100 Days of Hand-Carved Stamps: Week 1 Update

 

My 100 Days of Hand Carved Stamps project has officially kicked off and I am having an absolute blast! Not only am I having lots of fun, but I am learning so much with each daily carving and stamping session! Once I start stamping, new patterns start to emerge, hence why you'll see lots of printed variations for each day. Read on to learn more about the first week's worth of hand-carved stamps and the patterns they inspired...

1/100: Square/Lines

“I had as many doubts as anyone else. Standing on the starting line, we're all cowards.”

― Alberto Salazar, Cuban-American former track coach and long-distance runner

Kicking off my 100 Days of Hand-Carved Stamps with lines. This simple block design yields lots of design possibilities once you start playing with ghost prints and overlapping designs!!

2/100: Artist's Choice + Pattern/Repetition

"If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing."

-Marc Chagall, French Artist

Creating from the heart today by carving two new stamps. What a fun pair with lots of design potential. 

I even created a Valentine's Day card for my special Valentine...💟

3/100: Triangle/Lines

My first triangle carved stamp called for a spirangle design!

I was spirangling out of control with the printing process!!

4/100: Skinny Rectangle/Artist's Choice

"As a creative, you have to be your truest form. You can't worry about fitting into whatever boxes people want to put you in."

-Kenya Barris, American film and television writer, producer, director, and actor

Oooh--these boxes offer so many design possibilities, including check boxes for tomorrow's to-do list!!

5/100: Square/Text

I've been wanting to carve my own tjap to use on my quilted projects. Today's dice roll provided the perfect opportunity to create a carved design that incorporates my initials and elements from my business logo.

Here are my sketches for my carved tjap featuring elements from my business logo. The central gap was larger than I had anticipated, so I sliced the square stamp in half and trimmed each half down slightly making it a tighter design.

It looks great stamped out in a grid format in coordinating brand colors, as well as rotated around a central point using ghost prints. 

I was excited to use it to label my next quilt finish: Bling It On!!

6/100:  Skinny/Text

"Peace is when time doesn't matter as it passes by."

-Maria Schell, Austrian Actress

Experiencing peace as I carved out the word Peace to wrap around a previously carved Peace symbol.

7/100: Artist's Choice/Artist's Choice

"No pressure, no diamonds."

-Thomas Carlyle, Scottish Philosopher

Carving a special stamp to use with my entry for Project Quilting Mining for Diamonds Challenge. Sharing a sneak peek of it stamped on fabric using Lumiere Super Sparkle by Jacquard Products.

Of course, I also printed on paper to showcase the other pattern potential of this small, yet mighty stamp!

Here are all 7 carved blocks from the first week. I stamp each on a 3x5 Index Card so I can have a catalog of all my carved stamp designs for future reference. Soon I will need to figure out a way to store all the stamps as I've outgrown my little plastic container already!!

Check back in for more weekly updates as I continue carving and printing!!