Everyday inspiration

You never know where inspiration will strike.  

I'd like to say I've recently been inspired by masters of fine art, or the glory of nature, but I'd be lying.  This time it was Target.

There I was, minding my own business, with my mundane cat-litter-and-laundry-detergent kind of list, when these napkins practically ambushed me.

Those colors!  Those patterns!  I immediately wanted to go home and carve some stamps.

It's been a while since I've carved stamps, and I've mostly done small, simple ones using cheap white polymer erasers:

Today I got more ambitious; I wanted a large stamp of this flower:

so I used a piece of "speedy-carve" (made by Speedball) which comes in 4"x6" blocks.  I cut in half to make this stamp.  The first step was to trace the image onto the block.  Then I started carving away anything that wasn't a black line.  (I gotta say the pink rubbery block kind of creeps me out because it reminds me of the molds my orthodontist would make of my teeth. *shudder*)

This is what it looked like when I finished carving.  I stuck it to a square of foam core board so that it would be easier to handle.  (the carving block is only about 1/4" thick and flexible - very hard to get a good stamp impression if it's not mounted to something stiff)

Here's the first image I made using a stamp pad.  After the initial stamping it's easy to recognize the high spots and carve them away.

I'm pretty happy with the results.  I started stamping it on all kinds of things that I had laying around.  This one is a combination of StazOn ink and acrylic paint:

These were all stamped on various pre-painted index cards that were piled on my work table.

I was feeling very satisfied and accomplished, but I was still feeling inspired by those napkins!   

I wanted to do something with this palette of colors 

I found similar colors amongst my many bottles of cheap acrylic craft paint:

And painted and doodled on a bunch of index cards

Now what to do with them?  I have this calendar-journal with a cute, but store-bought cover, maybe I should personalize it?

Tah-dah!

Boy, do I LOVE Saturdays.