A happy 2014 to everyone, and I hope you will support GSC and Kahotan Blog throughout the year once more!
Good Smile Company’s New Year holiday officially ends as of today, and thus I am back to start up the first blog for 2014!
As it was the first day of the New Year, we also had a New Year’s Greeting Meeting this morning! Speaking of greetings… did you notice that the first images of today’s blog were in fact stamps?
Special one-of-a-kind rubber stamps made all by myself!
Our story begins on Christmas Eve…
It’s nearly Christmas… I mean, New Years!
I want to add something onto the blog that has a New Year theme to it!
My ideas were making mochi, or making New Year stamps…
Eventually I settled on making stamps!
(As I figured making mochi would be rather hard without any help…)
So today, the first blog of 2014, will show how I made these New Year Stamps!
With the new year I decided I have to try more and more new things, and I hope some of you will watch over me as I go through with them! (｀・ω・´)
1) Think of a Design for the Stamp.
First up, you need to come up with some ideas for the design of the stamp!
As you can see, I got a little distracted at times…!
At one point I wanted to make a horsey stamp as well, but I was forced to give up on that idea when I realized I couldn’t draw a horse…
2) Copy the Final Design of the Stamp.
Once you’ve decided on a design, get some tracing paper and draw the final version of the design on it as accurately as possible! I’ll be starting with the 2014! φ(*’д’* )
The cute smile mark I had in my head has come out looking rather… eerie. I’m sure I’ll be able to fix it up later on!
Then simply press the tracing paper onto the stamp to transfer the design to be carved out! (I’m making use of a special ‘rubber stamp kit’, which can be found at various handicraft stores as well as on amazon!)
Press hard to help the design transfer over!
I-It’s so pale!!
But I’m not worried! For I have a permanent marker by my side!! (｀・ω・´)
Phew! That’s made it much clearer, and also allowed me to fix up the smile mark a little bit! the eerie grin looks a little bit more like a ‘good smile’ now! ♡
3) Slowly but Surely Carve out the Design.
Now that the design is in place, all that’s left is to carve it out and create the stamp!
In the photo above I have an impressive line up of tools… but to be honest I only ever used the one on the far left… ^^;
Here you need to carve away all the white areas, leaving the black areas marked with the permanent marker!
*Carve* *Carve*
Hmm… It’s harder than I expected to do this neatly…
Whilst slowly carving out the design and remembering my days in kindergarten carving potato stamps… I looked out the window to see Mt.Fuji beside the Skytree…! ♥
The Skytree was still in Christmas mode at the time… but I had already moved completely into New Years mode!!
More than enough inspiration for me to complete my stamps!
*Carve* *Carve*
And… it’s completely dark outside now!!
It’s already dark out and I’ve only just finished the first stamp!
As a little break, I decided to test out the ‘2014’ stamp before moving on!
Even the smile mark is still looking like a rather gentle smile! Yay!
Next up is the ‘Kahotan’ (カホタン) stamp! (ﾟＡﾟ;)
The design is already complete!
I just need to transfer this onto the rubber stamp set…
*Carve* *Carve*
… and I’m done!
(Various details and troubles were omitted from this process ^^;)
And thus my first attempt at rubber stamp creation comes to an end!
The results…
I must admit it took a lot longer than I expected… (´；ω；｀)
I’m fairly well known to be quite clumsy in the offices, but no matter how long it may take me, I’m going to do my best to challenge myself to new things this year!
On that note…
I hope everyone will support me throughout the challenges of 2014!
ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･ﾟﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･ﾟﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･ﾟﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･ﾟ ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･ﾟﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･ﾟ
Finally a quick notice! （*´▽｀*）
From tomorrow the 7th January 2014 the GSC-Tetsujin Cafe will be starting up the ‘Monogatari Series Cafe: Second Season’! ♡♥
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Monogatari Series Cafe: Second Season
Dates: 2014/01/07 (Tues) – 2014/01/29 (Wed)
Details: http://www.gstjcafe.jp/theme_cafe/2566/ (Cafe Website)
Note that from the 7th January, the Cafe will be run via online reservations.
Reservations can be made from today, the 6th January 2014. (Member Registration is required)
GSC Tetsujin Cafe Online Reservations can be found here.
GSC Tetsujin Cafe Contact Form can be found here.
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Various meals, drinks and more from each of the ‘Monogatari’ series will be available, along with various scene photos from the anime and other items on display! Be sure to stop by the cafe in Akihabara if you’re a fan of the series! The latest Monogatari series figures may also be on display…! ((o(´∀｀)o))
I’ll let everyone know when I have more information!
ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･ﾟﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･ﾟﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･ﾟﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･ﾟ ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･ﾟﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･ﾟ
／Kahotan’s Inner Voice＼
∧＿∧
（ o・ω・） .。0 （I hope I’ll be infiltrating the cafe myself soon!)
（ つ ⊂）
と＿）＿）
Anyway, I hope to see you all again tomorrow!
Planning Team / Kahotan
Twitter ID: gsc_kahotan