my hand carved logo

i had one of those moments that i make fun of martha stewart for. martha always does incredibly difficult things, with many many steps and i always think, "really martha? seriously? you spent 3 hours on that and you could have bought it at target for a dollar!". well, I am sure many people are going to read this and think, oh yeah, elizabeth's lost it. but i had the time and the vision, and i knew i would not be happy with a store bought cookie cutter item that just anyone could buy...


i was thinking of ways to make my packaging stand out and decided to hand carve stamps. yes, hand carve. it's actually not that difficult- really!


i bought a block of soft stamp rubber. i drew out my logo in pencil on a sheet of paper and then darkened it, loading up the lines with as much graphite as i could. i then took my soft-block stamp and placed in on top of my pencil drawing and pressed down. the pencil lines then transfer to the stamp so you have an outline of your drawing on the soft-block now. i then took a washcloth that i warmed up in the microwave, and placed it on my stamp for a few minutes. this is to warm the rubber of the stamp, making the rubber softer and easier to carve. then i just carved out the negative area of my stamp. it took me an hour start to finish, i think it was well worth it.

stamp carving tool

birdie whistling doo-dah!

doo-dah!

inked up

they work!

this is going to be great for stamping tissue paper, gift boxes and bags. i will have brand uniformity, while still being uniquely me. martha would be proud!