print me a notebook

I love print!...really? You can tell? I bought these plain recycled notebooks from Paperchase months ago, hoping to have a bit of fun with print. I essentially used the same technique as my DIY heart print tote so once again you'll either need a speedball carving kit or a piece of rubber and carving tools. I was desperate to get some fluorescent paint because fluoro and recycled board are such a happy match.

You'll need:

• Recycled notebooks like these
• Pencil
• Speedball carving kit
• plastic/ wood to mount (optional)
• 3 paint or ink colours

How to: 

1. Draw the design onto the rubber and carve your stamp with your tools or scalpel. Both designs are very simple to create. For the semi-circles I created two separate stamps but it might be easier to carve the whole line.
2. If you have anything sturdy and waterproof (wood/plastic) then back your stamp onto it but it's not essential. I was lazy and didn't bother.
3. Now ink up your stamps. I tried to do all areas with the same colour first, which may mean you need to mark these out. The pink and white were acrylic paints and the black was from an ink pad, which I have to say works the best. When it came to the acrylic, I painted the colour onto the stamps and had a few practises on spare paper to gage the right coverage first. 
4. Stamp each stamp, pressing down firmly. Repeat over the whole design, washing well between colour changes.

And now you can enjoy your new notebooks, transformed from ordinary to striking in a few simple steps.

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two little words

Receiving a little thank you card the other day reminded me just how nice it is to get one. Here's a pack of thank you cards I made on request for a friend. Somehow I keep on being drawn back to my ink pot at the moment. I used to be a little ink crazy during my BTEC in art but somewhere along the line I forgot how satisfying it is to write or draw with the stuff. Good thing I remembered.

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woodland love

This project has been quite the lingerer. Back in September I realised I was becoming far too pally with my computer and losing touch with the art of drawing. Most things I produce at work or in my own time, start as drawings or have an element of handwork but it felt like too long since I just sat and sketched for a good few hours. If I could only count the hours I spent drawing as I was growing up I’m sure it would be a crazy amount! Dad used to bring home old work print outs for me to draw on the back of. His wallet would have taken a serious battering with the amount of paper I could get through otherwise. Back in September I was still a long distance commuter (yuck). I decided to spend a week sketching on my hour long train ride home. Armed with my sketchpad and settled/ wedged into a luggage rack, I did a series of sketches of woodland animals  using tiny lines to create the shape and shading. I combined two of these drawings with some ink work and came up with these prints...eventually. It’s quite nice to have a project you can dip in and out of.

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