I've been thinking about signing up for Julie Balzer's online stamp carving class. I think that would be a fun thing to learn, but I'm saving my money for another purchase right, so I'll have to wait. Anyway, I was talking to another girl in my group and she had heard that it might be possible to carve on thick fun foam. Since I have some of that, I decided to give it a try.
First off, the fun foam is much much softer than stamp rubber, and it's foam with air pockets - not solid rubber. If you draw a design on it to carve, your pencil makes an indent. Not good if that is an area that you want as part of your image. I tried carving with my stamp carving tools. I have to say, I really did not have success. Rather than 'cut' the foam, the blade 'tore' it, leaving jagged edges instead of a smooth, clean cut. I did make an image, but it was either torn or I pressed down with my tool and made an indent as part of the design. Here is a closeup of my stamp and a stamped image. The stamp is 1-3/8" across. It is not what I would consider a good stamp image.
I decided to go ahead and use what I had made to make a card. Using riding hood red ink, I stamped three times and then cut around the images with deckle scissors. I sponged the edges with the same ink. Then I punched three hearts, two from red patterned paper and one white one, on which I had stamped the word 'love'. I sponged the edges on those, too, as well as on the edges of the card. Then I glued them all to the card and added faux stitching.
I think I'll use stamp carving rubber next time. What do you think? Thanks for stopping by.
