Giveaway Winner - Louise Holgate Photography

I was so pleased that Louise Holgate won the giveaway prize of a custom stamp of her choice.  When I saw the picture of what I had to carve, I melted at how cute and stunning it was.  I knew it was going to look good as a print and it so does.

It took a little time to carve as it was pretty fiddly to get around all the branches, etc. but was well worth it.



Here's her facebook page to check out...
https://www.facebook.com/LouiseHolgatePhotography

Before the stamps get sent out, I always check them to make sure they stamp correctly.  A good stamp should stamp first time every time.  Some times in workshops people will say, "I've still not learned how to stamp without getting the lines around the edges", etc.  It's not you! it's the stamp.  You can be a complete novice with my stamps and do it first time.

The finished carved stamp.
 

This stamp was mounted onto a clear acrylic block.  This way you can stamp directly onto the first image and see where your placing it for accuracy of print.

Here are some photos of what was included in the giveaway, a two system stamping set, two inks and two bags to keep the stamps safe from abrasions.

Two stamps: the background to the tree and the tree.  Louise was given two Versa inks to go with her prize.  Versa inks are so highly pigmented; just wish you could get pads in A4 size.

Printing is great so it's ready for a quick clean and package to be posted out.

Here's the baggies that every stamp I make gets sent out in.

I'm really looking forward to finding out who I get in the next giveaway...  Thank you to all who took part in the giveaway and sharing and liking my facebook page.  All my income comes from my page and you're all so very important to me.  I hope to be making your stamps for your replacement stamps and more, well into the future.

Thanks so much, Fran Sherbourne x

Here are a few pictures that Louise sent back to me to share with us what she's up to with her stamps :)  My favorite bit when I get to share what your doing with your stamps.

 

Fran Sherbourne - Rubber Stamp Carving Workshop

The Workshop

It was a lovely little group of ladies today who came to the workshop to learn how to carve rubber stamps.

I drew up a few easy to carve shapes and printed off a few for the ladies to trace and carve.  All of the designs went down really well and some found them great to choose from.  So I'll definitely be using this lesson again.  Here are the sample pictures that I drew and took with me to share, they were all drawn with the idea that repeat printing would be used.  You will see a lot of gift wrap out there with stars used in repeat printing styles.

I started off by doodling with pencil, then when I was happy I made the patterns bold and easy to trace.

Here's some of the ladies work from the workshop today.  Not bad at all for their first attempts at carving.  Just a few practices at a couple of simple techniques and they were off.  I even had someone eager to try the reindeer, and succeeded really well for a first time :)

A simple bobble hat design, so easy to carve for a first time carve 'when you know how'

Workshop Ladies get to take their stamp home, mounted on kiln dried oak

Using the simple rounded abstract triangle to create a colourful forest of multi coloured trees.

Another simple carve to do 'when you know how'. Using cutting tools found lying around the house.

A Christmas Bauble, again using tools, utensils around the house to make these simple patterns.

And a budding future stamper I think, not bad at all for a first attempt.

So there we have it another workshop complete and it went really well.  I absolutely love teaching people how to carve, it's so relaxing and I can't wait to do more.