Whew! It took me a little bit to get back to this, but I'm finally catching up and closing out Carve December 2015. You can see Part 1 here, and below is the rest of the month.
To follow my jellyfish, I added a regular fishy:
My fishy needed a little something to swim around in, so I made a few sea plants next.
Next I took a break from sea creatures and did a fun circular flower stamp. I like the ones that can be used by themselves, but also make a great repeating pattern.
Then I went back to the sea for one of my favorites... a seahorse. He was hard, but I love him!
The next few I carved at my parents' house in Virginia - my mom was telling me about a star for a Christmas tree that she'd seen somewhere and it brought an image into my head. Not at all what she had seen, of course... lol.
While I was in Virginia, I was working remote during the day and then doing Christmas stuff and spending time with my family, so I missed a few days... but I managed to get a few done while I was there! I don't remember the exact inspiration for this one, but I think it was architectural:
This one was inspired by a Christmas card someone had sent to my mom, plus seeing other people carve snowflake stamps this way. Why carve the whole thing when you can repeat? Plus, this works as a border now too. My 5-year old niece and 4-year old nephew were fascinated by this process... I gave both of them scraps of rubber and a tool and showed them how to carve a line and they had a blast! Plus, no cut fingers!
Another quarter repeat stamp... always some of my favorites. This was just from my imagination.
This next one was loosely inspired by an accent on a necklace I saw in a store display. It morphed into a weirdly amoebic sort of thing with bubbles. I kind of dig it too!
I missed a few more days traveling back to Utah, including a night where I got stranded in Chicago due to a delay that caused me to miss my connection, which happened to be the last available flight back to Salt Lake. Naturally, they wouldn't give me my bags but handed me a new plane ticket and a toiletry pack. At least I could brush my teeth, I guess! It would have been an ideal opportunity to carve, but alas, no such luck.
I got home the afternoon of New Year's Eve and finished the day working remote, then closed out the year carving a set of numbers.
That's it! Here's a shot of all of the stamps I carved in December... I'm feeling pretty impressed with myself!
I pushed myself with the designs I carved and I can definitely see an improvement. Now I just need to use these puppies... and carve some more, of course! Here's part 1 again, just in case you missed it and want to check it out. In that post I also go over the tools and rubber I've been using for those who have been asking. This was lots of fun, and I'm already looking forward to next year!
Hi Gwen,
I love your work, which I saw on Pinterest.
I wanted to ask you if you like to be a member of our RAPS group. It's a quarterly hand carved rubber stamp exchange that has been going on non-stop since 1992. You can check out examples on my Pinterest board... https://www.pinterest.com/doneclarke/raps/
Take care!
Don
Posted by: Don Clarke | October 19, 2016 at 02:39 PM
Hi Don,
Thanks so much for the invite! Looks like a lot of great work happening in the group from what's on your board. Do you have more information about it? How it works, etc...? You can message me on Facebook if that works - https://www.facebook.com/gwenythlafleur
Thanks!
Gwen
Posted by: Gwen Lafleur | October 20, 2016 at 10:26 AM