Working With Chevrons

   I hope you all had a lovely Memorial Day weekend. It was more like the Fourth of July here-very hot and humid-so much so that we put the AC on! Of course, this kind of heat brought out numerous thunderstorms so my computer was shut down for the most part. That allowed me more art time and reading time so it was a good thing-and I do LOVE a good thunderstorm - so long as noone gets hurt.

  I have watched the next two video lessons  and am still having a great time with Julie Balzer's online stamp carving class! Lessons 3 and 4 are about carving chevron designs. I have completed my stamp and tags for Lesson 3 and even carved my stamps from Lesson 4 but I'm not quite finished with my work on Lesson 4 yet so I'll save that for another post.

 Each lesson is a bit more challenging but Julie's videos are filled with such incredible detail that it truly is just a matter of practice, practice, practice! You can read more about it and follow the progress beginning with this post. The best part is that I'm taking it along with my friend Lenna. We're committed to learning together and creating a collaborative project at the same time. I highly recommend it-it's such a great incentive to keep going!

  Here is the start of my lesson 3 class:

   It began with creating a design on paper before doing it on the speedy carve block. Once I was happy with it I began to carve, making many test prints along the way. Here is my first test print:



  OK, looks pretty good so now it's time to carve a pattern within the spaces....along with more test printing:

   I was thinking about carving little dots or xs around the border so I drew them on the paper with a white pen to see how they'd look. I liked them .....but I chickened out and decided that instead of carving I'd just add marker or pen to the stamped image if I wanted it. Yes, I allowed the fear of making a big mistake and ruining my stamp after all the work I already put into it to take over. It's something I'll always be working on I think :)


  Here is the base of the tags-one for Lenna and one for me, along with my finished carved stamp:

   I used a  Kaleidacolor rainbow inkpad in Fresh Greens and repeatedly stamped to fill the tags.

   And here are the finished tags:

  

   I stamped a quote (an old PSX image) on a white cardstock panel and sewed 3 heart buttons below it. I then stamped my chevron carving on white cardstock with another Kaleidacolor rainbow inkpad in Blue Breeze. I used my Grand Calibur die cutting machine to cut away a window. I drew in the black dots with a black marker and thne attached it to the tag with foam adhesive to give it the dimension and look of a shadow box. It was finished with some fibers and ribbons, and a turquoise dresden border.

  If you've ever had the urge to carve your own stamps and/or take an online class please check out Julie's class-it really is the best thing I have done so far this year! Oh, and don't forget to take a friend along to play :)

                    " You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have."
                                                                                               Maya Angelou