New Stamps

My Sister-in-law visited a few days this week and part of our visit included craft time. She is very supportive of me and encouraging, so it's not hard to be inspired to create. We stayed up late a couple of nights and these are some stamps I carved:

I love doing these rubber stamps, but still have a hard time figuring out what I should be doing with them. I like the designs of these three and will probably do some tags and mini cards. It will be nice to have some new designs on my Etsy site.

Custom Hand Carved Stamp for Soap Scentsations

After seeing some hand carved stamps I made, my friend Kristi Mott, asked me if I would make one for her. Krisit is the owner of Soap Scent-sations, a lovely online shop with hand made soaps, lip balms and other bath and body products. She was interested in stamping cards to include with her soaps.

This photo shows the design I came up with, based on the design Kristi already uses for her packaging.  I had a great time carving this stamp and would love the opportunity to create more custom stamps. I've found that stamp carving and designing is currently one of my favorite things to do. Seeing the final results is very satisfying.

Take a moment to check out Kristi's shop (she also has an Artfire shop). Her soaps are wonderful. They're pretty, they smell great and they lather up quite nicely. (Lather is important to me, so I thought I'd mention that). Every time I use one, it feels like a special treat. But don't take my word for it, hop on over and order a few bars for yourself! :)

I Did This Instead of Sleeping...

Everyone in my family has had some sort of ailment in the past week. I'm just getting over mine, so I should really be sleeping. You know, getting rest so I can get healthy, letting my body rejuvenate so I don't have a relapse. Instead, I spent time carving eraser stamps! I've found that this is what really relaxes me lately, especially if I like the way the designs turned out.

I've been working on getting some things ready for an art fest I'm doing with my friends on Thanksgiving weekend. It's kind of an overwhelming task because there seems to be so much to be done and not really enough time to do it. Carving stamps helps me be creative, without having to commit too much time. Besides, I'll be able to make tags out of some of these and sell them at the art fest!

Block Party

Yesterday I facilitated a group of 8 women in a linoleum block printing workshop. It was held at Artlandish Gallery in Columbia, Missouri and it was really fun! I met some nice people, had a few laughs, saw some great designs. But the most fun part was watching as each person saw the first print of their carving on paper. It was truly amazing. Lots of "ooos and ahhhs" going on in that room.

We also carved some plastic erasers for some really cute hand made stamps. I was inspired to carve out a small lino block last night before I went to bed. Here's how it turned out:


I'm happy with the way it turned out and can hardly wait to print some different colors on cards and make some prints for framing.

I've been working on carving a few stamps and rubber pieces. It's very satisfying and there is the element of immediate gratification. I can carve a quick stamp in a few minutes, make a quick print then go cook dinner (or whatever thing I need to do). I can squeeze making hand made stamps in any part of my day! I'm soooo addicted. Here are some of the stamps I've made: