Hand-carved Banner Stamps

A couple weeks ago, after seeing Julie Fei-Fan Balzer use a hand-carved stamp in her art journal during our 30 Days In Your Journal class, I was inspired to get the things needed to carve my own stamps.  And then they sat on my desk.  And sat.  And sat.  I was intimidated to actually carve into the blocks, afraid it would be too hard to do, afraid my shaky and weak hands wouldn't be able to do it, afraid I'd mess them up.  And then Julie posted THIS post on her blog, and I just couldn't contain myself any longer...because I'm such a sucker for banner stamps.  I don't actually own any...but I adore banners.  I've been wanting some banner stamps for, well, forever.  

So the other night, while watching t.v., I finally opened my carving tools, and the block of carving material, and I took the leap.  And a couple hours later, I had four beautiful hand-carved banner stamps!  I was SO ELATED!  And let me tell you - THIS IS ADDICTING!  I have so many ideas now...I'm super excited!

Tomorrow is my husband and my's 7th anniversary, and while I didn't get make his cards, I decided to decorate the envelopes...using my new banner stamps and some watercolors.  I am totally in love with how they turned out!!  (I intentionally carved my stamps so that my alphabet stamps would fit in them.)

(I am trying to start including a list of products I use when I can, when I show projects I've done - I hope that makes it easier for you to know and understand what I've done, even if I don't write a step-out tutorial.  Also, if I can't find a link to exactly the materials I've used, I'll list a couple of similar products which could be substituted for what I used.  Disclaimer - these are affiliate links, so if you purchase something from the links, I will get a very small bit of pocket change from your purchase - so it helps you and me keep our art supply shelves full!  ;p  Additionally, you may have noticed under the header of my blog, a page titled, "My Favorite Art Supplies."  This is an Amazon store I have set up listing some of MY favorite art supplies and books - to make it easy for you to find the things I use everyday.  There is even a shopping cart right there, so you don't even have to leave my blog!  How fun is that?  Just to clarify - you aren't paying anything extra - the store is just giving me a few pennies from your purchase as a thank you for referring you.)

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