#30Pages30Days Page 18 March 18 Carving Pink Bubblegum

#30Pages30Days Page 18 March 18

Sktchy Challenge: Make your own stamp or stencil.

This is suppose to be a baby possum, but to me it looks more like a porcupine. Studying "using stamps as design elements". This looks more like an "element" than a design. 

This is Patty Possum. NOT to be confused with Possum Patty. This was a fun exercise even if I spent over a half an hour just trying to get the Speedball carver blades changed and resorted to just grabbing the blade and carving without the handle! AND the old blades must be very dull because it felt like trying to carve rubbery, stretchy pink bubblegum.

The fun can be seen here: 

News from the mushroom - stencil

News from the Mushroom - hand-made stencil

Materials: I did not have a roll of acetate on hand but I did save the acetate sheets that some stickers came on, so I used those to make the stencils. I used a Styrofoam meat tray as a cutting board. And I did not have an X-acto knife, so I used the flat blade on my Speedball lino cutter.

First, I sketched out some mushroom shapes in my journal. Then it was time to trace the patterns on the acetate. It was hard finding something that marked on the plastic. After several experiments, I found this silver Sharpie worked well.

For this big mushroom with the little one attached, I made two separate stencils.

I carefully cut out the shapes with the Speedball lino cutter using the old Styrofoam tray as the cutting mat.

I used tape to hold the stencil in place. I inked the mushroom using a StazOn ink pad. This is a lovely orange one.

On the smaller mushroom, I used yellow ink first and then a bit of the orange to get a lighter stem and cap.

I repeated the process with the other two mushrooms using a light and a dark green ink pad.

For the background, I added just a touch of watercolor. 

News from the Mushroom - stamp

 

"News from the Mushroom"

Hand-made stamp - Here's my process!

I used a Speedball lino cutter and a sheet of Speedball Speedy-Carve.

I sketched a group of mushrooms right on the Speedy-carve with a pencil.

I inked the sheet before cutting, it makes the process easier. I just opened the stamp pad and rubbed it right on the sheet and then wiped off the excess. I started with the wide blade and cut away the background. Afterwards, I used the smaller blades for finer details.

When I was happy with the stamp, I cut away the excess with scissors.

I used two colors of Memento Ink for my first stamping. 

One for the stems and one for the 'shroom tops.

I actually inked the stamp and put it right side up on the bird page to the right. Then I closed the page on the left over it. I rubbed the page really well with my fingers and the heel of my hand.

Voila! I think I will leave the extra marks. I like the texture.

I added the words with a store-bought letter stamp set.