January Adventures

Times have been busy lately (hence my reduced posting on here). Little P is actually a small child now and not a baby at all. I talk to her like anyone else, and she responds just like anyone else. That girl can talk. And she remembers everything... which is great, but also troublesome, as she holds me to every 'promise' I make. Days are fun, but absolutely exhausting - she has bucket loads of bouncy energy, and the rest of us just try to keep up with the pace.
Crafting time is reduced to evenings when she has finally dropped off to sleep, and the occasional weekend dabble, in amongst other household duties. Of course I have been crocheting, mainly in the evenings whilst watching the telly, but I have also really got into carving rubber stamps.
I have always liked stamps, and have had a few kicking about for a while. Some were rubber ones, other clear cling stamps. I like them, but making my own is something else. I've also always enjoyed doodling... flowers, mandalas, typography etc etc. This goes hand in hand with stamp carving, and I can bring my doodles to life - well into rubber form, to be used again and again.
A while back I dabbled in lino printing. I say 'dabble' as I found it pretty tough going - lino blocks are so hard to cut! But I did find the possibilities endless and exciting. I also saw a tip recently, telling you to heat your lino block with an iron for a while to soften it up - this would help a lot, so maybe I'll re-dabble at some point! Whilst researching lino printing ideas, I came across the whole rubber stamp carving scene. Basically the same process as lino printing, but with soft rubber blocks. I ordered some Speedy Carve rubber block online as I couldn't find any in stores. It is a very soft, pink rubber block, thick enough to use without mounting. It is not overly cheap here in the UK, but worth every penny, and I'm careful how I use it - keeping all the little offcuts for future use!
I will collate some pictures of the stamps I have made so far, and hopefully you will be able to notice some progress in my carving ability! My first major project was the Christmas 'Thank You' cards to be sent from Little P. I had various ideas kicking about in my mind, but eventually settled on this idea...

I sketched various birds, trees, bunting triangles and speech bubbles, but decided on this simple idea. I played around with lots of colour variations with me new stamp pads...

The ones in the bottom picture are called Color Box Queue pigment ink pads or 'cat's eyes'... a great way to get a lot of colours in small amounts... and a lot cheaper than buying individual stamp pads. The top ones are VersaColor pigment pads in various shades (perfect for multicolour stamping) and Jet Black StazOn - a permanent solvent based ink that gives a great print.
Using the StazOn and the Color Box cat's eyes, I made a whole host of 'Thank You' cards...

I particularly liked this one...

I also carved a 'block of lines' stamp to make it easier to write on the back...

Amongst my research and pinning on my 'Stampage' Pinterest board, I have discovered some inspirational people...
- Geninne  D. Zlatkis and her amazing book 'Making and Impression'
- Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and her awesome book I received yesterday 'Carve, Stamp, Play'
- Christine Schmidt of Yellow Owl Workshop and her book 'Yellow Owl's Litle Prints'
and finally...
- Mizutamahanco, a Japanese (hope I got that right?!) eraser-carver and illustrator, who is simply awesome. Her skills are second to none, and she makes it look so easy. I have 2 of her books, but I have no idea what they are called or anything as it's all in Japanese - but I wanted it for the pictures!

I follow all these creative-beings blogs and Instagram feeds, and it fills me up with inspiration.
Some of my books...

Mizutama's illustrations....

After swooning over Mizutama's stamp carving, I wanted to try using some proper Japanese rubber carving block... the thick ones, often with another layer of rubber over the surface. I had to order from afar (this shop on Etsy called LoveSprouts) and have it shipped here. At around £7 a block (14cm x 10cm) it's a bit pricey, but then there is the shipping on top of that.

My LoveSprouts order, with free plain stickers to stamp!

And the lovely Mizutama rubber blocks...

Was it lovely to carve? Yes. Does it add an extra 'neatness' to my stamps? Yes. Is it worth all the money and shipping costs? Probably not... and I won't be having it very often at all. I have ordered some different Japanese rubber blocks from this Etsy shop, and am eagerly waiting their arrival. They are thick blocks (still 1cm) but not the brand name, and come in larger sheets, which makes it all a bit more viable. Let's see if they are nice to carve or not... I do love the SpeedyCarve, but it is a lot thinner, at 5mm.
I had a little play with the nice, thick Japanese rubber blocks and had some nice results. Here's a little taster of my adventures...

Rubbish light... and it was daylight too.

I also have made a series of interchangeable plant and cactus stamps - I tried some cacti on a card too...

I made some pots, and different plants, some sketched by me, and some using Geninne's templates in her book. I love being able to mix and match them all, great fun!
I'm so in love with stamping, I find it so relaxing to actually do, and love the endless possibilities and creativity of it all. I have been thinking about maybe doing 'A Stamp A Day'. Obviously, it would not be practical for me to get all my carving stuff out every day to carve a stamp, but maybe do it as an average - so make sure I get 7 done in a week. I have so many ideas that I think this could work out quite well!
I'm also loving crocheting a blanket again. After the rush of festive crochet, I needed to do something different. I have been longing to make a blanket again... the gentle repeating rows, so therapeutic. A while back I had seen a pattern I liked for a mixed strip blanket and I stored it away somewhere in my 'I want to make this one day' file. Then I noticed again cropping up in various places, including The Patchwork Heart's Instagram feed. That was all it took to get me started on my own version. I'm using the 'as we go stripey blanket' pattern from Not Your Average Crochet, and a few colours of Stylecraft Special DK yarn. It's a well written pattern, and looks great, but it's not such a rhythmic blanket, due to all the colour changes, different stitches and hook sizes, but it is a fun one. I've done a few rows, and managed to get a couple of pictures whilst the sun was out today...

Lots of pinks and purples for Little P.

Oh I do love my crochet. It's been about 2 years since I first taught myself, and I have never looked back. It's opened up new crafty avenues too, and really brought out my creative side. Thank you crochet. Now I must be off, bed is calling, so until next time...thanks for stopping by :)

Better Late Than Never...

Well, it's been a while (43 days to be precise) since I last sat down and typed up a post. In that time, Christmas has been and gone, and 2014 is in full swing It's been a busy period... but also very enjoyable. Having a little one about the place certainly brings out the festivity in yourself! It feels too late to be talking too much about Christmas, as things are just getting back to normal and into the usual routine, but I have a few photos to show of some of my festive makes - I took these pics way back before Christmas, but haven't had a chance to do much with them!
First up are the cards I made. It's the first time I have made my Christmas cards, and I am pleased to say I will be doing so again. I don't have a huge amount to make so it is pretty manageable. The hardest part is deciding what to do... crochet motifs? stamping? embellishments? I went mainly for printing with lino block shapes, but did have a handful adorned with buttons and pretty papers...

The lino printed selection made from a simple triangle and snowflake shape...

And some fancy button work...

I was pleased with both types of card - I love the low-tech effect of the printing, and the fact it's imperfect... but I also rather like the simplicity and neatness of the paper/button ones. Who knows what I'll create next year?!

I also decided to make some of my tags and wrapping paper (by make, I mean decorate!) I bought a roll of brown wrapping paper and some plain tags in red and brown and a few supplies from The Homemakery to pretty them up. The tags were a mix of washi tapes, stamps and fabric tape. Here's a few of my favourites...

And then there is the wrapping paper... I have discovered a great new creative outlet for myself - stamp carving. Yep, taking blocks of rubber and carving my own stamps ready to print with inks. The possibilities are endless, and I really love it, from the designing phase and carving, right through to the end product. I have been doing a lot of this recently and will write more about it at some point soon. To start with, I carved simple shapes - a Christmas tree was used for the wrapping paper. The rubber used for carving stamps is so much easier than cutting lino blocks. It's more expensive obviously, but well worth it, and normal stamp pads work great, whereas lino blocks need a proper printing ink.
Lino block printing definitely still has a place for certain things, but at the moment rubber stamp carving is where it's at for me! So here is my first attempt at carving a Speedball Speedycarve block (the pink stuff) to make wrapping paper...

I was chuffed with it, and it has sparked a whole new line of interest, bordering obsession, but like I said, more to come another day.

Things have been quiet on the crochet front since Christmas, but the build up was fairly full of it. I promised a picture of my Christmas bunting and star garland in situ - the light is rather poor in the lounge and it never gets better, so I took the best ones I could and brightened them up on my laptop to try and make them look more true to life...

I got quite a few nice comments on the bunting, and have already started on a 'Merry' to hang above it next year. I thought I better start it now so that I have yarn from the same batch and don't forget exactly how I made it, although I'm not exactly into crocheting Christmas things in January!

The stars also looked rather sweet on the fireplace...

It's been a grey few days here, and it's getting colder too... but I did manage to get out and take a couple of photos in the garden. I absolutely love the pinky-white flowers on the Viburnum bushes at this time of year... a little bit of fresh colour in an otherwise bleak garden...

And a couple of others just because...

After a busy Christmas period, it's quite nice to get back into routine. Little P is so much better when she has familiar routine, and everything goes back to functioning that little bit better. I am also back to limited crafting time now, but any time I've had I have been busy designing and making stamps to make some Thank You cards for Little Lady's Christmas presents. They are all made now, and just need writing up at some point! Then I'll probably get back to crocheting (Little P wants a Hello Kitty toy) and showing my stamp carving efforts. But until next time, I must be off - I'm watching Sherlock and it's getting interesting!