Handmade by Bottle Tree Farm

Several months ago I fell in love with paper crafting and card making, but I quickly learned how expensive it can get to feed my new found hunger.  So I decided to make some cards to sell to offset some of the cost.  I sold a few cards, and after the fact realized I had not marked them in any way as handmade or with my farm name.  Even a few friends pointed it out.  "You really should put your name on the back of those cards so people will know who made them."  Oops!

I started looking and found cute "handmade by" stamps, but I couldn't decide what I would do about my farm name because it's long!  I didn't want to hand write it each time because my handwriting is atrocious.  I looked at custom stamp options and didn't really want to spend that money yet on a custom stamp.  I thought about alphabet stamps, but when I priced alphabet stamp sets, I couldn't justify buying more than one set and dedicating them only to assembling a custom stamp.  And, I really didn't want to assemble my farm name every time I made a card.    

I was in Michael's one day and saw these babies in the bargain bins.
   

At $1.25 a set, I didn't feel like I could go wrong, and at that price I could buy the four sets I needed to make a custom stamp.  I lined them up and used some shipping tape to hold them together.  I just folded over the edge of the tape on each end.  I'm pleased that for around $5, I have a custom handmade stamp.

The blocks do wiggle a little bit and I have to make sure I apply even pressure, so I may eventually glue them together.  But overall I love the way the letters don't exactly line up, giving it a truly hand-stamped look.

I eventually bought a 5th set so I would have at least one "e" as I used all of the "e" stamps in the first four sets for my custom stamp.  Now, I have a pretty good collection of extras for stamping projects, and I've already used them a few times.

I love the typed look on this card.

And, they fit perfectly in the boxes of this crossword paper.

 
I would say these little sets of $1.25 alphabet stamps get my "stamp" of approval.

Happy stamping,

Candace