Three Arty Things

I carved a couple of stamps yesterday.  It reminded me of a few I had carved a few years ago, so I stamped them all to show you.

I carved them out of thick rubber.  I don’t know what it’s called but you buy it at craft stores.  There is a section that sells these rubber blocks, carving tools, brayers and ink for printing.  I used a carving tool, but all I have is the small one, so when it got to cutting out the larger areas I used an exacto knife.  Basically, all there is to it is to print out the design you want, color it all over the back with a pencil, then trace it onto the rubber.  Then cut away everything that isn’t in the design.  Of course, you could draw your design on if you want to.  The two I did yesterday are the winged heart and the little journaling block with lines. EDIT:  Since I posted this Melanie Sage was kind enough to send me a link for the rubber to carve. It is called EZ Cut or Mastercarve.  Here’s the link.

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It’s hard to tell what this picture is the way I took it.  These are four coasters/tiles laying on my dining table. So the wood grain is the table in the background.  These are tiles, like white bathroom tile, I bought at a home improvement store for 16 cents each.  I coated them with the blender solution for alcohol inks.  Then immediately dripped alcohol inks on them.  It is hard to create a specific look because sometimes they ooze out a lot and sometimes not as much.  But they’re pretty, I think with the bright colors and abstract kind of floral look.

These are my two drawings for the past two days.  I’m telling you – I am not liking this.  I am trying to push myself out of my comfort zone and it is, indeed, very uncomfortable.