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. 

Collage Planner Pages

My best friend Robin says that instead of "To Do" lists, she makes "Get To Do" lists for each day.  

I love that idea, and have taken it one step further, collaging and decorating my "Get to Do" pages.

I started with an out-of-date planner that I purchased for a quarter at the Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse.  The quality of the paper, and the graph paper style attracted my eye.  I simply write a new date over top of the printed date.

I decorated these pages with stamps I made by cutting designs into pink erasers.  You can read a blog post about making those stamps here.

You can see some of my other collaged journal pages here.

I also use colored pencils & permanent ink pens to create pages like these.  I doodled a shape, then responded to that shape by adding other shapes and lines.

This is one of those projects that eliminates the fear of not being "perfect." It's just a planner page, so there's no pressure.

It helps me to see how reducing expectations on myself opens me up to follow my intuition, to stop judging my art making, and to free up my lines.

What if I created like this all the time?!

What if you gave this a try? 

Use what you have and doodle in your daily planner.  See what develops.

You may find new lines, shapes and approaches in your art making.

Happy Exploring!

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!

Happy Valentines Day!

One of my favorite holidays, today is a day about love & eating chocolate, so it has long inspired me to make cards for friends and family.

I painted a variety of papers with acrylic paint, stamped with handmade heart stamps and commercial stamps, and created collage cards.

The best thing about collage is that you simply allow your right brain to nudge you towards different colors, materials and shapes.  My mantra was "There's no such thing as perfect."  

Get your creation close to "perfect," and start gluing things down!

Wishing you a Happy Valentines Day!

Upcycled Tea Bag Art Cards

Years ago, I discovered the thrill of turning used office paper, junk mail and dried flowers into handmade recycled paper.  A mere blender and a window screen gave me the power to turn trash into artful stationary.  It felt revolutionary.

The excitement of turning cast off items into art never left me, and recently, I discovered the idea of turning used tea bags into tiny artworks.  

The procedure is simple. As soon as your tea bags have served their job, been plucked from the hot water and cooled, you can carefully open them up and dump the tea leaves into a compost pile or flower bed. 

 Rinse the paper tea bag to remove any excess leaf bits.  Let them dry, and put them to use!

I have a collection of stamps I made from wine corks and old erasers.  The wobbly little stamp designs suited my teabags ideally.

I experimented with creating collage cards, and noticed that the tea bag paper is porous.  When I tried using liquid PVA glue on my stamped teabags, I had troubles with the ink running, and with the glue showing through the paper.  

Glue sticks worked better.  The stamped design didn't run, and the teabag paper was tough enough, in spite of its gossamer nature, to withstand the pressure of running a tac glue stick over it.

I like the transparency & earth-tones I find in teabag paper, and discovered that it works beautifully in layering and letting designs beneath it show through -- this time with liquid PVA glue (below).

Scraps I used for testing watercolor paint swatches became collage pieces that matched the tea color of my teabag papers.  Magic!

One of the most fun parts of creating with upcycled materials for me is the experimentation phase, when I discover what a material can do.  

My teabags came in two sizes -- 2 1/2" round bags, and 4" x 6" rectangles.  I found that the rectangular pieces made delightful stationary on their own.  I wrote a letter to my best friend -- an ideal paper for concentrated thoughts and focused ideas. I made sure to put a scrap piece of paper underneath the teabag paper as I wrote with a rollerball ink pen -- the porous paper let some of the ink through.

Why not brew up some iced tea, unfurl the teabags, and create your own miniature artworks this summer?  A lovely way to spend time in artful self-care.

Valentines Update

This time of year, with the snow and cold blustering outdoors, I find myself drawn to bright, bold colors and making Valentines.  Tonight, I brewed up some green tea, carved a new Valentine stamp, and tested it out on papers that I had previously painted with intense Dr. P.H. Martin's Liquid Watercolors.  Nothing like the thrill of bold black lines against vivid magenta, tangerine and violet!

The Speedball Speedy Cut block I used to create my stamp was super easy to carve. 

I painted on sheet music, pages from an old shorthand textbook, and dictionary pages.  The print added another layer of texture.

A finished card.