Trying something new...

I admit I am somewhat resistant to change, like a mountain. I don't mind change VERY SLOWLY, over years, or centuries perhaps... but this weekend I decided that among other things (wait for the Halloween Party post later this week, I have a lot of photos to sift through on that one), I tried a new craft! I have been wanting to try handcarving stamps for a long time. When I started my Flickr account a ways back, I started seeing a ton of super cute hand carved stamps and I wanted my own.

I went over to Staples about a month ago and picked up a bunch of these cheapo erasers to use for practice and started sketching ideas for fun and random stampage. I used tracing paper to sketch on and traced the general shape of the eraser to get a good size. The only thing I needed was something to carve them with. Well that proved a little harder to come by, no place around here sold anything resembling a carving tool. I asked around and finally was able to borrow this small tip carver from a local high school art room, yay!


The carving was SLOW and very tedious, and let me tell ya those carvers are SHARP! I think I carved more of my thumb than the eraser. After about an hour I ended up with this:

Not bad for my first try! Next time (and for all you crafters who want to try this) I think I would recommend:

- Wear a thimble, or tape my pointer finger and thumb up with that soft medical tape before I start to prevent too many painful nicks
- Get more than one carver, there are 3 sizes for a reason, those big spaces are hard to do with a teenie tiny carving head
- Carve over something that can be thrown away, the slivers are very small and really bouncy, not too easy to just sweep into the trash

This was a lot of fun, I can't wait to use my new stamp! and make a few more :)