STAMP BOLDLY with RubberMoon by Ceci Córdova Shrine Crazy! (part 1)

RubberMoon has new shrine stamps!  I was so thrilled when I saw them and I'm so glad I have them now, in my own hands, so I can play with them and show you what can be done with them.

"What would I do with a shrine stamp?" you might ask.  Well, that's why I'm here today:  to give you some ideas of things to do with your new shrine stamps and all the wonderful accessories Kae Pea made for them. 

Well, the first answer to the question: "What do I do with a shrine stamp?" is "Stamp with it, Silly!"

Here are two of the shrine images without embellishment....in their simple beauty: 

This is how they arrive: simple, plain, and effective.  Perfect to just stamp on a card or package or lunch bag.....You can write the recipient's name in the center open space or not, as you wish.  Just stamp it and you are done.  They are pretty cool just as they are.

But, wait!  There's MORE!

Do you think I'm going to buy a stamp that has only one use?  It hasn't happened yet!  There are so many ways to use these shrine and accessory stamps and I will show you some of them today:

I stamped this shrine and decorated it with other stamps from the shrine collection and some from the general catalog of RM stamps, also.  And then I colored it in....oh, that was fun!  I used color pencils: a combination of Crayola and Prismacolor.

A different shrine with a different personality and focus.  Again, I used stamps from the Shrine collection and from the general RM catalog: anything can go in a shrine and ANYTHING can be made to be a charm or milagro.   

Milagro means "miracle" in Spanish and in Mexico small charms of silver or base metals are sold and used to illustrate one's prayer.  As an example, a milagro in the image of a leg may be taken to the church and hung or nailed to a designated place as part of a petition for health or recovery from a leg injury.  Different body parts are available depending on which body part is in your prayer or petition.  The little charms hanging from the bottom of this shrine could be just decoration or could be to specify which body part we are praying for.

By putting a little darker color on one edge of each image, I gave the milagros and the hand a little more dimension.

As you can see, you can make these somber or exciting,

But....that's not all!

I like stamps with versatility.  I like doing fun stuff with them and finding new ways to use them. 

The following are in black and white but no less exciting for that.

The upside down shrine top makes a great banner.  It might take a few tries to line them up evenly but don't worry.  You'll get it right.  And it's way cool even if you don't have a smooth transition. 

Of course you can color these, also, if you desire.

Here are more variations using the shrines and shrine parts:

Honestly, I got a little carried away with this one.....it's way full and busy.....crazy exciting!  And I'm using a KP stamp which is not from the shrine collection but works well with the pieces.  Mix and match!

Below is a variation with the Mary stamp.  I like this.  It's much simpler and more peaceful than the previous altar, above.  I like the way the small altars give it the sense of dimension, almost like they are resting on a mantelpiece or shelf.

I built this next altar and then drew an arch over it.....no shrine stamp but many ways to make shrines using the decorations and accessories in the collection.

The truth is, when I first saw the parts, I couldn't wait to get my hands on these stamps so I could try the following ideas:

I was so excited to play with them, and it was so satisfying when I finally did!

I thought about people who don't know of a shrine tradition in their own heritage and tried to think of how we can make it more ecumenical.  Here's my first effort at multiculturalism in RM shrine stamps:

And....well......I am a doll maker.  I love making dolls of all kinds, and some are jointed.  This is what the milagros called for initially:

Yeah.  They're crazy but fun.  

I encourage you to get wild and mix them all up together, making shrines and non-shrines, serious and playful images, traditional and nontraditional, useful or not, using any or all of the stamps you have.  Enjoy them and the process of making them.

I would love to see what you come up with.

Please send photos of your work to Beauty(at)LittleBitsOfMagic(dot)com with the subject line: "Shrine Crazy!" and I will post them here for show and tell.

That's all for today, but I will be back to explore more dimensions of RubberMoon Shrines with Stamp Boldly in Shrine Crazy (part 2).  See you soon!

..........

Ceci Córdova is a midwife, mother, and artist, working with sacred art and plain old fun art.  You can work with her in her Seattle studio where she teaches art and pregnancy related classes.  In October, join her for classes in making Sugar Skulls in preparation for Day of the Dead.  Contact Ceci at Beauty(at)LittleBitsOfMagic(dot)com (subject line: "Sugar Skulls class") for more information, dates, and times.  Looking forward to seeing you!

STAMP BOLDLY with RubberMoon by Ceci Cordova

When is a Door Not a Door? 

 *and things that go flap in the night

Remember that old joke?  When is a door, not a door?  When it's ajar!  I haven't heard it in years, but I remember how that stymied me......How can a door be a jar?  That's the joke!  OK.......I finally got it.  But here's a turn on that old joke.......because.....sometimes a door actually IS a jar!

This door is a jar. 

And, LOOK!  The jar door is ajar!

Sometimes, in fact, a door is all sorts of things!  Sometimes it is even a door, but today's theme is unexpected doors.  You can make a door out of whatever you have at hand.  You get to decide what is a door.  And you get to decide what's behind that door and whether or not you will open it.  

The way I make a door out of absolutely anything, is to just make a slit in the paper with an X-acto blade, along the lines I want the door to open.  Leave the hinge side uncut.  That's it.  (Oh, be sure to put a cutting board or stack of old newspaper under your paper while you are cutting to protect your work surface or dining room table.)

Here are some of our exciting examples.  Some of them are finished works and some are merely prototypes to inspire you to make your own works.

Get ready.... Set... GO!

OK.  First of all, doors are everywhere.  Really.  Anything can be a door!

These are Doors for the creative thinkers among us.
Of course, you expect a door in a house:

No surprises, there.

Or here, as gates are already doors.....just an opening in a fence.......nothing special....
 

 But we can still be excited by what lies behind the door or gate!

Now, you MIGHT be surprised by a door in the clouds..... they seem to appear completely out of the blue, to the surprise of the heroine of many a tale. 

 And you never know who or what will be revealed by an opening in the clouds.

Sometimes, the door is obvious after we see it open, but can be a secret until that very moment that it is opened.  Mysteries abound. 

Sometimes, people hide things, like safes, behind framed pictures.....but you can hide anything you like.



And, remember....you can use these anywhere you like.  On a card, on scratch paper, on Notes to Self, anywhere you want them.  

AND, you can put anything you like behind that closed door:  a birthday wish, a photograph, a stamped image........any kind of surprise or treat.  It's up to YOU.

Check out the Book of Secrets. 
 

Look, Ma!  PAGES!!!  


I slit the cover and stuck in a small signature of four pages, just for fun. 

To make the signature and give a 3-D quality to this wonderful Book of Secrets,

I just cut two lengths of paper, each twice the width of the pages I wanted, then folded them in half.

This is a quick way of doing it: I just taped them onto the back of the paper with the book on it.

Here, you can see the tape and how simple it was.  If I were wanting to hide the back, as in a pretty card, I would add another piece of paper to cover the entire back of the card.

I just thought we ought to take another look at the finished product.  I think it's cool.


 
So, lookie here at this:  Here is a door made from a squareish thing which is roughly shaped like a typical door:  this is a Wonderful Door!  It would also make a cool book cover, wouldn't it?

 
And, another look at something which is not typically door-shaped but reaffirms our thesis that ANY thing can be a door: 

  
A declaration of love: from the heart!   Isn't she aDOORable?

What's inside this cabinet? 

Just slit along the edges of where the doors would really open, and then, they really open there:

 
....another opportunity to be led into mystery.....

Well, a house can have a door. 

AND....a house can BE a door!

Instead of a door, try a flap.  A flap, in this case, is like a door, but from a separate piece of paper which is taped or glued to the front of the original paper, as opposed to cut from the original paper.  Here, it is also oriented differently, opening from the top, rather than from the side).

What's behind that flap, when it is dropped down:


 
You can see the tape at the bottom, which attaches the tulip paper to the paper with the star grass.    You might prefer to use a glue stick, which would still show the tab, but not the tape.  You can also decorate the tab to make it part of the underlying picture.

Again, you never know what is going to be a door or a flap.  This chicken is holding the most useful note, but one could add pages as we did with the Book of Secrets, or just open the door to other possibilities.

Give it a try.  This makes a fine card or increased list space and, whichever you choose, it is well protected by its chicken guardian.

There are different ways of defining and making a door:  you can outline the door place or not. 

Whether you choose to outline the cut area, you can choose to cut around the outline, drawn or imagined, or follow the edge of the image.

Who would have expected a panda to be a door?  But, again, ANYthing can be a door:  even a panda head.  You can cut along the edge of the image or give it a border, either along the same shape or a defined outlined.



You can make a door out of anything....anything at all.  See?  You don't even have to make it rectangular first.  You can cut along the edges of the image but you don't HAVE to.  And you can put things behind it, if you wish.  Or not.  You can make a door just for the fun of it, even.

"What's behind these doors?" you might ask.  Well, it's up to you to decide.  What do you want to see when you open your door?  You get to choose, same as you get to choose which doors you make and where you put them.  What's behind your door?

Go ahead, and open the door to more rubber stamping.  Step over the threshold and get stamping in a new way:  make the most of those doors, explicit and otherwise.  Make new doors.  Make doors that do what you want a door to do and lead to where you want to go.  And, then, you GO, Girl!

Rubber Blessings on us all!


Ceci Córdova is an artist who is also a Mother, Midwife, and Life Learner.  She loves rubber stamping and enjoys sharing the art form with others.  She likes to carve her own stamps and has an extensive collection of rubber stamps including many RubberMoon stamps dating from waaaay back.

P.S.  Come hang out and play rubber stamps with me next month at Stamp Boldly with RubberMoon.  And you can soon join me in real life as I will be hosting art and rubber stamps classes at my new studio in Seattle.  

Party on, dudes.

Rubber Art Stamps used in this post include, in relative order of appearance:

Please note: Jar stamp is a retired RubberMoon stamp and is no longer available.  I'm sorry. I make a point of using only available RM stamps but that old jar joke got the best of me.

jc459 - phylis
kp5065 - panda 
mk493 - wonderful 
mk593 - garden gate 
mk9110 - chicken note
db4040 - moon unit house
jc334 - blanche
jc246 - baggy pants
jc241 - she's the one
db4266 - catch a falling star
db4681 - cloud
db4391 - amy vander popen
jc458 - ms. moon
db4252 - book of secrets
mk2125 - on her way to the top
db9107 - star wardrobe
db4793 - crooked chimney house
jc143 - moon dancer 3
db4104 - wee fishy
db4895 - star grass
mk9110 - chicken note
db4496 - starflower (sm)
mk265 - swirl marble