Saturday, March 9, 2013

Recycled Face Wipe Container Lid Greeting Card



 Started this card project with the idea of 
wanting to recycle
the flip top lid to a face wipe container.
Took the lid, removed from its base, and
covered the outside and the outer
edge of the inside with Gesso. Painted it with acrylic
paint and let dry. 
I then created a verse on a piece of 
background paper and glued it to 
the back of the lid using glue dots. 




                                                                             
                                                  Then using one of my
new hand carved geometric rubber stamps
I stamped, using acrylic paints, all over a light cream 
colored cardstock for a background. I also stamped the geometric design once to use as a flower and
then one more time to cut a bit smaller and use for the center of the flower along with a yellow brad.
I used part of a washed dog food bag for the
grass at the bottom of the card and the
leaf and stem, too. It has a nice texture!
    
I took a plain piece of cream cardstock
and used a dry brush to create the
card base by just lightly brushing 
across, giving it an old washed 
barn board look. Then took
the background paper created from 
my hand carved stamp and layered a 
piece of that on top.  
 

Then using glue dots I attached 
the recycled lid to the card front!
Now when my friend gets this card
she will open up the lid to find the surprise
garden verse hiding on the inside!
I would love to hear if you try this and 
also see what you have done!
I would love to see examples of your
recycled lid card art!
     

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Athena and Rubber Stamp Chocolate Bunny, They Go Together, Right?


This rubber stamp carving is of the 
Greek Goddess Athena. Her classic Greek
features, and fancy hair and ornaments were
fun to carve into a rubber stamp.
I can see myself wanting to carve a wood
block of this someday.





This little 'chocolate' bunny just popped
into my head one day and begged me to carve it!
So, being a lover of folk art, that is the style
I chose for this little hand carved rubber stamp.
Plus Easter and bunnies are a favorite
thing around my household.
Please stop by my etsy shop and take a look
at my unique hand carved stamps. Maybe I could
even create a special one for you!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/SparrowFootStamps 

Thursday, October 11, 2012

New All Hand Carved Stamp Blog!

http://sparrowfootstamps.blogspot.com/


Please come and join me on my new blog, entirely dedicated to hand carved stamps.I would love to hear from you and would be thrilled to have you comment on any of the stamps that I have posted there! Please follow me! Hugs, Michelle http://sparrowfootstamps.blogspot.com/

Soar Hand Carved Rubber Stamp



Made a birthday card for my son's
15th birthday. Decided I needed  a 
very large word stamp. So, of course, I carved a 
rubber stamp to fit the bill!
The way this card design came about is
kind of funny. I was throwing something away
when I noticed a VERY old airplane 
magazine that my husband had
thrown out. I did a double take because
I couldn't believe that he had thrown it 
away and also because the colors were
so neat! 
I immediately thought of  making a 
card for my son (also an airplane lover).
I also wanted it to say 'soar' reflecting not only
the airplane theme, but also what I wanted
him to aspire to. 
So that is when I knew
that I would have to hand carve a rubber stamp!
I really like the way the stamp turned out. I distressed it, so it would look a bit older, by 
carving little tiny areas away. 
I am including a quote that I think is 
so inspiring:
“To an infinite artist, a Creator in love with His craft, there is no unimportant corner, there is no thrown-away image, no tattered thread in the novel left untied.” Nate Wilson

Friday, July 13, 2012

Uncle Bud, Rubber Stamp Carving

A carving I just finished of my dear uncle, Walter 'Bud' Casber.
He just turned 90. He is a decorated WW2 veteran,
was a very inspiring and talented wood carver,
skier, naturalist, and is a very kind man.
Alzheimer's is stealing away his memory, but, thankfully,
 he can still remember us 
and had a lovely time at his birthday party!
Happy Birthday, Dear Uncle Bud.
We love you.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Poppies on Cashmere!

Poppies are one of my very favorite flowers.
 Decided to create this background using a technique that usually uses velvet, however here I have used an old cashmere sweater. You lay your stamp down on your ironing board face up, then lay your velvet- or cashmere- on top, wet it down,  and heat, on high,  it until embossed. I then added a bit of paper and clip art, a flower at the top, and some words with a punch. The link below should take you to GG Designs blog where you can see other examples of this technique and see about      purchasing GG Design's beautiful stamps. 

http://ggdesignsgazette.blogspot.com

Lion Wood Carving

This print is from my high school days!
In other words....old, and tissue, so,very fragile 
(hehe, thankfully, not me!).
I am posting it partly for sharing and partly to 
save the image which is so damged that I
can't see it surviving much longer!
It was carved on a very hard wood which is why
there is not much detail in the lion itself. I must have started with the background first, and
most probably wore my hand out!
I am glad that I have this to remember the 
wood piece itself which is, sadly, long gone.


Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Water Color of Blonde Girl and Her Adoring Cat Pumpkin

This is a watercolor that I
just finished. The girl and her adoring cat!
There is something comfortable about
painting with watercolors, they always
make me feel at home for some reason.
My grandmother painted with oils
and I really love the smell of oil paint
but working with them doesn't give me
that warm fuzzy feeling that it must have given my
dear grandmother. So, to each his own I say!
Vive la differance!  
I do appreciate your comments and find
it very interesting what different
aspects of the painting that people notice. :)
Thanks!!

Monday, April 30, 2012

Coffee Filter Watercolor Flower Boquet



Here is a lovely bouquet of Spring flowers!
They look so real that you would never know
they are made from coffee filters!
Took a white coffee filter and sprayed
it with Memories spray mist.
Dried it and then started to cut it into a 
spiral -about 1  1/2 in- going all the way to 
the center. Then I took an 18 gauge floral wire
and attached,with glue, the center of the 
spiral. Slowly build your flower as you turn
and dab glue along bottom edge to adhere.
When I thought the flower was big enough I
took green floral tape and wound it
around snugly starting at the base of  of the 
flower where it meets the stem.
I then added highlights to the edges of the flower
petals with a paint brush dabbed into the 
Memories mist bottle.
My son thought they were real! :)

Friday, April 27, 2012

Mother's Day Cards and Fun Friend Cards





Making 5 different cards is one day doesn't happen
to me very often...either because of time or the ideas just don't come. But, yesterday, at a very dear friends house her creativity spurred me on. Plus her little scrap heap of interesting odds and cast offs aided me in my creations.
I made two Mother's Day cards and 3 greeting cards. She has the most amazing collection of tools and gadgets you could ever imagine. :)
The flowers on the Mother's Day cards are
made by punching about 8 flowers from an ordinary 6-8 petal flower punch. For the paper, I used a page from an old story book my friend had.
Then you layer each flower one on top of the other, staggering the petals alternately, then add a brad through the center of them all. Starting with the top layer you fold and crumple each petal upward, doing the same with each consecutive layer. Then you gently fold down the layers to create the look. I then sprayed some color on. So fun and easy.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

 Picture of my kitty Cosmo with a new cartoon 
cat and dog carving. I think I am going to have to do a series of these cute little critters. My son is the artist on the originals, and I the interpreter! :)




Penguin custom carving with the name Montana. This one was so much fun to design and carve! I love special requests.

 I am sure this one is difficult to figure out, so I will tell you...it is a carving of a bottle of nail polish! Printed in any color you like, how fun is that?



Here again, Cosmo helped me out by being my easel.
Nice little hand carved Siamese Cat. Another nice thing about the NZCut carving material is that the ink color slightly stains the white and makes the carving look pretty, too!


Hello. Wanted to post a few of the FUN things that I have been carving. I have been using NZCut from stampeaz and really think that it is THE BEST carving material that is available. I like the firmness and durability of the surface. Also the fact that the back side is so shiny and slick that it will stick to my clear acrylic blocks without any adhesive. Takes ink well, too. I lightly sanded the front before using. I like the fact that it is white, designs transfer easily and can be seen nice and clear. I would highly reccomend trying this newer product from stampeaz.com. The price is very reasonable as well!

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Wood Cross, Handcarved, with Tulips

This is a carving I did from a solid
piece of wood. You can't tell from
the picture but, the Tulips 
are carved away from the base of the cross.
I have done two of these and 
was so glad to share one with a very dear 
auntie, and the other with one
of our pastors.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Felted wool bag, Mimbres Cave Cat


Made this Wool bag with a cat design
needlfelted onto the front.
Black and gray with ivory, all details are done 
with the needlefelting technique.

The design is based
on an old cave drawing from the Mimbres people that
used to exist in the S.W. part of the United States.
The bag is large and also has leather accents, as
well as a horn button, from deer antlers that 
are shed naturally. Lined it with a cream
colored brocade fabric.

'Spring Chick' and 'The Garden' hand carved and printed on cupcake paper!


Today is just for FUN!
Here are two carvings that I just finished.
Made both into cards. 
Highlighted the image with Mica pens. 
I love those pens! Adds such a subtle shimmer.
Printed them both on CUPCAKE paper!! 

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Folk Art Bunny Carving Note Card

Just finished this carving.
I love folk art and this is just 
'folksy' enough for me. I also love chocolate
and of course with Easter coming up I
had to print it in cocoa brown ink.
Used PZCut's new carving medium called 
NZCut. I have to say, I love it. Not only is it 
wonderful to carve on, it sticks to my acrylic
block without any glue or other 
adhesive! Bravo Diana Hammond (stampeaz.com)
for this new version of the dearly departed
PZCUT carving material.
I would love to hear anyone's
comments on my carving or
your favorite carving material!
Thanks, Michelle

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Monday, February 13, 2012

Here is a carving of my little sweetie, Cosmo.
Was an interesting challenge to leave 
as much fur to the imagination as possible!

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Watercolor of a Madonna Gourd
Made it into a card for a friend.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Another view of the Madonna and Child

Mother and Child Gourd

This Mother and Child gourd was painted 
using Golden acrylic paints.
They are beautiful to work with!
I have burned gourds for years and
this is my first time painting one.
                                              She stands about
8 inches tall and 5 1/2 wide.