Holiday Cards Set 1 are Ready!

This card design is simple: 2 hand-carved stamps and 2 colors of pigment ink. The message inside says, "Peace on Earth." If you want to see more pictures, they are in the Blue Cake and Buttercup shop.

Holiday Cards in Process

The floor is covered with tiny bits of paper. This is a sign that I've been snipping, snipping, snipping. I feel like Edward Scissorhands and the shrubs.

So here are some holiday cards in development:

First, the ones on the right started out great, but ended up in the "dud" pile. Mod podge wrinkles stuff. Dang. The ones on the left have promise, but are in need of a better adhesive with all those tiny parts.


I got the notion today that I wanted to do some kind of hand printed cards. So I began by choosing a color scheme. Happily, between Hobby Lobby and Michaels, I found pigment inks to match the colors I wanted.


Then I fiddled around with some sketches for hand carved stamps. I started with a poinsettia-like flower.

Then a few holiday birds. I prefer the two smaller ones, but it was fun making the giant one. For these stamps, I used Mastercarve. The final results are next to the bird stamps. I like the look of the layered inks.

I finally got around to finalizing several designs for Gocco prints, some 2 color and a one-color design. Here's the one-color...although the type may be a 2nd color if I can make it work.

The finished products will be available soon at Blue Cake and Buttercup!

More Crafty Goodness

Elsie*Cake's Online Class is so great. It has inspired me to try and re-try all kinds of crafts. Here are some of the results:

Hand Carved Stamps: Carving Blocks Review

So far I've tried: MasterCarve by Staedtler, Speedy Carve (also called Speedy Stamp?) by Speedball, and SpeedyCut by Speedball. Here are the results of my *very* beginning carving skills on the three different blocks.


A general review of the process: This is really hard! DANG! One tip: when making curves, turn the stamp and keep the cutting tool still. I'll post a tutorial soon.

Keeping in mind that I'm a beginner and carving for stamping, not for printing purposes AND that I'm not mounting these guys AND that the lino blocks seem scary to me, here is my review.

Review of the 3 blocks:

Mastercarve:

Cost: about $5.50 online for a 4x6 block.

Pros: very soft and easy to cut. Also, really thick. Some folks say you can carve on both sides. The white is pleasant.

Cons: too soft, really...not much crumbling but so easy to cut too much.

Speedy Carve by Speedball

Cost: about $5.00 for a 4x6 block.

Pros: harder to cut, but not too hard. Carvings came out better, maybe because I had more practice but I also felt like I had more control.

Cons: I don't like the pink and I don't like how thin it is. I felt like I might cut all the way through by mistake.

Speedy Cut by Speedball

Cons: So crumbly!

Pros: cheap! About 2.50 for a 4x6 block.

So that's what I've tried so far.