selfie

i've been having fun carving "selfie stamps"…..
gotta make sure the next one includes a nose, though.  :))


{supplies:  speedy carve, linoleum carving tools, black archival ink}

inspiration monday

with so many things on our "to do" list at this time of the year,
it's easy to feel like we need to put our creative time on hold.....
but thankfully, inspiration says otherwise!  the trick is in finding
 quick projects that satisfy our creative calling,  and i've got a fun idea
that requires very few supplies (and very little time!).
so, gather a small carving block, your stamp carving tools, stamp pads,
and favorite art supplies, a few candy canes, and let's get started!

 first,  draw simple shapes onto small pieces of stamp carving blocks, 

and carve them out using a carving tool.  

(timesaver tip:  the simpler the shape, the quicker you can carve it out!)

then, cut or tear a piece of your favorite card stock 

(mine measures approximately 2"x3").

using a 3/8" hole punch,  make two holes at the top and bottom of your paper. 

now stamp your shape onto your paper.....

and add some doodly details using your favorite art pens.......

and see how many fun designs you can come up with!

now weave your candy cane through the punched holes....

and you've got a sweet little treat that you can use
as a gift topper, hang on your Christmas tree,
or share with your favorite elf!

these are super easy and super quick to create
and i think it's a great holiday project for the kids, too!
 (for safety, you can carve the stamp, and they can decorate! :))



{materials:  moo carve, staedtler carving tools, pencil, white card stock,
hole punch, assorted chalk stamp pads, micron pens, candy canes}

time and practice

i have dreams of being able to do something like this......

but i think i'll need to carve out lots of time for
 lots and lots and lots of practice!  wow!

i hope you have fun things planned this weekend!  enjoy!

{click here to see the printed stamp!}

inspiration monday

here's a quick and easy way to create a journal page.....using leftovers!

if you've been carving your own stamps, grab some of those little leftover pieces......or you can also use leftover snippets from your last session with fun-foam sheets or chip board, and then mount it to a piece of wood, or acrylic block, or even the lid of your stamp pad.  

(i used these little pieces of speedy-carve that were leftover from my alpha-carving session the other day.)  

now open your journal, grab your stamp pads (i used colorbox chalk inks) and start to stamp.....

and stamp some more......until you've stamped all of your strange shapes onto the paper.

this is where i like to squint my eyes a little and try to see those shapes as the beginning of something else.....like maybe an animal, a pan of brownies, or a group of flowers.  to make your shapes look a little more like actual objects,  add some doodle lines with a micron pen, along with some watercolor here and there to give a little dimension (wait for your stamp ink to dry completely, and then go back with a waterbrush and some watercolor.....this is also how i doodled my letters here).  

now add all of your extra-special doodle touches......
and say hello to a sweet little journal page that started with nothing but leftovers!

{here's what i used to create this journal page:  leftover speedy-carve pieces, colorbox chalk ink, koi watercolor, waterbrush, micron pens, 2B graphite pencil, pan pastel}


*to all of our friends who's lives have been affected by hurricane irene,
you are in our thoughts and prayers.*

alpha-pink

i was rummaging through my little drawer of carved stamps the other day and i realized that i didn't have any alphabet stamps.  how in the world did that happen?!!  so i got out a big piece of speedy-carve, and because i'm such a rule follower, i started with the A.  but once i got to the G i started to lose steam.

part of me wondered how long i could survive using only the first seven letters of the alphabet.....but after trying to find words using only those letters, i decided i don't normally use phrases like "bad-fed-cage-face" in my art journals.  egad!  so i continued carving......

and after a timely choco-break (or two), i had carved all 26 of those sweet little 

alpha-pinkies.....

and this is all that remains!
conclusion:  there's nothing better at the end of an art day than a big pile of pink!


{alpha-stamps carved from speedy-carve using speedball and staedtler carving tools}

the mousie and the mushroom

for the past several weeks, my bloggy friend ludid has been reflecting on several pieces of artwork that she created as a child.   her art has helped her remember good times, and challenging times, and it's also helped her to put some perspective on why she creates the way she does as an adult today.
ludid asked me if i had any childhood memories of a favorite piece of art......and my mind wandered back to a little mousie sitting under a red-polka-dotted mushroom.  i hadn't thought about this little guy in a long time.....and as it turns out, i've been carving for a lot longer than i had remembered!

ludid invited me to share some of my thoughts about this little mousie......
you can read them here!
{thank you, ludid, for a wonderful walk down memory lane......it's always fun to reconnect with our inner-child-artist!!}

where the heart is

i've been in kind of a weird art mood all week.
 i want to be creative, but have no idea what i want to create,
so sometimes i don't create at all!
but i figure instead of doing nothing, i may as well do what i love......
 pass some time carving a few stamps.
goodbye, weird art mood.

i hope your heart helps you discover playful art this weekend!  enjoy!

butterfly thank you

here's a fun way to create something for someone special,
using your journals as inspiration!

trace your image and transfer it to a piece of speedy carve, and then carve the stamp.  then stamp your image onto paper (i used distress inks to stamp the image onto watercolor paper.  the image comes out a little splotchy, so i used my waterbrush to even out the color and give it a more "painterly" look.).

add some details.....

and cut your image out, leaving a small border around the edges.

then adhere it onto a blank note card (i used glue only in the middle to give it some dimension) 

and sketch in a little message......

then add some finishing touches using your favorite pens and watercolors!


{i used these supplies to make this card:
art journal, tracing paper, speedy carve stamp material, carving tools, distress ink pads,
waterbrush,  90 lb. watercolor paper,  scissors, micron pens, 2B pencil, koi watercolor, glue}

stamp carving 101......{elvie-encore-post #8}

would you like to start carving your own stamps, but don't know where to start?  one of the nice things about stamp carving is that there's relatively little investment, and you get a great return with a wonderful collection of hand-carved artwork!  for the carving material itself, my favorite product is the artist carve block, Mastercarve,  by Staedtler.  it comes in different sizes and really does cut like buttah.  my second favorite is a product by Speedball called Speedy-Carve...it's pink and comes in different sized sheets so that larger stamps can be carved.

once you have your carving material, you'll need a sharp blade.  the most popular and accessible are the carving tools made by Speedball.  the handles are usually plastic and have a removable bottom for blade storage, and the tip allows for blade changing and removal .  i use the #1 v-shaped blade for detail work, and a larger u-shaped blade to remove the excess material from around the outside edges.  one thing that i would like to stress is that these blades are very sharp...make sure that you keep your fingers out of the way (i speak from experience on this one!)!

Staedtler also makes a set of carving blades that are very nice.  unlike the Speedball, these blades are not removable, but permanently fixed in their handles.  another difference between the two is that this set is much more of an investment than the Speedball set.  for me, personally, the handle seems less bulky in my hand and easier to use, and i was able to use my 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby to help with the expense.  most of these supplies can be found at many on-line sources, Hobby Lobby, and Michaels (they usually carry the blades).

  

once you have your carving block and your carving blades, it's time to start carving!  i've been following geninne's blog for quite some time and she recently made a great video on stamp carving (view it here)...she does beautiful work and it's always fun to learn from the best!  enjoy!

this is my new "bliss" stamp!  the word was originally written with a brush marker and then carved from a speedball speedy-carve block using a Staedtler blade.  for the image, white ink was stamped onto black textured paper.


**edited:  since writing this post, i've also created a stamp carving video......
you can watch it here!

i'm currently on a little bloggy break......

this is an encore presentation of a post originally featured on may 19, 2009

i heart my mary janes......{elvie-encore-post #2}

it's probably a little silly to be so attached to a pair of shoes, but i must confess that i love my mary janes.  i think that i've walked at least a million miles in these shoes.  i've been told that i need to give them up and wear something a little more "grown up", but instead i choose to replace the elastic under the buckles, for the fourth time now, so i can walk another million miles.  besides, grown up shoes hurt my feet.

i heart my mary janes so much that several months ago i took a drawing class and decided to use them as one of my models...and then make some note cards!

and to carry it one step further (good pun? bad pun?),  i just had to carve a mary janes stamp.  and this pair will never need to have the elastic replaced...... 

i'm currently on a little bloggy break......

this is an encore presentation of a post originally featured on april 14, 2009

inspiration monday

there is no way i could ever choose a favorite art technique.  my list of art-loves is constantly growing, and sometimes i like to challenge myself to see how many of them i can use in the same project.....this time i came up with a fun "stitch-ionary" idea to house all of my embroidery stitches!  

the first thing i did was carve a little frame stamp.....

and then i stamped it onto a medium shipping tag using black ink.

then i got out my embroidery floss and stitched up a title onto a piece of muslin (i also used a black micron pen for the lettering).

the next step was to trim the fabric and then glue it down inside my stamped frame with a glue stick.  then i added some color around the edges of the tag using antique linen distress ink and a foam applicator.

the final step for my stitch-ionary cover was to add a piece of black and white gingham ribbon and a little tag down at the bottom.  

and here are some of my favorite embroidery stitches, showcased on their own tag using the same methods that i used for the cover.....and they're all held together with a simple 2" binder ring that i bought at the office supply store.....plus there's lots of room to keep adding tags as i go!   

be inspired by all of your art-loves and see how many fun projects you can come up with!!

my inspiration for this project came from my love of paper arts, stamping, stamp carving, lettering, watercolor pencils, and stitching.  

thumb thanks

contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want,

but the realization of how much you already have.

thank you so much for your visits, your comments, and

especially for your encouragement.

i heart you.....more than i could ever express!

{and special thanks to my sweet bloggy friend anna over at lillalotta.....

she most graciously offered me an interview over at her blog....you can read it here!!

thank you precious friend!}

journal page finished using hand-carved thumbprint stamp, micron pens, watercolor pencils, pastel chalk, 6B graphite

happily-ever-laughter

i'm still having a ball playing with the little thumbprint people......but after spending several minutes at the sink with some soap, water, and baby wipes to get the mess off of my fingers, i decided that i would carve up a couple of stamps to help keep my fingers a little less inky. i carved a thumbprint, and a pinky fingerprint.....

and then used them to create a page in my journal (that's me and my little dutch sweetie....can you see the resemblance? heeheeheee). this is waaaaay too much fun......makes me outright belly laugh!!

have a great weekend!!

click on image for better view

journal page finished with scrap papers, micron pens, 4B pencil, hand-carved thumbprint stamp, pilot g-tec pen

inspiration monday

here's a cool trick that i learned while taking mary ann moss' online stencilry class:

take a photo (i'm using black and white)......

and play with the filter>artistic options in photoshop......and eventually you end up with a stencil cut-out version of your photo!

{note: i may have played a little too long, because for some reason i ended up with only half of one eyebrow, no nose, and partial lips......please refer to previous photo to confirm that i actually possess these things.....}

while mary ann takes the photoshopped image and creates a stencil from it, i decided to do something a little different and carve a stamp (i had to draw in a chin and neck to keep myself from looking totally hopeless.....again, please see previous photo)

and then i used it to create one of my "15 minute" journal pages! total fun!!

(p.s. if you love to play with stencils, i highly recommend mary ann's class....it's loaded with great information, and she's a great teacher!)

a penguin and a video

this little video involves a penguin and some stamp carving!

along the way, i mention several tools and materials.....you can click here to read my recent post about stamping supplies!

to watch the video in larger format, click here

carving a party

today seems like a cupcake kind of day (or is it just my sweet tooth acting up again?). and where there's cupcakes, there's got to be a party, right?! it's tuesday and i can't think of a better reason for a party....and a cupcake!

you can see the subtle colors better by clicking on the photo

five minutes

after almost three weeks of packing, moving, cleaning, unpacking, organizing, and cleaning some more, i'm finally starting to feel "at home". today i took five minutes to do something creative in my journal....wow, did that ever feel great! now, i'm off to smell some flowers....