Carve, Stamp, Play Workshop

This week I did not manage to enter the challenge; with the new job and trying to get adjusted to getting up around 5 in the morning, the week just got away from me.

I did manage to create a few carvings and prints for the Carve Stamp Play Workshop based on Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's book (her blog here):

The Flowers:

I think I mentioned here I wanted to create a coloring sheet with the flower carvings.  I did just that, and scanned it so I can print it in whatever paper I want and have fun painting or coloring it in.

Stamped flowers and leaves

Outlined flowers and leaves and added shapes to the background

It will be a lot of fun painting or coloring it in :)

Interlocking stamps - abstract shapes:

These are rather small stamps but I had a lot of fun with them.  The idea is to create two stamps to work together.  So, this is what I came up with:

Something simple:  background color (right) and shape outline (left)
I wanted to create them so I could use them together or separately

So, I tried printing them with different colors to practice aligning them, and to see which color combinations I liked.

Then I had fun :)

Both together in same cases, and then separately

... and even more fun!!

Same print after adding watercolors, pen and ink, and colored pencil

Patterns with a simple carving:

The idea was to use a simple carving and use it to create different patterns.  I decided to carve a leaf and created these patterns, although I could keep going :).  I haven't had the time to play with this leaf yet, but the little carved away spots inside of the leaf will be fun to paint or color, or even tangle in.

One Fish, Two Fish...

The purpose of this lesson was to carve a stamp that printed multiple times will create a continuous pattern.  I decided to do something different here... to create a tessellation Escher-like (or rather, the same type; his are amazing and fabulous!!).

So, I went online and created a tessellation, carved it, and added some designs inside.  I started with one fish, but it was really hard to print it and get everything aligned, so... I carved a second fish :)

Fish one (left) and fish two :)

Then, printed them together to form my tessellation:

The values are too close together so it is a bit hard on your eyes :)

And had some fun with a card:

All fish outlined
the darker ones had the carved away shapes painted with shimmering watercolors,
the lighter ones had the background lightly colored with coloring pencil

I think these are easier on the eyes.  I know I will have a lot of fun with these fish!  I'm already have an idea for a bigger piece.