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!