A New Crusade

Ok, let's try this again...stinkin' internet swallowed my post and I was ALMOST FINISHED!

Michelle Ward has posted her newest Street Team Crusade (#18) and I was thrilled to see that it is all about carving your own rubber stamps!  Now, faithful readers will remember that I did a mini tutorial on this last August during ArtsyMama's blog party.  For simplicity's sake, I am just going to repost it here.

The one thing I love about carving stamps is that you don't need much, just a drawing, a carving tool with a "V" and a "U" shape blade and a carving block (Staedtler has one called Mastercarve).  That's it. 

1.  Transfer your drawing to the carving block by tracing the outline of your drawing with a soft lead pencil.  Lay the drawing face down on the carving block (remembering that the image will be reversed) and gently burnish the design onto the block with your finger.

2.  Using the "V" blade, carve out the outline of your design and the finer details.  Keep in mind, that anything you want printed needs to remain uncarved.  Then use the "U" blade to clear the large areas that you do not want outside of your design.

3.  I find it best to cut away the excess from the outside of the design with a pair of scissors, just to make it easier to handle, and to minimize the "sketch lines" that sometimes happen with handcarving.

That's it, seriously.  Simple silhouettes and drawings with large open areas work best for carving, at least when starting out.  Though once you get the hang of it, you can get quite a few details in your stamps. Personally, I think Mastercarve is suited better to large, simple drawings, as it cuts VERY easily, so you have to maintain a large amount of control. I used it for the large silhouette of the woman.  Speedball has a pink carving block that I really love (I used it for the pumpkin and the reindeer and the small female silhouette).  Stampeaz makes an orange colored block that is rather dense, and it works great too.  These are great for making ATCs, cards and for use in art journals.  I even carved the car for my son's birthday party announcements.  You will also notice that some of the stamped images show the rough lines of the areas that were cut away...I think that just adds to the character of a hand-carved stamp.

Now one other thing if you love handcarved stamps...there is a hobby that is rather secretive (in that you just don't hear much about it) called Letterboxing.  In brief, letterboxing is a scavenger hunt that can take you to some of the most fun and beautiful, but out of the way, parks and historic places across the country.  A letterbox is a small hidden box that contains a log book, a hand-carved stamp and maybe an ink pad.  The letterbox hunter makes themselves a kit containing their own hand-carved "signature stamp", a log book, a stamp pad, a compass and some basic safety equipment (bug repellant, band-aids, etc--this is an outdoor hobby and you never know what kind of environment you will be required to enter in order to hunt for a box).  Going to the letterbox web-site (see link above) gains you clues to 100s of letterboxes across the US.  Using basic compass reading skills, you will use the clues to track down the box, which is usually hidden amoung stone walls, fallen trees or clumps of grass.  When you find a letterbox, you stamp the box's image into your log book, then stamp your signature stamp into their logbook, return everything as you found it and then go on your merry way. 

My husband and I started doing this sporadically a couple of years ago.  It is a fun hobby that doesn't require much in the way of money or time and can be done while we travel or just right in our own "backyard".   Here's a page from my log book of my very first find.  The thrill in this hobby is the finding of a unique, hand-carved stamp image.  The great scenery and occassional history lesson are just great big bonuses!

So there you have it, my two-cents on carving stamps.  Hope you will go visit Michelle's site if you are not a regular reader...she is bound to have dozens of other artists posting links to their own hand-carved creations.  Thanks again Michelle for another fun crusade!

Comments

[Vivian M]

I love your stamps, especially the Bumblebee. Thanks for stopping by my blog, too.

[iHanna]

Great stamps, I think the letterboxing sounds like fun too. Wonder if it exists in Sweden? Have to check it out.

[Michelle Brown]

Great stamps! Thanks for the information on Letterboxing too! I wonder if there are any close by...
Michelle Brown
Melbourne Australia
http://aztecmichelle.wordpress.com/

[johanna]

i like them all but the bee is my favorite!!

[Ingrid Dijkers]

Very nice stamps. I especially like your bee stamp. Wonderful tutorial also!
Best-
Ingrid

[Diane]

Love your stamps for the crusade. I, too, am a big fan of letterboxing. I got started with it a couple of years ago (a great activity for with my boys) and have a stamp carved and waiting to be placed but we haven't done it in awhile. Thanks for the reminder about a great hobby.

[Kim Tedrow]

Wonderful tips for carving, and that letterbox hunt sounds FASCINATING. I hope there are some in Nebraska... -Kim

[Julie]

Lots of tips here Dawn and I love the idea of doing silhouettes. May have a go at that if I get time.

Thanks for sharing

:)

[Ursula Clamer]

I too would think the thrill would be finding those hand carved stamps. Yours are great. Ux

[ArtKat]

Your handcarved stamps are great, I love them all! Thanks so much for the carving tutorial! :)

[Laurie Blau-Marshall]

Ooh, I love the owl and the bee! I got some great ideas looking at your stuff. Thanks for the tips and tutorial. I will be visiting again for a refresher after I get my supplies.

That letterboxing sounds cool - except for the need for bug spray and the compass thing. I could never get the hang of it in Girl Scouts...

Thanks!
Laurie

[Pam]

Neat to link this to letterboxing... it IS fun and I've tried it only once though. I think it started in England. Everyone should try it at least once. There are several sites on the internet about it. What fun, I kind of forgot about since I'd tried it a couple of years ago...thanks for the reminder!
Pam

[audrey h.]

Dawn...your carved stamps are too cool :o) I still gotta do mine for the crusade...off to ponder. Hope you are having a fantastic weekend!

[Julie Molina]

That Letterbox thing is SO COOL!
I'm going to check it out now!

I was inspired by your little owl stamp.

[Lisa Hoffman]

Dawn,

This is a great post!
Love the straight-forward tutorial. Letterboxing? wow. Sounds VERY cool. Who knew?...um, You.
well done.

Lisa H.

[Cath S]

Every time I see a post that mentions letter-boxing I think "cool" but get no further than that ;-) I especially like the owl stamp you carved - he looks like fun.

[Tally Oliveau]

ok - that letterboxing sounds really cool, but the reading a companss thing...rules me out!

[Marble Blue]

I have never heard of letterboxing - I love this idea!!! Thanks for sharing this and your amazing carvings (love the pumpkin & reindeer)

[Julie Prichard]

Your stamps look great and thank you for including your tutorial! The more tips the better!

[Fiona]

Very useful tutorial. As a complete beginner in this area I'll try and make good use of it!

[hedwig]

Hi Dawn,

what a beautifull stamps you made!!! And what a great treasure hunt with the letterbox. Sounds fantastic!
ThanX for sharing,
Hedwig

[Maj]

WOW! Letterboxing is a real cool idea! Sound like fun to go hunting for a box in onknown spaces... a little like the treasure hunts of my childhood.

[*Heidi*]

I've just recently read (online...somewhere) about letter-boxing. Sounds fun. I tried making my own stamp: once. Never got back to that, but it was fun!

[Dawn]

Just a side note about the silhouette stamps...I took old ancestor photographs and traced the profiles to make the stamps.

[michelle ward]

Dawn - what a great post! Thanks for revisiting the carving stuff for the benefit of the Street Team. Terrific images - I especially love those portrait silhouettes. I appreciate how you share the details of our preferences. And Letterboxing - so cool that you have done it. I've been aware of it but never have gotten involved. Hmmm...something to look into. Thanks again Dawn.