recap {last week; day one}

the last week of june i attended an art class: stamp carving and making papers. we had a fantastic time. great group of people and wonderful teacher, jennifer stone- full of tips and tricks and thorough explanations. you can see her schedule and other artists that she is bringing in.

the stamps below are her most-fabulous stamps....the one closest in the pic actually say, "steal....and you die."

it is soooo almost worth the risk........love that one. 

her's below are made from moo carve. this is nice to carve as it is relatively easy to carve into versus the huge erasers from the dollar store. the erasers work too, but, a bit more difficult to carve. 

and then there is fun-foam! have you made stamps with fun foam? this is quick and so easy!  you just need to have the sticky foam. super fun! 

i did circles....(happiness.....).

we used our stamps to stamp on papers to use in other things. such as my work below. this is early on but, you can see that i used my circle stamped paper in this one. 

i turned the piece- but, below is the final version of this work.

fun foam stamps.....

happy humpday!

xo. kristin

starting the year with homemade stamps

looking around on social media i have been so inspired by the many pics and posts of others making stamps. i couldn't take it any longer and had to break out my own carving utensils and make a few for my myself.

and now that Christmas and New Year's is over, i am getting ready for valentine's day! how can you resist some hearts? and maybe a little "be mine"?

only thing was, i was thinking that i had remembered to reverse the words before putting the "be mine" onto my rubber....but, sadly to say, my first attempt resulted in a backwards print.....so, i did try again- only to discover that my "n" was still backwards (OMG...really.); but, no one is perfect and maybe it will be more quaint. right?.....

after my two attempts with letters and words....i needed something way less complicated apparently and moved to hearts; creating two small hearts. i used a large $1 eraser from the dollar store for my "be mine" stamp. these work great because usually you can do two different stamps on each side- or, like me, if you make a mistake on your first attempt, you can flip the eraser over and start again.

you will see in the pic above, i again, used a small eraser that my kids no longer use and just broke in half to allow for two stamps. the small erasers are not thick enough to allow for two stamps on one like the big erasers.

the one thing i will warn against when using erasers is that i cannot guarantee how the stamps will hold up long term- so, the erasers work great if you are just starting out with carving and do not want to invest a bunch once you purchase your carving tools; or if you like making many stamps this option is good for many.

so, will you all still be mine?.....

"owl" always love you....

everywhere i have been looking lately, i keep seeing owls. i was feeling so inspired- i finally decided i needed to have an owl of my own and used another one of my big erasers to make a stamp.

i had drawn a sample owl in my notebook, and then, moved that image onto my eraser...

and then, started carving.....i really like the carving part. i like trying to find my image and get it carved out so i can stamp that first image. i try to get it carved down enough so that when i try that first image- i should be pretty close to my finished stamp. my owl actually didn't need any additional carving.

 "owl" love this stamp forever....happy tuesday!

carving up a stamp

i have been so inspired by others making their own stamps that i ordered a Speedball carving set for myself. my order and carving set arrived yesterday (so excited!!)

so, last night i set off to give this a whirl and see how i do. i had purchased a couple of $1 big erasers at my local dollar store to carve up. i figured i would start on the cheap erasers to start until i was able to hone my skills a bit.

i sketched around my eraser so i know what size to make my design and then, drew within my rectangle.

once i was happy with my sketch, i colored on the back of my sketch and then, drew on my sketch to transfer the graphite onto my eraser. you can see the carving set i purchased. there were two sets available- i did buy the set with all of the carving sizes because it was a minimal amount more- so why not have all the sizes?

 you can see here how the image transferred onto my eraser. it is not the best, but, looking at my sketch and seeing the image on the eraser really was not too bad. i may have to see if there is a better method- or if you have a better way...please leave me a comment! i would love to know!

when i was done with my carving, i went and found my ink pad to see how i actually did. so excited to see it actually print onto paper!! i had a couple of small edges to take down just a bit more, but, for the most part, i was done with the carving and VERY happy with my first attempt.