i made a stamp

and you can, too!

this all started with loving

hand carved stamps on etsy.

riyo kihara's shop talk to the sun

is by far my favorite.

i have several of her stamps & stamp pads.

riyo is a contributor to this book,

called stamp it!

which i found at my library

the book making an impression

was even more helpful.

this one was found via inter-library loan.

i bought two things at the art supply store:
1. a lino cutter, $12

2. a carving block, $3

a peek at making an impression

cutting my block to size

making my design,

then tracing it onto tracing paper

rubbing the traced design onto the block

{face down so it's a mirror image}

carving my design

first stamp...

made a few tweaks...

made a few more tweaks...

done!

i had planned to carve the entire stamp

into a circle, but i really like the way

the circle-in-square looks.

a few things i learned:

curves are more difficult than straight lines.

the speedy-cut block is SO soft,

which i didn't think would be a problem,

but was very easy to nick and crumble.

next time, i'll try something more durable,

like speedy-carve.

so cool, no?

i'm so excited to try more designs!

♥