily wished me well. God Bless them all!
Interestingly, many of them have now released their own religious-inspired sets for sale. Whether I gave them the idea or if it was already in their plans is not important! I am just pleased at the way the rubber stamp market seems to be embracing the spiritual stamps!
Sure, I love pretty flowers and I have my Itzy Inkie's and Riley's, which I love, but sometimes I need to send a card that speaks of God's love and my love for God!
I thought I'd include a "Sneak Peak", as they say, of my first set! I have to mention that this set was in the works before the new Stampin'Up catalog came out in January (with their lighthouse set). I decided to go ahead with the set anyway, even though it seems like I copied the idea. lol!!!
You may have read that I recently quit my job right before Christmas. It turns out it may have been a blessing in disguise! Rick was always asking my why there didn't seem to be very many religious stamps at the local stamp stores. I also had a hard time finding any at the online stores I shop at.
I have decided to start my own busines selling religious rubber stamp sets!! Call it what you like......religious, spiritual, faith...that is the type I am creating. I feel that God is calling me to do this as things just keep falling into place...one thing after another!
I have been very busy designing my stamps and starting my website. There is so much to learn! I decided to manfacture my stamps in deep etched rubber. I do like the clear stamps, which are becoming increasingly popular, but I still like the rubber stamps for their superior quality and fine detail. After researching both, I learned fine art images produce better with the red rubber. I may at a later time do some text images only in clear stamps.
My rubber stamp sets will include an image stamp and 2-3 verses that will feature that image's theme. Can you guess what that image will be?
A portion of my profits will be donated to a charitable organization. My first choice will be at my church's Food Pantry. There are just so many unfortunate families out there who are desperate for food foe their familes. Our chucrch gets so many reuqests for foos and household supplies...even things like diapers and personal care products!
I worked at the elementary school for 7 1/2 years in the office but occasionally I would need to go to the lunchroom. You would not believe hoe much food is thrown away every day from the students. TONS of food, mostly the good food like sandwiches and fruit, are THROWN OUT all the time. You would be so surprised.......
My family is so blessed to have an ample supply of food in our home. We just go to the refrigerator or cupboard, open it up, and have our choice! Ricj and I like to go out every so often and buy some of the requested items, like peanut butter, boxed dinners, toilet paper, etc. and drop them off at our church. I would like to be able to help out even more with a donation from my stamp sets.
I still have much to do but I wanted to let my few blog readers know of my upcoming venture! Stay tuned!! Thanks for reading and visiting my blog!!
I used to have my stamp room in a smaller bedroom that used to be the baby room, my son's room, a TV room, a workout room and than it became my stamping room. When my daughter moved home from college and wanted to move into a larger bedroom in our addition her bedroom became available, and it was bigger so I decided to move into it.
I casually mentioned to my husband, Rick, one day that some stampers called their special room their "Studio" and that was all he needed. He than kept on calling my room "The Studio", half joking, half mockery, but funny none-the-less. And so the name stayed. Hence, my blog name!
I decided to get all new stuff, mainly because my other stuff was junky, and also because we were in the process of building him a huge barn this summer. So what's a little Studio remodel?
Decided on Lowe's for the cabinets and counters..the cheapest ones. Went to Walmart and bought the black CD bookshelves for my walls. Rick cut the bottom shelf the same depth as the rest of the shelves so they'd all be the same. The floor came from Home Depot..it is like that Pergot stuff only vinyl. It just sticks to one another and can rip out easily. No more carpet for me...I like to reink my pads a lot and in my last room I reinked a nice strip of purple all over the off-white carpet!!
My main area where I stamp. Yes, that is my dog on my laptop. I got the idea for putting my ribbon in jars from Jenn Balcer. I had canning jars (wide mouth) so I used those.
My Stampin' Up stamps, cutters, Score Pal, Designer Paper and my boxes of cards. I have all my holiday stamps in one of the cabinets. I finally got rid of a bunch of sets I have not used in a long time.
This was originally supposed to be my sewing area but as you can see that is sitting on the floor.....no room. Sigh....... But I do have my new lights!!
My closet with the doors removed. All kinds of wonderful things in there!! lol!!
