homemade stamp

just love making these homemade foam stamps... 

never done that you say?! super easy.....

find sticky back foam sheets- i had gotten my package from walmart in fun bright colors. to make the back piece, i normally cut a square and then fold in half (these are super sticky!!! fyi....) to provide a little more stability to the stamp; although it isn't necessary- you certainly can do a single sheet.

if you do a single sheet for the back instead of folding in half- do not use the sticky back! this should then be just the regular foam. 

but use the sticky back foam for the actual shapes for the front of the stamp itself. 

i always like circles- or some variation of circles; and love the lines (mine is the one hiding on the right hand side with the pink background and purple stripes above). you will notice that i waste nothing....when i cut the circles, i realized that my first set were too big for the top background- so i cut those down to fit and then used that outside circle edging and put those onto another background.

this is my pile of used foam stamps.....

happy hump day.

xo. kristin

art journal pages {backgrounds} #printmakingunleashed

i purchased the PrintMakingUnleashed. Traci does a great job of explaining her process and how to play with it. i love some of her techniques and have started regularly using some of the homemade stamps and stencils i created while playing along.

i have been making additional backgrounds in my art journal and thought i would share some of my favorite page right now.

happy friday....

onto canvas {to listen}

i was feeling so inspired on sunday in my studio with my art journal progress that i decided to move back to canvas.

i had started a painting on a 24"x 30" canvas quite some time ago as i sometimes do. i like to get paint onto the canvas so it is not white. white can be so overwhelming sometimes especially if your creative mojo has left....white can be crushing....have you been there?

i had been on such a roll with my foam stamps on paper, i decided to use those on my canvas as well as shown below.

some of my style is built up the layers and then, destroy and tear some of the layers back down to reveal whatever was underneath. i so like it when colors peek through in spots....at one point however during this painting, my mojo left. yep....mojo gone.....walked away....leaving me to walk away as well.

i let it sit for a bit and came back later only to discover that i need to be reminded that i too, "have to listen." sometimes that creative voice is whispering to you and you need to listen carefully; to not be afraid to walk away, but, come back when you have heard that soft whisper calling to you....

to put that paint down, and then scratch it off...to write those words and mist the words to blot some of the words away.....and yes....to listen.

stamping up a storm {foam stamps}

this weekend was busy, but, on sunday i did sneak down to the studio to play and do some catch up with the printmakingunleashed 31 day challenge....i must buy this book- this has been the most amount of good creative fun i have had in a while with such wonderful prompts to get you started....

(focus...)...okay- so the newest challenge was to make and use foam stamps. i looked around my studio and found my stack of play foam sheets and a small amount even had sticky backs! i set to work making up a pile of foam stamps. check out my pile...

with my new foam stamps i combined with my gelli plate to create backgrounds and several very cool pages in my art journal. i used my brayer to apply paint to my foam stamps; sometimes covering the whole stamp, and other times rolling just once and leaving empty space on my stamp. i didn't even mind if the edge of my stamp touched the page as you can see below.

are you playing?....let me know and i can stop over! happy monday.....