Inspired by the beautiful autumn leaves, I wanted to create a print for some greeting cards. I began with leaves picked up on a walk, and sketched them in my nature journal.
When I was happy with my sketch, I made a copy to play around with, adding swirls and other design elements in pen.
I transferred my design to the block I intended to carve using an old trick. I laid down several heavy layers of graphite with a 4B pencil on a separate sheet of paper, then placed the graphite transfer paper graphite down on the stamp block, and placed my design face-up on top. I drew slowly over each line with my mechanical pencil.
After transferring the design onto the stamp block, I carved away everything but the design I wanted to print. I used Speedball Lino Cutting tools to carve a Speedball Speedy-Cut block. This is the type of block that's soft as cream cheese, and super easy to carve. You have to be careful with the edges to keep from getting broken.
Finally! I had the stamp cut. It's best to wash off your stamp before stamping with it the first time -- I skipped this step, and wish I hadn't! As I inked the design onto cards, little discarded bits on the stamp made goobers on subsequent prints.
I cleaned up the stamp and pad, and then created some exciting artworks!
One delightful discovery I made after I printed a bunch of cards was that the design worked no matter which way I turned it. Now I have a stack of fresh cards to send to family & friends, and that makes me happy.
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