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The Old Island Stamp Company

Spring/Summer 2009

Bowen Summer Market

Well, its that time of year again, the warm weather is upon us and people are out enjoying it!
So, come and visit us at the Bowen Summer Market, it runs July through September both Saturday and Sunday.
Check it out the Bowen Market blog.

Just a 20 minute ferry ride from Horseshoe Bay to Snug Cove and you’ll find us under the white tents as soon as you get off. Why not make a day of it, you can even catch a water taxi from Granville Island that brings you all the way to Bowen Island in about half an hour. It’s a great little place with lots to see, beautiful little shops, restaurants, nice beaches, and hiking, so don’t forget your dog!
We will be there one day of the weekend, so email us to make sure we don’t miss you.

Dawne supporting some of our local artisans with a purchase from;
Izzy & Buds Handcrafted Jewelry.

757-D Curly Frame
Latest images

   Please check out our latest images page on the website. We have 16 new images so far this year. Some great new Christmas stamps to get you going on your holiday cards, 3 vintage flowers, a happy home, great for a housewarming or a new baby card, whimsy garden background stamp, and a curly frame.
   Two of them are unmounted sheets, both great for cards and scrapbooking, the first one is a Wedding text sheet and the other is an Elements sheet, full of swirls and lines for text.

Drawing board

   Well, all you dog people out there will be happy, we’ve got a cute little dog on the drawing board called Boomer, a curly Christmas corner, and a new angel. Tell us what you think!

Gallery

   There are some new cards posted on the website, and coming soon, some scrapbook pages to help inspire you. So keep checking, as I am still trying to get at least one card for each image on the website.

Christmas shows

   We have listed all the shows that we will be attending this year. Starting really early with, The One of a Kind show in Vancouver at the new convention center, how exciting! Check out all the shows we will be attending here.

   I know we promised people in Prince George that we would be back in 2009 for Studio Fair, and we really wanted to, but unfortunately the dates didn’t work out and we would be on the road when we were supposed to be setting up for the next show, but we will try really hard to get back to Studio Fair in 2010!

Stamp out Breast Cancer

    We were asked to be apart of a fundraiser held at the Granville Island Hotel this last May.

   Raya from I’m Impressed organized the whole affair. There were 2 days of classes to attend, a room full of vendors, showing and selling their wares, along with make and takes. A silent auction, door prizes, contests, and to top it off a stamp social!

   Thanks to all of you who bought our awareness ribbon stamps, as all the proceeds were donated to the cancer fund.

   Creative Customers
   Its hard to believe its been over a year and a half since I’ve taken over at Old Island!

    We’ve met some really nice people at all the shows and markets we’ve attended. One of the best parts of meeting people is finding out just how you are using our stamps. So, I thought it would be a great idea to share some of those stories with you.

This was sent to us by Heather, she has described to us how she uses our stamps in Metal etching.

Etching Metal Materials:

PCB etchant solution (I got mine from The Source, that used to be Radio Shack) this is the solution “computer people” use to etch the mother boards.

Stazon ink pad or acrylic paints,

Rubber stamps (Old Island Stamps) ;-)

Masking tape or clear packing tape

Sharpie pen

Plastic container

Plastic tongs or rubber gloves

Copper or brass. I use brass shim from the hardware store, copper sheets, copper shapes that are for enamelling, brass bullet casings, brass or copper washers….whatever you can find.

Green scrubby.



Click on a thumbnail to enlarge

1.      Stamp on metal using stazon or acrylic paint. Use a permanent marker to seal the edges as they will “etch” too if you don’t.   let dry completely

2.      Cover the back with masking tape or clear packing tape to protect it.

3.      Put etching solution into plastic container and then carefully place the metal pieces into the solution so they are completely covered and not overlapping. Leave for approx one hour, checking it occasionally. Once the etch is the depth that you want, remove the metal from the solution using either rubber gloves or plastic tweezers.

4.      Remove the tape and rinse well. I use sunlight dish soap for an initial wash, then use a green scrubby to remove the paint or ink.

5.      You can use a solution of 50/50 ammonia to water to completely stop the etching process, but I have never done this. I do add baking soda, carefully to the solution over an outside garbage can (it foams up) in order to neutralize the solution before discarding.

    If you believe you have a unique and interesting way to use our stamps, we would love to hear from you. If we choose your story, we will send you some more stamps to continue your artistic endeavors, on us!

New Poll Question

   We are taking another poll, to see what people think about buying our stamps (the unmounted version) already trimmed on EZ mount foam. Now, this has always been an option when ordering our stamps online, you could have us trim and mount them on EZ mount for you for a fee.

   When you see us at the Christmas shows, we have only offered our stamps unmounted, (rubber only), or mounted on the wood block. If you opted for unmounted, you would then buy the EZ mount foam and mount and cut them yourselves when you got home.

   A lot of companies are now selling their stamps already mounted this way, it seems to be the way its going.

   I thought I would test the waters at Granville Island, when we attended the Breast Cancer Fundraiser and brought a number of our newest stamps in that version. It seemed to go quite well, as we sold more stamps on EZ mount than mounted on wood, and had requests to bring more the second day we were there.

   Tell us what options you would like and why.

   Answer the poll question by selecting "Poll Question" in the navigator list on the home page or by clicking here.

Last, but certainly not least!

STAMP DRAW WINNER:   I am pleased to announce our latest stamp draw winner is Karen Richardson from Prince George, British Columbia. Congratulations to Karen! The new stamp draw is ready to go.  The new prize is three vintage flower stamps we have just released. To enter the Draw, click on [Home] above, and then on Stamp Draw on the Home page. Check it out and Good Luck!

'THE FINE PRINT': Please note, now that it is three months between draws, make sure you only enter once during that time. I cannot pick someone who has entered twice or three times...it is not fair to everyone else. Also we still have a lot of people putting their e-mail address as their first name, and I disqualify those too.