Carving Stamps for the Farm

Sometime in the past year, I came up with a design/logo for the farm.

I wanted it to have a celtic feel, hence the triskeles, swirls, and the intertwined border, and have representation of the animals here at the farm.  The FIBER portion of the farm.  Not that the chickens and other assorted sundry animals aren't important, I was just looking for a logo for the fiber end of the business.

It isn't perfect, but I like it enough.

The drawback of this particular design is that I did it by hand and then scanned it to bring it into the digital world which works for most things, but I don't have access to any really great drawing softwear so I can't make the background of the image clear so it can be overlaid onto other things, or wrap text around it.

But, I digress.

One of the things I wanted to do with the logo, was to incorporate it, or elements of it, onto bags, stickers, envelopes etc...A challenge to do without an image I can manipulate.

Then, I ordered a hand carved stamp from a fellow Etsian.

Lightbulb!

I can make my own!

No, not the intricate border.  I still want a stamp with it all on it.  I'm not that talented a carver however.

But, I thought I could probably carve the individual animals.

First, you trace your design on a piece of tracing paper.

Then, you rub the tracing paper on the Moo-Carve. 

(I imagine it got its name from the fact that you can carve it like a soft cheese.)

This way of transferring the design ensures that you have your image the right way round.

Next, I carved out the pencil marks.  With the detail it would have been harder to carve away most of the white, so the design will be in color instead of in relief.

Carving away all the extra white was the fun part!  It is easy to get too carried away...

One thing I found was that it is easier to make adjustments to your fine detail BEFORE you carve away too much of the white along the outside of the stamp.  The Moo-carve is more stable that way and you have less danger of making a big mistake.

Finally, you get out your ink pad and give it a whirl. 

Then you can make any needed adjustements to your carving based on your impression.

This is fun.

This is NOT hard.

I am hooked.

Unfortunately, I ran out of Moo-carve!

The last post of Sam's Birthday had giftwrap that I stamped all over using another stamp that I made from the "Sam's Monsters " series.  I am going to carve more of his monster designs and stamp some cards with them.  They are just too cute not to share.