spring banners

 I finished my project

- that's always a good feeling!

spring banners

stamped using my own carved stamps

tea bag papers

vintage book pages

watercolor paint

machine stitched

strung on sisal twine

only $18

(a shameless plug)

spring banners and the super moon

what I'm working on today:

more spring banners for my shop

(seen here in the "hanging out to dry stage")

I use my own hand carved rubber stamp designs

hand paint them

and adhere them to teabag papers

(I'll show you the finished banners when I'm done)

and the super moon as I saw it this morning at 5:30:

printed fabric

I played around a little with one of my hand carved stampsI really like creating a repeating pattern with it


and then I thought it would look great on fabricI used some flour sack towels I had picked up a few months agothey're big - and the loose weave soaks up the paint readilyI used an unevenly mixed orange and yellow combo of acrylic paintwithout mixing the two colors perfectly, I got a nice variation of color


then was the question, "what to make with it?"








the Japanese crane .... bird of happiness .... and symbol of peace

rubber stamps

I have a small collection of my own carved rubber stampsand yesterday I wanted to carve a crow


only problem was, the rubber had become brittle and was impossible to carveafter a little bit of research, I found out that a non-petroleum oil will recondition the rubber(what I use for stamps is rubber gasket material from the hardware storeit comes in 6 inch square sheets that I cut into fourths)long story short ... I used coconut oil to recondition the rubberin fact I reconditioned my four other stamps as well... just a little helpful tip for my stamping friends :)(p.s. I think vegetable shortening would work just as well)

spring banner

using my hand carved rubber stamps in the previous post

I made this banner

and it's on Etsy

 :)

see you on Tuesday!

carved stamps

I made my own stamps 

using rubber gasket material from the hardware store 

and a speedball linoleum cutter

***

there's a great tutorial on this over at Genine's Art Blog

carve your own

I saw this technique over on Annette Quirke's blog a few weeks ago and knew it was something I HAD to do! She has an amazing collection of her own carved stamps - and they're so colorful from much loving use - they look like candy.

This is what I needed to give it a try. I already had the Speedball cutter - and the erasers were found in the stationery department of my grocery store. Gotta love that! Geninne's Art Blog has a great tutorial if you're interested in trying it too!