Well, it's December 1st and the Winter Holiday season is in full swing. Staying present and allowing peace in your life, in what ever small ways you can will help ease the stress of the season. Naturally I find making things comforting, you likely knew that already. And of course carving stamps and then making things with my hand carved stamps.
Today I'm sharing with you how to carve a dove stamp and some tips to make the carving process more comfortable. Well, I'm going to be telling you how to carve this stamp. If you want to see the whole process, just click on the YouTube Link at the bottom of this post.
I'm sharing this quick and easy, very straight forward, stamp carving project because I know your time is a commodity right now. So you could carve this in a short amount of time and have all kinds of ways to use this symbol of peace throughout the holidays and years to come. Of course it can really be any kind of bird. Either way it' super easy.
I will follow up later this month when I’ll share a post that shows the winter themed collage I made using this sweet dove stamp. I'm thinking of carving a similar one with some details in the wings and body. Something a bit more ornate. But for now this is what I have and I'm thinking it's a very versatile stamp with many ways to use it, like gift wrap, gift tags and even ornaments.
So to start, I sketched a simple dove design onto tracing paper and then transferred it onto my Speedball Speedy-Carve Block Printing Carving Block and then carved it out using my Speedball Linoleum Cutter Lincocut Carving Tool. The pink Speedball Speedy-Carve is my absolute favorite carving material as it holds up and doesn't get brittle and break.
My handy tip that I recommend to all beginners and seasoned carvers is to bring the stamp higher off of your work surface while carving and I do this by placing it on a box. This is just a box that a coffee mug came in (during the holidays). This is so you don’t have to hunch over while working and I promise your neck will thank me later.
Once you’ve got the stamp placed sturdily on your box begin carving away on your sketch. I also like to use a little bristle brush in my non-carving hand to help wipe away the shavings as I go.
When you’re done, carve away the outer edges of the stamp with an Exacto blade.
If you want to watch how I carved this dove stamp, you can find it in my Studio Vlog 4 video on my YouTube channel starting at minute 21:00.👇
When you’re done you’ll have a fun dove to use in your Holiday cards and artwork so have fun playing around with colors for your dove, maybe add glitter also carving out other shapes and elements to bring more design possibilities.
I’ll catch you back here later this month with a fun post on how I used this sweet dove stamp in a holiday collage.