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Sunday, December 31, 2017

Carve December 31th, 2017

Well today is the end of Carve December 2017...I am so happy to have participated as I now have 42 new stamps to play with!  Quite an accomplishment if I do say so myself since I just took it up as a lark.

Here are my last 2 carves for this year....


I wanted a nice hummingbird - his beak is a little screwy but over all I'm very pleased with him.


I also wanted another shamrock for St. Patrick's Day...just because it's so hard to find them.

I hope you've enjoyed this month of carving and I hope I've inspired you to take up your tools and carve a bit yourself.

Happy Carve December 2017!

Friday, December 29, 2017

Carve December 29

Only a couple more days left in December and I'm doin' pretty good on carving. I have 2 more designs for you today...both sort of related to Valentine's day....


The first stamp is the love symbol that seems to have become so popular lately. 
I love it too and so I thought I'd give it a shot...what do you think?


My second started out as a heart I was going to carve some flowers on...but I had a better idea and decided to celebrate my love of the cubs!!  LOL!!  I carved baseball seams instead of the flowers ;) Only 56 more days till baseball!!!  YEAH :)

Thursday, December 28, 2017

Carve December 28

Hello Friends and Happy Thursday!  I'm back with another carved stamp - this time a little Celtic Luck...


It's a more complicated design so it's not perfect by any means but it's still something to use for St. Patty's Day.  It's so hard to find stamps for that day so I'm going to attempt a couple more.  Yesterday Susan317 asked if I ever posted step by steps for the stamps I carve.  Up till now, no I haven't because I just started carving at the beginning of the month so it's been a learning process.  I don't know if I'm doing it the right or wrong way, it's just what works for me but I will share the process.  Luckily I read Susan's comment shortly after I began this stamp so here is what I did....


Initially I draw the image onto the rubber with an almost dull pencil - if you use a sharpened pencil it will mar the surface of the rubber and once it's nicked you're stuck with it. If you're lucky it will be in an area that you will carve away - otherwise, it's there for ever.  Trust me on this...one slip of the knife and you're ______! I've had to start over more than once because of that very thing.

So after you've drawn on the design, use the smallest knife you have and follow each line. One tip I got from a seasoned, expert (IMO) stamp carver was to rotate the rubber, not the carving tool...follow along the lines as you would if you were using a scroll saw. That tip helps so much...it's far easier to rotate the piece you're working on than it is to contort your hand to follow the design.   That is the reason I leave all of my shavings on the craft mat...they act as tiny rollers under the rubber so I can rotate it easily.


So once you've got all of the initial lines carved out, I test it to see if I like the design.  This is actually the 2nd time I've carved this design...the first one turned out nasty so I flipped the piece of rubber over and started again.


As you can see it's not perfect but it's better than attempt #1. It's really hard to follow all those curves around!  At this point if I were carving something that had lots of empty space that I had to carve out I would also check for how clean the image looks.  Lots of times you have areas that look like they've been cleaned out good but when it's stamped show up on the image.  Sometimes I leave the strays on the image if it adds to the overall design but you can cut them away now if desired.  I always stamp it until I get a nice cleaned up image that I am shooting for.  I have stamped, cut, stamped and cut up to 5-6 times just to get it looking the way I want it to.  Be careful though...if you cut something off you can't add it back!  I learned that the hard way too.  One small nick of the knife and you might loose a vital part of the image so take your time.


Since it's acceptable the next thing you need to do is cut away the excess if desired. You would either cut right up against the design if it's something like the stamps from yesterday that have a solid outline already.  Since the "design" on this stamp is just a line drawing it wouldn't work so well so I went around the outside edge again with the smallest knife and "traced" an outline.

Once you have the outline to your liking take a larger knife and start whittling away the excess rubber all the way around - you can see where I have started this process with the 3 heavy lines of rubber being removed.


Once you have a nice thick edge to work with, you can use an exacto knife to cut away the excess rubber.


When you're done cutting, it's time to stamp!  I usually have a few stray lines of rubber that I missed that aren't noticeable by just looking at the stamp.  If you stamp it and see something you don't like the looks of you can always take the exacto knife and trim it off. 


And you've got yourself a fun new image to play with!!

So there you go, that's how I carve the stamps I've been making!
Like I mentioned above, I don't know if I'm doing it the right way or wrong way,
it's just what works for me.

Hope it inspires you to pick up a carving knife and give it a try!

Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Carve December Day 27

Another day of Halloween images....


I messed the eyes of the owl up so I am just going to draw whatever eyes I want once it's stamped.


A fun skull and crossbones...Halloween and pirates - fun fun!


I am so tickled with this image...it is so stinkin' good even if I say so myself.  It looks exactly how I wanted it to!  Can't say that about too many of my hand carved stamps but this one just rocks - LOL!!  Now I want to stamp some Halloween cards darn it!

Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Carve December - Day 26

Hope you all had a nice Christmas!  I know this sounds nuts but as I was thinking about stamps I wanted Halloween came to mind - LOL!!  Yes I know, it's not the right time of the year for it but hey...I like Halloween and there are some images I've always wanted but could never find so here goes...


I LOVE this cat image but I don't think anyone has turned him into a stamp. 


I have all sorts of pumpkin stamps but none like him...he looks so cute winking don't ya think?

Sunday, December 24, 2017

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Hope you all have a wonderful safe and happy holiday...


all the best today


and through the coming year!


Merry Inky Christmas Friends!!!

Carve December Day 24

It's getting REALLY cold here so a polar bear came to mind ;)  LOL!!  I only have one polar bear stamp and he's wearing a hat holding a present so I thought it would be nice to have a silhouette polar bear.  I've got plans for him but can't tell you about it just yet.


I think he looks pretty good don't you?  I really like how he turned out.  I think I may have to carve a couple more of these in different poses. 

Saturday, December 23, 2017

Carve December Day 23

Yesterday stars, today flowers...I want to keep adding to my collection so here are a couple more...




Friday, December 22, 2017

Carve December 2017 Day 22

I've been making time to carve and today I have 2 more stamps for you...both stars - sort of.


My first star is very recognizable...I've always wanted a stamp like this but never found one.  I love this type of star - the lines aren't exact but I like it.


This stamp can be stamped into a star if so desired!  I thought it looked like a nice Christmas star stamped in the green Delicata.  It's going to be fun to experiment with this for various background patterns I think.  Need to play with it to see what I can come up with.

Thursday, December 21, 2017

Carve December 2017

Well, my goal for carving every day has been shot recently due to the holidays. Between working with the leather goods, baking, cleaning and getting goodies ready for Christmas I've not been in my craft room much but I did manage to get a couple stamps carved over the weekend.  Actually, I made a couple more but they didn't turn out so I scrapped them.  It's a learning process I guess...

Anyway, here are the 2 I kept....

(Berry Blaze Kaleidacolor Ink Pad by Imagine with Tsukineko Inks)

This is another flower for my collection...this is one image I screwed up a couple times. It's harder than you'd think carving around all those little lines.  I slipped a couple times on the first one cutting away some of the divider walls, the next one ended up with some funky looking petals. Third try is the charm I guess because I really like this one.  

(Denim Kaleidacolor by Imagine)

This is my second stamp I carved. I LOVE how it turned out...the sides don't exactly line up when stamped as a quad but that's o.k...it's still pretty cool looking. Only thing is that the rubber I used isn't completely flat so I had to retouch stamping a couple areas.  I'm trying to use up these nasty pieces of rubber - I figure I'll carve them all up early on then by the time I get to my Speedball rubber I should be really good - and not make many mistakes ;)  That's the plan anyway.

Have you had any time to carve?  
I'm hoping I'll have a bit more time soon.

Wednesday, December 20, 2017

I've been workin;...

nope, not on the railroad but leather gifts for Christmas!  

We're actually going to be working on a few new ventures at our IRL business so I thought I needed to get some practice in before we start working on the "real deal".  I've never worked with leather dyeing, stamping or carving before...just sewing, it was kind of fun and I think I can do this!  We'll see how it all goes!

And here they are...


It started out as just a strip of leather...I did it all!




This was cut and dyed by me, sewn by DH from a piece of 2-3oz leather.



Found this stamp...it's going to be my "mark"
 - looks like an ink stain don't ya think?  LOL!!


So there you go...This is in part what's been taking me away from here...well, that and Christmas stuff ;)  Are you all ready?  I'm about as ready as I am going to get I think...  Still need to clean the house a bit and maybe make some caramels and peanut butter fudge but that's it.   I'm just ready for it to be here - I think I'm worse than the kids - LOL!!  I have an eye twitch just waiting!

Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Delicata Foamiran Poinsettia

Today I wanted to share a link to my 
I had so much fun making these...


I am so amazed at how lifelike these foam flowers look once they are finished and not only that, they feel lifelike as well.  They are so soft and delicate but they are really very sturdy. Just perfect for all sorts of projects.  


I wish you could see these flowers in person though, the Ruby Red and Emerald Green Delicata inks have such a lovely shimmer and sparkle to them, it's just dreamy.




Here they are incorporated into a holiday project...


I hope you check out the tutorial and give it a try yourself.
You won't be disappointed!

Supplies

Imagine
Other
  • Foamiran Silk Foam
  • Hot Glue Gun
  • Plastic Flower Stamen
  • Spellbinders – Poinsettia Die
  • Sugar or Fondant Leaf Veining Mold

Thursday, December 14, 2017

December Technique Challenge - Repeat Stamping!

Hello Friends! I am the host for December's Technique Challenge on the Club Scrap Blog and I choose Repeat Stamping!  This is such a fun and easy technique and it yields soooo many different looks - let's check it out...


Grid Stamping...
I used a ruler and pencil to tick off stamping marks.


All in a row...


You can use sentiments to repeat stamp for a fun look.


Layers of the same stamp make a remarkable card!


Combine repeated patterns for a fun layered look.


Tilt your card on it's axis to stamp multiple lines of images.
Makes for quick work but yields a complicated intricate look!

If you give repeat stamping a try please share!
And if you use a Club Scrap stamp/materials be sure to enter the linky party for your chance to win!


Supplies:

ClubScrap.com - cardstock, stamps, embellishments
Imagine - VersaMagic (chalk ink); Memento Ink; VersaFine

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

A Few More Pegged Christmas Cards!

I am really trying to finish up Christmas cards and get them sent out reasonably close to Christmas...some may not make it but at least it's the thought that counts right?  


For some reason this year I seem to be making more portrait instead of landscape oriented cards this year. Usually it's the other way around.  Anyway, here's one of the landscape cards I made this session...  Don't ya just love those lights?


A poinsettia wreath.


This is such a fun card. The "tree" is actually a pine branch but it was laying on it's side on my desk and I noticed that it looked like a charlie brown tree so I decided the snowman needed his very own tree - LOL!!  It's decorated with a trio of tiny flowers (in red) and a 5 petal flower in gold for the star on top!


I love this card - I might have to go against my policy (of no dups) and make a few more of these...It's very "me".  Anyway, the sentiment is from Joy Clair's Rustic Christmas set...goes perfectly with the peg stamps don't ya think?  I may add more glitter if I make more...need to bump up the sparkle factor - LOL!!

So that's what I've been doing...how about you?
Ready for the big day??

Supplies:

Rubber Stamp Tapestry - Peg Stamps
Imagine - VersaMagic (chalk ink); VersaFine; Memento; On Point Glue (to adhere the glitter)
Club Scrap - Cardstock, Ribbon
Joy Clair - Rustic Christmas Sentiment
Glitter
MFT - Stitched Circle Dies