After visiting both Michelle Ward’s Green Pepper Press, (to order some fabulous new stamps) and Laurie Blau-Marshall’s blogs, and seeing all of the lovely hand carved stamps, I thought I would share a few also. Carving you own stamps is soooo much fun! I made my first attempts last year, when I taught a unit on it to my 5th graders. They had so much fun we even extended the lesson a couple of weeks! Their work was auctioned off at a fundraiser for the school and now hangs in a doctors office. This is the background I did using the Fleur d’le (sp?) stamp on the right. The diamond background was made to use in a ZNE design team challenge. It is an ATC background. Carving your own stamps is not hard, inexpensive, and lots of fun. You can draw your own image, or use an image transfer. Laurie had a great idea of outlining your design in charcoal and then burnishing it onto the rubber with a bone folder. I usually just draw right on the rubber and I like to take a small gouging tip of the Speedball carving tool, and make little gouges in the finished design for a distressed look. Have fun and let me know if you try it out so I can come have a looksee!