Gelli Printed Fabric Tool Tote

When I saw decorated tool totes from Harbor Freight Tools on the Gelli Plate blog, I know I had to make one (or a dozen. LOL)

My first one (not pictured) followed their directions more closely, I matted my prints in black felt and sewed down the layers. Then I used hot glue to attach them as I didn't think redline tape was a good long-term fabric-to-fabric solution.

I liked it, enough, but I did not like the behavior of the felt over the week it kicked around my studio. It kind of frayed and shed... not in a good way. 

So I made another one hot gluing the gel-printed fabric directly to the canvas bag.

Much better!

The fabric molded around the curves of the canvas much easier than the stiffer felt.

I added a little bit of waterproof pen outlining and hand writing and some white paint in the darker spots.

So cute! And these bags are intended to carry power tools so they're really sturdy. Perfect for carrying or storing projects.

Thanks for visiting :)

Lipstick Hand Carved Stamp Set and Cards

(click on the pic to see the details)

A lipstick stamp sounded like a fun thing to carve and making into components for both the outline and the fill was a cinch. Basically all you need to do it transfer your drawing to your rubber twice and for one carve the outline and the other the lipstick, tube and neck. Since the fill pieces are a little smaller than the outline there was more than enough room to cut them apart. 

Now I can't stop making cards with this adorable stamp.

Clean and Simple

Busy, fun and festive.

Look at all that splatter and sparkle!

Somewhere in between. A little glamour, a little graphic.

Another clean and simple with a slightly different palette.

Yep. Totally smitten with this stamp. 

Hand Carved Stamps

Some of my stamps :-)

Mirrored Tile Stamp Christmas Gift Bag

Today is going to have to be a super-quick post as we're having a Christmas party tomorrow and I've done nothing. House is a mess, tree is not decorated. Food is neither cooked or even shopped for. 

EEK!

But #CarveDecember comes first so here you go.

Hand Carved Deer Stamp and Stencil

Day Four of #CarveDecember... where is Day 3 you ask? Not posted but I did carve two stamps. I promise!

This stamp was inspired by Jennifer McGuire's GORGEOUS project for 12 Tags of Christmas with a Feminine Twist on Ellen Hutson. She layered a texture stencil underneath a deer stencil and made a patterned deer. It was so pretty I had to make one. But I do not have a deer stencil. What's a girl to do?

First I drew a deer. The first one looked like a deer-dog so I traced it on a light table (it was 6:00 AM - no taping it to the window for me) and when I got to the neck I moved my drawing up a few squares and lengthened it a bit. The difference between a deer, a dog and a giraffe is proportion. 

Side Note: If you ever want to try drawing cute animals (or plants, or people), I can't say enough positive things about the Illustration School series by Sachiko Umoto. I have three of the books and use them all the time. 

Then I started carving. I love carving early in the morning. 

My hand is so much lighter and I make fewer mistakes.

Once I was satisfied with how the lines looked, I stamped it in Timber Staz-On onto two cream panels of card stock and onto a green one. Using an exacto knife, I carefully cut out the deer where I wanted to add color to the image.

Often I'll make a second solid stamp to fill in the color (like here) but since it was a really large stamp, making a stencil was a lot more cost effective.

The steps below: 

Tape down stamped card. 

Tape stencil over top, lining up image. 

Apply distress ink (antique linen, tea dye and walnut). 

The last picture is the same thing but I sandwiched a second stencil between the deer stencil and the cardstock.

And the results - I have two cards (all I added was some glittery gold washi tape and a bow) a stencil and a stamp. 

Also, for a stamp this size I mounted it onE-Z Mount Cling Foam backing. It's just too large it use without an acrylic block.

Thanks for visiting!

Hand Carved Snowman Stamp

Today I carved all the parts of a snowman so I could make as many, as simply as I like.

Snowmen are handy this time of year. 

First I drew the basic shapes. 

I like using lined or graph paper as it helps me keep proportions correct.

Then I traced the accessories on a new piece of paper (the ripped off top of this page to be exact) and checked them for size to see if they fit all right. They did.

Next I transferred the images to my speedy carve. To do this I placed the paper pencil-side down and rubbed the back of it with a spoon. Then I went over the pencil lines with a pen as graphite smudges off pretty easily.

Then carving! First with my big tool and then a finer one for details.

Ta-Da!

While carving I'll ink up the stamp and see if I've removed enough rubber. I'll end up with a lot of test images before I get it right.

And voila! A snowman with very little effort. 

For this card, I stamped the snowman and accessories on a gelli-printed paper and then adhered them to a gelli-printed manilla tag. I cut the tag down to a smaller size and layered it with some leftover book paper (from yesterdays heart card) and a torn baby wipe for the base. I love the richness old painted wipes bring to a background. 

My plan is to make a sun using a snowball as the circle and the nose for rays. I'll report back how it goes :-)

Gelli Printed Heart Tag and Card

Julie Fei-Fan Balzer created a very cool challenge called CarveDecember where you carve a stamp a day all month. I couldn't resist. 

I was torn between making a heart or a texture stamp as I've been playing with clay recently and texture is always useful. After going back and forth a bit I decided to do both - a heart with a pattern so it could provide random swirly dots or be a proper heart, as needed.

One great thing about long hearts is that they interlock into a border very easily. 

For the tag above I simply stamped in Staz-On over top a gelli-printed tag. Then I stamped the heart again on white book paper, cut it out and attached it with foam tape.

For this card, I stamped the heart three times on book paper, cut them out and sewed through the middle of the stack. Then I added them to a stenciled, stamped and gelli-printed background and sewed around the edge. 

Happy December!