A Valentine Print

Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays.  It's all about love, chocolate and sending letters and cards to those you care about.

Each year, I fight back against the cold, dreary weather with bright colors, and hearts.

 

This year's plan began when I was in a local Michael's store buying supplies for a Pet Portraits class I was teaching.  On the way to the checkout, I passed down an aisle of brightly colored papers.  I couldn't help but pick up a pack of pink papers with Valentiney projects in mind.

I dug out linocut blocks and rubber stamps I'd carved in years past, and sketched up new ideas.

The songbird stamp bubbled up to the top of my idea list, 

and I transferred the design onto the rubber block with a graphite pencil.  

You can color the back of your design with a 4B graphite pencil, 

then place the graphite-covered paper on top of the rubber block, graphite side down.  

Now trace over the design with a pencil to transfer it to the block.

I began carving out the design, using Speedball carving tools and an X-Acto knife for the fine work.

Here's the finished printing block. I inked it up with a Ranger permanent black ink pad with StazOn ink.

I was happy with the final result!

Hoping you have fun finding your own way to create with color in winter!

A Blast from the Past

 
 I was digging through my printmaking supplies, looking for old Valentine's Day designs when I found this oversized postcard that I made in 2005.

I designed the art, then carved it into a linoleum block print. I printed up a batch of these on a variety of papers to make Valentine's cards for family and friends.

 I didn't have to travel to get the heart-shaped postmark. 

I shipped a batch of Valentine's cards in a manila envelope to the Postmaster of Valentines Virginia 23887 with a note requesting that they postmark and mail the cards from their town.  I included this postcard to myself so I could have a copy of the festive postmark.

You can still do this trick to get your Valentines postmarked with a heart.  Here are some cities to try:

Postmaster,  23 Manning Drive, Valentines, Virginia  23887

Postmaster, 239 N. Hall St., Valentine NE 69201-9998

Postmaster, 311 California Avenue, Valentine, TX 79854

For more information, check out the US Postal Service's Valentine's postmark information page:

https://about.usps.com/who/profile/history/valentine-post-office-names.htm

Wishing you a cozy, creative Valentine-making session!

Making a Hand-Carved Stamp

I've always felt a connection with American Crows.  

They're intelligent, curious, and have a magical air about them.  

This crow photo, by Brad Silberberg, inspired a rubber stamp I made recently. 

I first made some sketches of the crow, then I chose one design to become the stamp.

I used a big pink eraser chunk for my rubber stamp. 

You can create stamps out of a variety of materials -- I've used corks, erasers & the soles of blown-out tennis shoes.  You can also buy "Speedy Cut" rubber blocks from Speedball.  They're uniform in texture and easy to cut into with carving tools or an X-Acto knife.

I chose a sketch and transferred the design onto the pink eraser by coloring on a scrap piece of paper with a 4B graphite pencil, then placing that face-down onto the stamp.  I placed my sketch on top, and traced over an outline of the drawing with a pencil to transfer the design.

As I carved out the crow, I began playing with doodles in the margins. I ended up wishing I had left more material above the crow's head to carve swirls into.  Though there's no "undo" button in stamp-carving, I can easily create another stamp.  Artists often work in a series.

I inked up the stamp with Ranger permanent black ink for a first test. 

I liked the design, but decided to simplify it -- editing out the marks in the space outside the crow.

I used to be impatient to finish a project like this and put it to use, but I now realize that the therapeutic power of art lies in the tinkering process as well as in expressing my unique vision.

Here's a look at the final crow stamp.  

I'm happy with the simplified look, and stamped up a bunch of stationery.

A home-made stamp like this is wonderful for decorating journals, for adding to mixed-media projects, or simply making greeting cards.

Playing around with art supplies with no goal other than to create for your own joy helps a person to drop into timeless time, into a place of peaceful exploration, into that blissful, childlike experience of creating. All the cares of the day fall away, and a person can relax into their own world of creativity.

I hope you take time to be creative for your own delight & relaxation this week. 

Upcycled Stamps

A Sunday morning in my art studio got me inspired to create some new stamps for my journaling and collage projects.My materials were: wine corks, a gum eraser, a pink eraser too old & hard to erase pencil marks any more, an X-acto knife, a pen, a pencil and ink pads.

I began with sketches of ideas, then drew my design onto the surface of the cork or eraser with a ballpoint pen or pencil.  

With the X-acto blade, I cut away everything that wasn't the design, and left what you see above as the stamp. I tested the stamp out, made any changes I needed, and then stamped away.

It's exciting to see your new design printed on paper! I use mine in journals, on cards & letters, and to decorate my daily planner.

I've been making cork and eraser stamps for years, and have collected them into a pretty box.  The dividers inside are fashioned from cereal box cardboard.  Several of the stamps above were made from old shoe soles (see the cardboard X handle?😉).  

I love repurposing old junk into art supplies!

Many of my materials came from the Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse.  They have erasers, a barrel of wine corks, loads of different papers, and I've found stamp pads there, too. 

I hope you'll give this art form a try!