PAPER: I never had time for CARVE DECEMBER before...

But now, with the Pandemic and with me stuck at home, and (mostly) having finished my handmade Christmas cards (more on that in an upcoming post), I decided to see if I could join Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and carve a stamp a day for each day in December. I missed a few days but ended up making up for it in a day or two and had 31 different stamps or sets of stamps for December. I loved it.

Each day, Julie gave us a prompt. We could use it or not. I tried to tie in to it most days, but not all. "I'm a grown-up now, I make my own rules!" Haha...

Here's some of what I did for #carvedecember2020

This set could be used to mix and match

I really liked the monochromatic ones!

This prompt: "insect". (A "bug" is kinda the same as an "insect", right?) This was day 1 of 31.

Another tessellating stamp, this one an ornament

An interlocking fern stamp

Scrap turned into pieces for an alphabet

Tessellating bird

I made this hat to use with the stamp I'd carved years before of my dog Fleur

This prompt was "organic" but it really turned into an organic shape when you did what I call "pattern printing" with it

Even the "leaves" in the tree seemed to fit the "organic" prompt

This prompt was "tree" and I just sketched something from my head. My inspiration was the Lone Cypress in Monterey, CA

This is actually a stylized "JW" monogram. Love the overstamped version of this one (on the right).

Doing my best to tesselate. I love this technique but find success elusive.

Trying to mimic Sarah Matthews' iconic style

This was a large stamp, shown here on an 8.5x11 piece of cardstock. This design was another "from my head"; it got a lot of love online but wasn't great for the Sarah Matthews overstamping technique...or, maybe it was just my choice of colors

My first attempt at a repeat pattern. I still have a long way to go with this technique!

I'm not sure WHAT the prompt was for the final day, but this was my stamp. I had one thing in mind but it didn't turn out right and so I did a kind of modified yin-yang thing. It turned out to be pretty graphic. It never fails to amaze me at how a repeat pattern can lift up a simple design on a single stamp! 

Day 31/31.

It also never fails to impress me at how different patterns can look, 

depending on how you stamp each one!

Fleur, in glasses (I carved her many years ago)

I may be using this group (prompt: FRAME) often. 

As an optometrist, I went for the cat eye, Ronsir, RayBan Wayfarer and Aviator. 

Classic frame styling!

Equilateral triangles can be versatile!

Son Matt asked for a specific design for him to use to make birthday cards for his team at work. I gave him mounted messages and a set of a dozen pre-stamped cards so he could pass them out. When your kid asks, even a grown-up kid, you have to try to fill the bill! The inside says: GO NUTS!

I was uninspired by the prompt "stripes" but not unhappy with this "30 second" carving!

I have a hard time with these scallop shapes--getting them just right is HARD

Prompt: "Fan"

This was supposed to be Buddy Holly

That's all for #carvedecember2020, but I'd love to do this again this December. It was fun to see the improvement over time. Which just goes to show you, what you practice, improves!