As I looked at my painting from afar, I started doodling on scrap papers and drawing ladies. I’m caught somewhere between childish whimsy and more realistic features…then I start scribbling. I wanted to draw a bunch of ladies to add into my junk journal though…have to do something with that journal.

Of course, I get distracted easily and realized since I love my kneaded eraser so much, I have no need for the regular rubber ones that leave little bits all over the place. So I thought it would be a great opportunity to carve them into stamps. I want a leafy stamp to use in collage and things were looking pretty good…

Then my hand slipped and I messed it up! This rubbery stuff is way softer than linoleum, so I had to lighten my hand up a lot. I just started over, cutting up the eraser and using other ones I had lying around. I ended up with a bunch of leafy shapes, which is pretty nice to create variation.

Then I jumped onward to finish this recycled project of using a bottle to make a birdhouse. I used my trusty glue gun to make a leafy roof…I guess there is connection as I went from carving leafy shapes to glueing leaves…but honestly I just easily jump from project to project. My mind is whirling with too many things most of the time, so I have to let out the energy one way or another. I have to go grab more leaves to finish this up, but I was happily surprised how lovely the leafy roof looks.

So those are the creative happenings for me and I will finish up that birdhouse and show you the results tomorrow. The weather is so beautiful these days and there are birdies outside my window terrace every morning. I figure it can be put to good use asap. Also, I should mention that I listed the journals I made onto Etsy, since I don’t really have a use for them…I hope they find good homes. The lovely folks on Tuesday night vlog chat convinced me to do so. If you want a custom leather journal btw, just let me know. Now I can go visit all the other creative spaces via Kootoyoo…or actually go make lunch!

I use a little table jig thingy when carving that allows you to apply pressure into what you are carving without the work slipping away – not sure what you call that. I think I’m pretty heavy handed anyway, because I’ve chipped off pieces of that white plastic thingy and certainly have had my share of slight injuries! I have to tell myself to slow down all the time, so be careful with whatever tools you are using.

After finishing up the quote journaling stamp I decide to carve another one with words.  I printed out the word “smile!” on the computer first, so then it was easy to trace and transfer with pencil onto the block backwards. Remember you have to carve the mirror image of things! My little happy sun design turned out to be really detailed and a lot harder for me to carve out – what a challenge!

I didn’t have the tools (or maybe the patience) to get all those little parts of the letters and I also accidentally took off the dot above the letter “i” and the dot below the exclamation point as well. I decided it was okay, because I would add little hearts with a gel pen in their places instead.  Don’t forget that you can always work with your mistakes.

In the end you have to go through a process of inking up your work and trying it out to see if you need to fix any parts or clear out certain areas.  I like the grungy look of a hand-carved stamp and sometimes keep it very loose on purpose.  Stamping with rubber stamp type inks worked okay, but wetting a bit of distress ink was nice also.  I tried to use some paint but it was a bit too thick, so I think the trick is finding the right consistency for whatever you use to stamp. I ended up with a bunch of random stamping all over to test colors and consistencies. Either way it was fun to think of an image, get it carved out and then printed…so satisfying! I hope you will give carving a try as well…even if it’s just a little heart to stamp on the outside of your envelopes – that would make cute mail art I think I’m going to do that now with a cork!

Of course, here in Italy it is a pretty costly process.  I can’t even mention how much because it’s pretty ridiculous, but I had gone ahead with it for the first time just to try it out at least once.  There are other options online, but I seem to have problems receiving mail from outside Europe.  I had made some orders from the USA in June and still haven’t received them – probably lost in customs or Italian mail limbo.  Sigh.

I decided it would be better to carve my own stamps given the situation.  Just posted some photos of my first linoleum carving and printing attempt on my Flickr. Still learning, but it’s pretty darn cool to transform a piece of rubber into a cool design.  Now I’m thinking of what to carve next…

The carving process was very mesmerizing and addictive.  Even though I don’t have super control over the carving tools just yet and sometimes judgments were off, I found the process enjoyable overall.  It was just so satisfying to see a blank block of linoleum being shaped into my own design.  Wow – I did that!  I almost can’t believe it myself, but really it does not require a detailed design of any sort.  I imagine it would have probably been better to start with a simpler design!

I know you are supposed to do some test prints and probably fix up the design a bit, but of course I got impatient after a hot day of carving madly.  I decided to use my rubber ink pad to do a test print, but there wasn’t nearly enough ink to make a really nice print.  So finally I spread out a bunch of scrap paper and prepared to make a real lino print, spreading the ink with a brayer and using different papers to test out prints.  I realized that it’s a lot harder than it looks in tutorials.  I have such bad control over how much ink is applied.  My prints were really light, really dark and smudged in various spots.  I am thinking that missing a piece of glass to spread ink evenly onto might be one culprit.  I also realized I shouldn’t have bought cheap linoleum sheets that are pretty thin because it probably would have helped to have a thicker block when printing without a press.  Well, it’s all in the process of experimentation and learning!

I did end up with a bunch of custom printed stationery in the end, which I will use and treasure for their uniqueness nevertheless!  I’m actually thinking I might still do some refining with the carving tools and then test on more papers and with different inks.  It’s definitely fun to have something custom that you can print on anything, not just paper.  Ooo, the possibilities!