Wednesday, November 21, 2012

DIY MOvember Stamps



MOvember is in full swing here in Toronto and I find myself momentarily forgetting, and getting totally creeped out by the mass amount of guys walking around downtown with handlebar mustaches. But then I remember it's all for a great cause and mentally give them a month long pass to look like creepsters.

The mustache has not only taken over peoples faces, but it is popping up in graphic design, art and other mediums as a result. So naturally, I decided to join in. If you took art in high school you may have done some print making, you would have used a little, crazy-sharp tool that carved away linoleum or rubber into a giant stamp. I loveeeed this part of art, and totally forgot how much freedom it gives you to create your own designs. I made a little trip to curry's art supplies and picked up a basic cutter (linozip or safty cutter) and some small pieces of rubber and linoleum to play around with.



I started by sketching out designs until I found a shape that I liked and decided wouldn't be too hard to cut out. Sketch your design onto the linoleum, or print off a design and trace around it with a dark lead pencil, turn it over and rub over the design to transfer the pencil outline to the linoleum.

I cut the excess linoleum away [Side note: I keep saying linoleum... but I used soft rubber and I wouldn't recommend it because it was too soft and made getting sharp edges almost impossible- so use linoleum!] from the edges to reduce the amount of cutting. Start with the outter edges until you get comfortable with your cutter and cut away any part of the stamp that you don't want to show up on a print. Whatever is left raised will should up on your print.

Using paint, stamp ink or print making ink spread it on the stamp and press your stamp onto your desired medium.

I whipped up a MOvember invitation that would be great for any last minute fundraising that needs to happen this weekend!

There are endless possibilities with this carving tool... I think a stag head on napkins might be my next project! What do you think?

Have a great hump day all,
xo
C

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