Girls in the Woods

A couple of days ago when I was on the bus I notices a huge chunk of bright orange fungi on a tree trunk by the side of the road. I couldn't get a good closer look though because the bus was going too fast, but I was so intrigued and decided to pay a visit the next day after the rain.

Look at it. Just look at it.

The creature (or creatures, maybe?) was just breath-taking. It's about 60cm/2 feet tall I showed the photo to one of my mushroom-expert friends and was told that this belongs to the species of...(*drumrolls) Laetiporus sulphureus. Here's what Wikipedia says:

"Laetiporus sulphureus is a species of bracket fungus (fungus that grows on trees) found in Europe and North America. Its common names are sulphur polypore, sulphur shelf, and chicken of the woods. Its fruit bodies grow as striking golden-yellow shelf-like structures on tree trunks and branches. ..."

Part of me really wanted to eat it but alas, it's just too beautiful.

Why am I writing about mushrooms and whatnots on a craft blog, you ask? Because 1) nature is awesome and 2) it is probably as inspiring as it gets! 

Another thing to love about the woods: randomness.

Onto the craft part of the blog... the first custom stamp I made last week was one for little Laura. Her family friend Victoria is a repeat customer of mine. For Laura's birthday, Victoria requested a custom Ex Libris stamp to personalize the little girl's book collection. 

Laura is a dark-haired girl who loves nature; for her stamp, I designed a girl in her likeness, wearing a garland made of bay laurel leaves (her namesake) with a little bird standing on her hand. 

I found this lovely piece of shell-shaped wood in my wood stump box and just had to design the stamp based on the amazing organic shape. Really happy with how it turned out!

The stamp measures app. 2.6" tall.

Another one I made is a portrait stamp for Jenny. She's my only customer from Brunei and I've made so many stamps for her I lost count:p This one is the prize from the last custom portrait stamp giveaway on my Facebook page (yes, I give out free stamps, even custom ones - so if you've not been there, you should!).

As you may have noticed, I love creating custom stamps based on the shapes of the wood mount. It just feels natural and... right.

Apart from these two stamps, I also sent orders to Cerritos CA, Albuquerque NM, Seattle WA, Gaithersburg MD, Wiltshire U.K., London, Santiago, Chile last week, to name just a few. I can't describe how happy I am when I pop the brown paper bags in the yellow post box, knowing how far they'll travel. 

Here's how the Swedish post boxes look. They are yellow and blue (blue ones not shown here) like the national flag.

Btw, did you know you could see a real-time map of where my last 20 orders went? It's here - on the bottom of the page - and it's my favorite little secret gadget on the site.

That's all for now! As some of you might know, I'm moving to a new crib early next month so if you order custom stamps later than June 28th, I most likely won't be able to ship it around July15th, so that's app. 17 days rather than my usual 7 day turnaround for custom orders.

Have a nice mid summer to you all! Ha en trevlig midsommar:)