Stamping! Making an Impression

 I've been fussing around with carving stamps for a little bit, they are pretty darned fun, I can even do some of Owen's designs if they aren't too crazy.  Most recently he has been into mushrooms, which are super fun, I'll take some pics one day.

 We got Geninne Zlatkis' book Making an impression and it is awesome.  She has a bunch of templates in the back, and while on some fronts, it is pretty great to create your own, she has some really beautiful templates, so we have used those.  Made this cute three little birds dress for E's birthday!  She will be three, and Grace loves how her version of this dress (from the Nani Iro sewing book M, this one is 100cm) spins so wonderfully.

 The dress is Kona cotton and the binding from some scraps.  The birds were printed with some of the fabric paint we use for freezer paper stencils dabbed on a smooth surface with a makeup sponge before applying to a stamp.  The black details were drawn on with a fine micron pen, which heat-sets up pretty nicely as well.  I washed a sample and it looked great, I hope it holds up on the dress too.

I will confess that I am happy to tackle some of the smaller stamps, and have done most of them, but I save the larger projects for Brian, whose confidence and hand is much steadier.  He loves getting roped into my projects, but he really does such a nice job.

 Even when I asked him for a really complicated butterfly!

  It is beautiful!  I want to put it on some fabric too, but started with just some new watercolors.  

 I don't want to give this book back to the library!  It has been a lot of fun, and I am just getting brave enough to (have brian) tackle some of the bigger pieces.  May have to get it for myself, or practice with what I have and put myself back on the wait-list.