from sketch to stamp

One of my favorite things to do, is to sketch something and then make a stamp from my sketch.  Jane LaFazio taught me a lot about sketching and painting with watercolors in a workshop I took from her last summer at Random Arts, in Saluda, NC.  Normally I use my watercolor paints, but today I decided to go quick and dirty and use my watercolor pencils, which I then wet with my wonderful water reservoir paint brush (not sure what the real name is) - a great toy that Jane introduced me to in that workshop.  (Charlie, my 2-year-old grandson, and I do a lot of 'painting' using the pencils and the water reservoir brush.  Painting with a toddler is lots of fun when you use these tools!)

So, today I decided to sketch some holly leaves from one of the trees in our garden, and then make a seasonal stamp.  I'm honing my carving skills, using Geninne Zlatkis' new book, Making An Impression.  Geninne and Jane use basically the same technique, but then Geninne recommends carving around the outer edges of the stamp, which helps me to see just how I'm placing my stamp.  So, I may use this new holly stamp on some of my Christmas cards - yeah, I know, I'm late with these babies, but that's just how it goes!

I did a bit of semi sketching and stamp-making while I was at our condo last week, awaiting the arrival of Baby Maggie.  I have some holiday hand towels there that have funky Christmas trees on them.  So, I sketched them all and then decided to make a stamp from one.

This is a stylized star image off of another Christmas hand towel.  It would have been neater had I used a ruler, but I wanted it to look hand sketched - and it sure does!

peace