Something About Nothing

Many years ago I was trying to come up with an email address for my first Juno account.  Anyone remember Juno??? That seems like eons ago!  Anyway, my two oldest had come up with clever email addresses for themselves.  A name that was more original than just a variation of their name and it used things they liked.  I, on the other hand, was struggling to come up with something I liked. I kept saying to myself "I just want something clever!"  Finally about two in the morning it hit me: Something Clever!  I would be literal!  Ever since then my email addresses and then my blog have been some type of variation on this theme of "Something Clever."  I tried out CleverLady for awhile but I thought it sounded a bit too presumptuous, so I changed it to SomethingLisa.  This became my user name on Pinterest , and lots of other sites, and eventually became the name of my shop on Etsy.    I bring this up because I have been thinking ...

Whenever I visit Phoenix I feel a strong desire to visit two stores: Portillo's and Jerry's Artarama.   This past visit was not an exception, and as always I left both places of business very satisfied.  One of the items I purchased at Jerry's Artarama was a small French Curve: I haven't a clue how to properly use a French Curve, but lately I have felt the desire to have one, so I bought one. It was less than $3 and it makes me happy.  I decided to try it out in a stamp design and after some playing around came up with this: An odd shape.  Kind of looks like a fancy X??? It was late when I finished this and so I decided to call it my stamp for Day 26.  The next day I started drawing out some possibilities to take the stamp a bit further: And after an hour of slow carving I had my completed stamp: Am I the only one who see's the number 96?   Very odd stamp.   Not my favorite.   Oh well, on to the next one!

While the family and I were away in partly-sunny, but warmer than home, Arizona for Christmas, it snowed about a foot and a half at home!  The photos of snow in my Facebook feed inspired me to create a snowman for my Christmas stamp. I might need to make him a few friends.

A small repeating 1" square made on Christmas Eve.

Another flower from "garbage."  This piece is kind of 1" square. And as long as I don't smear them, they make nice flowers!

This little garbage stamp is 1/2" by 1".  Maybe I need to get a magnifying glass for making stamps.  I love how I can see everything in this photo!  Hahaha

No matter what you celebrate this Holiday Season,  I wish you Joy and Happiness today and always! Joy Wreath by Annelise Bennion Used with permission. Make the world a brighter place in all you do! Light the World by Anneliese Bennion Used with Permission

This bit of "garbage" rubber is a lot bigger than the last one.  I wanted to try something a little different with it. It makes for an interesting circle, or half circle in this case. I like it even better with a little watercolor.

I bought some new carving material to try out: It is soft and easy to carve in but is suppose to hold up better than other soft carving materials.  I enjoyed carving with it.  Time will only tell how much I like it's last-ability. In case you haven't noticed.  I like flowers.  I used a 2" square and carved this off-set daisy. I had fun stamping it in a repeat too: I think I want to do a few more of these to have more variety in the repeat.

I have a dream of creating some larger carved stamps which look more like a carved linoleum or wood block, and after creating this photo of my cat using the Prisma app, I thought it was a great image to try out a more print looking stamp. I really have no idea what I am doing and so I made a lot of random marks to lighten up the background on the left hand side.  I wasn't happy with it.  It looked too organized. So. . .I took a deep breath and carved more away! And after a few more little bits here and there I decided to call it good. This is giving me courage to try more prints like this!

When carving stamps you often end up with a lot of small pieces of leftover rubber.  The technical term is "garbage."  Hahaha  Most of the pieces are strips too small to do anything with, but there are often small pieces which can be used to create great garbage stamps.  They don't take long to carve and often end up creating beautiful patterns. The day after I created this garbage stamp I saw where Katie Turner used her small triangle garbage stamp to create a skirt for a drawn image.  I thought it was so brilliant I had to try it with my little triangle. Mine could use some work but it was a fun idea to take for a spin! 

I love making patterns!  Especially quarter repeat patterns where I'm not exactly sure how things will come out once they are carved and printed! This stamp is 2" square. I need to stamp this out on some fabric!

This commission project took months because the client and I don't live in the same state, and she is very left brain and I am very right brain.  We don't always speak the same language.  Plus she is working on her Phd, so the time we spend talking about the projects she requests are very limited.  Oh, and did I mention she is my daughter?  I wouldn't do this for just anyone, well at least not without a great big bill at the end! She had purchased a new journal and wanted something on the front to make it her own.  Last year I had created an elephant for her.  This year she had a new idea.  Her first thought was a mandala of some type, maybe with a flower.  She wasn't able to be very specific so I just went with what I liked, because, well, why not!  The worst she could say was no . . . and she did. "No, mandala probably wasn't the right idea.  A motif of some sort with a simple flower." "No, too much."  I still really lik...

I'm still a bit obsessed with creating patterns I can print over the top of the polka dots.  The latest are slices of fruit: Orange, apple, pomegranate, cucumber, watermelon and kiwi. Anyone want to give me more ideas for things I can carve and then print on the polka dots?

Show and Tell is usually the best part of our quilt guild meetings!  We have so many fantastic quilters and I am always inspired by all they do.  Here are just a few photos from this month's meeting. Ruth Ewers, far right, showing off her beautiful quilt. Marsha Cardwell's Paula Nadlestern quilt. (right) Julia Smith's wedding ring quilt. (right) Julia said she made similar animal throws for her kids and is now making them for her grandchildren. She no longer has a pattern so she has just traced it from the old throws.  I loved this idea! Pat Parkin & Joyce Ekstrand have designed at ruler to create tuffets with. They created this cute quilt and had it on display in their booth in Houston. (Pat is pictured here) Wendy Ingham made this lovely tree skirt without using a pattern. She looks like she is an angel about to take flight! Nan Sturgill always has a fantastic quilt to show. Sorry about the blurry photo but I really liked this quilted...

As I've been plotting out what I can stamp on top or next to the polka dots,  I've been thinking a lot about swirls.   Swirls are harder to carve then they look - at least for me they are - so I made a few sample blocks. I'm not sure if I will be making a large repeat block of swirls yet.