Sometimes You Just Gotta Have Fun!

My last boss owned a rubber stamp business--still does, actually. She is Shirley Rainman of Make An Impression. It was grand fun working for her when she had a retail store--if you have to work retail, a rubber stamp store is a great place to do it.

One of the things we did for the store was make samples; can you imagine having to make art all day? What a chore--NOT! Well, now that Shirley has no store front, she has to make her own samples. So she gets to have all the fun (not to mention all the work). Shirley also designs a lot of her stamps herself; she has a very popular line called Punch-Ins, which she demonstrates and sells at rubber stamp shows and conventions all over the country, and sells wholesale to stores. This year, Shirley wanted to do something new, and came up with a really cute line of pantins she is calling Jumpables.

Teddy Bear Jester Jumpable

We meet for coffee once a month, Shirley and her former employees, and last month she brought sketches and some examples of her Jumpables to show us. What fun! We talked about what characters she could add to the teddy bear jester she had been selling for years, and the little girl and sock monkey. This month she showed up with bear, girl and sock monkey, AND a frog and a little boy.

Sock Monkey Jumpable

My personal favorite is, as anyone who knows me will immediately guess, is the sock monkey.



Shirley is busy designing accessories to go with her Jumpables. The little girl has a pocket with a note to put in it, and there are wings to make angels out of any of them. Shirley made a little girl angel to show us this month at coffee. We played with the Jumpables and had a great time thinking up accessories for them.

Girl Jumpable

The Jumpables will come in a pack with the stamp to make them and the complete instructions for jointing them to make them jump. These illustrations are all taken from Shirley's instruction sheet, with her permission; of course they are all copyrighted by Make an Impression.

Boy Jumpable

Frog Jumpable

The Jumpables will be available soon on the Make An Impression web site, http://makeanimpression.net/ where you can also see the Punch-Ins.

And Shirley and her husband, Link, will be appearing at several rubber stamp shows this year. Look for them at the following places:

March 3-4 Mesa AZ

March 10-11 Carson, CA

March 24-25  Portland, OR

April 14  Sacramento, CA

May 19-20 Puyallup, WA

You won't be disappointed!


Until next time, Nan