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Arts and Crafts

    Travel

    Portland Night Market

    Portland Night Market
    Heart Coffee // Portland Night Market
    Today I’m sharing with you a few photos from when I visited the Portland Night Market earlier this month. As I’ve mentioned before, I haven’t had as much time as I would like to explore and experience what Portland has to offer, so I was stoked when my friend Candace asked me to join her for this event. This was the first time this night market was held in Portland, but I hope it becomes a recurring event because it was a great way to spend a Saturday evening. I had tons of fun window shopping through all the booths, which included food, drinks, vintage clothing, accessories(check out the oversized hat modeled by Candace), and handmade gifts. Despite all the temptations surrounding me, I resisted the urge to buy a bunch of presents for myself, but I couldn’t leave the event without a delicious latte from Heart Roasters and a box of handmade truffles. After all, there’s nothing wrong with treating yourself every once in a while, right?
    I have a really busy two weeks ahead of me, but I hope I can do a bit more of exploring before having to drive back down to LA. If you’re interested to see what I’m up to in real time, you can always follow me on Instagram.
    xoxo,
    Helen
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    Food & DIY

    D.I.Y. Stamped Holiday Wrapping Paper

    Today I’m going to teach you how to make your own stamp and wrapping paper, which is very fun and easy to do. If you like being crafty like I do, but don’t have enough time to make something for everybody on your list, this is a good way to add a personal touch to all of your holiday gifts. You might remember that I already did a tutorial on blockprinting if you’ve checked out my handmade Valentine’s Day card tutorial earlier this year. Even though I used the same concept in this tutorial, I ended up switching the materials a bit in order to make it easier for you to create a print, which is kind of necessary when you’re using a much larger area of paper. Instead of making a printing block, we’re going to make a rubber stamp that is more easy to transfer on paper. This method also allows you to use an ink pad instead of printing ink, which makes for a much quicker clean up.
    SUPPLIES:
    Pen or Marker
    Speedball Speedy-Cut Carving Block or any other rubber carving block
    Ink Pad
    Cookie Cutter (Optional)
    STEP 1: Start off by drawing and filling in your design on a rubber carving block by using a pen or marker. If you’re not artistically inclined, you can do what I did, and just trace a cookie cutter–there are plenty of festive molds that are less than a dollar during this time of year.
    STEP 2: Use a linoleum cutter to carve out the areas around your design on the block. Just trace out your design and don’t worry about carving out the entire block since you’ll be worrying about these areas in STEP 3.
    STEP 3: Use an X-Acto Knife to cut out your stamp. Doing this will help you see the outline of the shape that you’re printing, and better determine the placement of your stamp. When completing this step, make sure to cut at 1/4-1/2 inch away from your design in order to make sure that you have something to grip when you use your stamp.
    STEP 4: Place your stamp on an ink pad and then transfer it on to the postal paper. Your print does not have to be perfect, but if it isn’t dark enough for your liking, you can always re-ink your stamp and print over the area again. Continue to stamp until you’ve filled up the area of wrapping paper that you’ll be using, and then you’re done! You can space out your print as far apart as you’d like. However, I found that it was easiest to create a consistent design by printing out one row at a time.

     

    I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and that you put it to use if you haven’t already wrapped all of your holiday gifts. As I said before, this is super easy to do, so it shouldn’t take up too much of your time. In less than an hour, I managed to carve out my stamp and make enough wrapping paper to package 4-5 presents. If you do end up making your own paper, make sure to tag @SWEETHELENGRACE on Instagram so that I can see your projects.  Have a great rest of the week!
    xoxo,
    Helen