Hand carved stamp - #CARVEDECEMBER

I wanted to carve another snowflake stamp (I carved 2 a few years ago).  I started out folding a piece of paper, cutting it and then unfolding it.  Then used a similar design for my stamp.

For some reason the paper looked cool, but when I first printed my stamp it looked really ugly and not like a snowflake at all!  I was really disappointed!

When I was about to forget all about the stamp, I thought it might look cool if I printed over it, but with it rotated 60 degrees.  Aha!!!  Now I actually like it!!  At it will always look different, that's for sure!

Top:  Left - stamp; Middle - 1 print (ugly); 2 prints (better!)
Bottom: prints of different colors with black outline

Challenge #247 and New Stencils Gel Printed

Challenge #247 - African Artist by Tina-Akua Hunziker

This week's challenge (here) was to use Tina's tangle "African Artist".  I had to keep looking at the step-by-step instructions to make sure I got it.  Even so, I messed up on this one, but decided to post the first attempt, anyway.

I also am not that thrilled with the tile; it feels very heavy to me.  Oh well... better luck next time :).  I did enjoy the tangle after a while, and am definitely going to try it in different ways to see if it doesn't feel so heavy.

New Stencils Gel Printed

You might have seen the stencil I designed and cut last week; I decided to do another one this week and then try both on the gel plate.

I had a lot of fun with them, and took a lot more prints than I had intended.  Isn't that always the case with the gel plate?  It is for me as I keep thinking "what if" I did this or that, and next thing you know I have prints all over the place :).

Here are some of the prints:

Stencil designed and cut last week

New stencil drawn and cut this week

Challenge # 246 and Newly Designed and Cut Stencil

Challenge # 246 - Monotangle Trees

This week's challenge was a wonderful guest post by Dilip Patel (here).  I could spend hours on this one and try all different things, but since instead of hours, I have minutes... I went with a Bijou tile (2x2 inches).

Newly Designed and Cut Stencil

I have been thinking about designing a stencil of a repeat pattern.  So, on Sunday, I went at it and this is what I came up with.  I think I will have a lot of fun with this one.

Started out with a print from a hand-carved stamp (bottom right), trying different things on graph paper, seeing what would work as a stencil, and finally drawing the piece (top left) to be copied over and over to make up the complete design.

This is what the stencil looks like after the first test (it is 4x4 inches).  It took me forever to get each of the little pieces out - apparently I didn't press hard enough with my x-acto blade.

This is what my first print looks like (using the stencil 4 times, of course).  I also outlined all the shapes with black ink, just so I could see the pattern better.

Then I started thinking what would happen if I were to go into some of those bigger white shapes and "cut out" the inside.  I haven't done it on the stencil (yet!), just wanted to see what it would be like.  So I drew the shapes, and painted then with some of the acrylic paints I had used with the stencil.  I like it, but drawing/painting them and cutting them out are 2 very different things, so I'm still thinking if I will attempt it or not.