Little Birdies....

These birds are much cuter than they look in the photo, they have contrasting fabric on their breasts, and they are quite addictive to make.

A friend forwarded the pattern from this website. The birds on the Spool website use much brighter and cuter fabric - we have lots of upholstry fabric scraps, so that's what we used. I will say that it is practically impossible to get a crisp beak using upholstry fabric! Nevertheless they were very cute as part of our Thanksgiving decorating.

Anyway, my daughter was so taken with these birds that she wanted to learn how to hand sew so she could make some for Christmas presents. I am just thrilled by this emerging interest in arts and crafts in my daughter! Our next project will be felted snowballs for the babies on our street.

Stamp Carving and Reba...

I'm a bit obsessed with Reba McEntire these days, after seeing her and Kelly Clarkson in concert in Baltimore, and then pulling out all of my Reba TV show dvds and watching them sequentially (my son and I are mid-way through season 2 right now). She is quite funny in her show, and extremely appealing on stage.

I crave her energy and enthusiasm, as evidenced by the many creative career projects she has going (the latest rumor - she may be back on Broadway in "Anything Goes"). Her public persona is much more of an energetic doer rather than an introverted thinker - and I mean that as a compliment, coming from someone who longs to break out of the over-thinking paralysis I often find myself in. Yes, I know, apples and oranges, but honestly, I'll take my inspiration/motivation wherever I can find it.

Well anyway. So I decided to spend my procrastination time (I should be painting the basement for a houseguest December 19th) by carving a stamp of Reba for my November contribution to a bi-monthly carving swap I participate in.

The image to the left shows the original photograph I used, as well as a carving block with the image transferred onto it and partially carved. I used tracing paper and a pencil to trace the image from the photo, and then placed it face down on the block and rubbed the paper to transfer my traced pencil image.

Finally, I carve the image using Speedball carving tools. The image shows up on the block in reverse, but when you ink it and print it, the image will be shown correctly.

This is the final image - unfortunately the flash on my camera reflected off of the ink I used, so you can't see the details very well.

Overall I'm pleased with how it turned out - I experimented with cross hatching for the shadow of her arm and mic, and I really liked carving her hair and the hand holding the mic. I do wish, however, that I had selected a photograph that looks more like the quintessential Reba. This picture isn't obviously Reba if you glance at it quickly - it was taken at a funny angle and she is pursing her lips together - so the carving looks even less like Reba.

Well anyway. I've been carving stamps on and off for about 7 years. And as for what I do with them - well, sometimes I make a few cards, many times I participate in swaps with other carvers (those are LOTS of fun), but sometimes I carve stuff just for the fun of it....