I can't stop carving stamps.

 I was so happy with the results of my face stamp, I wanted to keep experimenting with more elaborate designs.  I figured out two things that have radically improved the way I stamp.  First I discovered I could do a gel transfer of my image directly onto the surface of the carving block. (I use Speedball Speedy-Carve - it comes in a 4x6 inch block and it's really smooth and easy to carve.)

 I had printed a bunch of copyright free clip art images.
(I was always told you must use toner-based images, such as photo copies, for image transfers, but I've had good luck with technique using my regular old ink-jet printer.)

 I spread the paper will gel medium, stuck it down to the carving block, burnished it and let it sit.   

 Once it was dry, I spritzed the paper with water and peeled it all away - leaving an amazingly clear and detailed image on the stamp.

The second thing that helped, was carving with a magnifying glass.  It allows me to carve away the tiniest little bits, leaving a lot of detail.

Here's the finished product and the corresponding stamped image.

Other recent creations include:

This fly stamp

 This bee stamp

These hand stamps

This chicken stamp

I asked my son to draw one of his signature "guys" for me, and I turned it into a stamp.

And since I've been obsessed with mid-century fabrics lately, I carved these simpler shapes and used them on this postcard:

It's been a productive few days.

When I close my eyes at night I'm still carving.

Update:

A few people have asked what I use to carve my stamps.  It's a Speedball linoleum cutter - readily available at craft stores and on-line for not a lot of money.  It comes with five different tips (which are nicely stored inside the handle).

I don't keep a journal

In the fall of 2008, I was visiting a local art museum with an out of town friend and stumbled upon an exhibit of artist's journals. I'd never seen anything like it and I was riveted. They filled me with yearning and made me physically ache. I'm not sure I even thought in terms of wanting to do something like that myself because it seemed so far out of reach. I wasn't an artist. That Christmas I gave my friend a copy of 1,000 artist journal pages - mostly so that I could look at it before mailing it off to her!

(I've since purchased my own copy.  It's amazing)

Three years later, I make a lot of art, but don't really think of myself as an art journaler because...

I don't keep a journal.  

But I do have THIS book.

It's a cheap weekly planner, kept during the most stressful 3 months of my professional career.

It holds 30 flimsy pages of collage, some drawing, and a few words each day - it's an amazing snapshot of what I was doing, reading, watching, eating and feeling in 2009.  

But I don't keep a journal.

In August of 2009 I got a new job, and life was easier and happier and I stopped writing stuff on that calendar. But in Spring and Summer of 2010 I kept something of an almanac in this little spiral bound notebook. I spent a lot of time working in the yard that summer and I joined a farm share for the first time. I documented everything I planted, and when everything bloomed, and what I got in my weekly share. There were some personal notes thrown in as well, and looking back on it gives me such vivid memories of that time.  

But I don't keep a journal.

Fall came, gardens died, and back-to-school-time got busy. The notebook was forgotten.

But clearly the pull of those artist's sketchbooks hadn't lessened. I bought a flimsy blank journal in April of 2010 and started painting and collaging snapshots of my daily life again. This one coincides with setting up my art room, launching my blog, and getting into a daily art practice. It has almost 50 entries.  

But I don't keep a journal.

Not coincidentally, that book came to an abrupt halt around the time I was doing the Index-Card-A-Day project (June - August, 2011).  

Come September, I remembered my weekly planner from 2009 and bought another. This one is still going strong with daily entries 5 months later.  

But I don't keep a journal.

And then in January, I started watching Natasha and Amy's altered book videos on flutterbye, and made my own altered book for documenting my life.  It started out with daily entries, but that only lasted a week, since I was already keeping daily entries in my calendar.  I'm using it regularly though - sometimes to capture the mood of a week, sometimes to reflect on a single event.  Sometimes I write loads of words, sometimes the images speak for themselves.  If you look closely, you might even call it an art journal.

But....

oh nevermind.

be like the hawk

Painted Love

As you may have guessed from this picture I posted on Sunday, I  love to paint papers. 

A few people asked me about what they are and how I made them.

All the painted pages below are gelatin prints and I posted a little tutorial about it a million years ago.   I used an actual gelatin block that I made with unflavored gelatin, but it seems you can now buy something to simulate it.  You can find my tutorial here. 

The papers hanging on this clothesline are simple paste papers.

Here's how to make them.

In a nutshell, you mix paste with paint, spread it on the paper and make marks.

I bought a carton of Elmer's Art Paste and mixed up the whole box.  (It makes a gallon).  You really don't need much for any painting session, but this stuff seems to keep indefinitely.  I've had the remainder of the gallon sealed in a plastic container for over 2 years and I just used it last week and it was fine.  I mixed a blob of paste with a blob of cheap acrylic.  (maybe 2 parts paint to 1 part paste?  I wing it)

I spread it on cardstock with a brush:

And while the paint is still very wet, used a bunch of different tools (including my fingers) to make marks.

You can use colored paper and paint a different color on top for a 2-color effect:

This one is blue paint on yellow paper:

Here's are a few more examples: 

On this one I painted stripes on the paper before making the marks

 On this one I used a rubber stamp:

 more finger painting:

 So now I have enormous piles of painted papers.  What do I do with them?

Sometimes I use it as a great first layer of an art journal background.

Usually I cut them up and use them in different things.

For a while I was really into creating tiny mosaics.

None of these individual colored pieces are larger than a square inch

I used a bunch on a journal cover a few years ago:

This hangs on my studio wall:

Now I'm more likely to use them as collage elements in mixed media pieces:

I like marbled papers even better than paste papers, but we'll talk about that another day.

Likes me best

I met this guy in 1987.  We were college sophomores, hired by the University to do the same summer job.  Not long after we met, he admitted he had a crush on me.  My response?  "Oh great - that's all I need".  Thankfully he kept hanging around until I came to my senses.  In 1994, as we drove home from a friend's wedding, he said "I guess if you want to get married next summer that's all right with me". 

*swoon*

As you can see, our particular brand of romance is not very mushy-hearts-and-flowers.  

He gave me gum for Valentine's Day.  

It was the perfect gift.

Once, in a conversation about how I knew Ric was THE ONE, I answered, "he drives me less crazy than anyone I know."

It's true.

Plus he plays all the good records and none of the bad ones.

And he makes me laugh and he makes me think and he is never, ever boring.

That first summer, a friend observed "Ric likes Karen best".

25 years later it's still true.