Still Cleaning After All These Years.....

Yup. I am still at it.  As soon as I finish, I will probably have a couple of days before I have to start over.

Who makes all of the messes?  I am sure it isn't me.  I am too busy cleaning....Honest.

A few days ago, on one of the mini forums, someone suggested following About.com's instructions for making block print stamps and making mini  stamps.

Some of you may remember when I did these a few years ago. 

Yes.  I ran across them whilst cleaning and decided that they needed to be used.  I am thinking of printing some tee shirts.

Anyway, in a moment of madness(rest period from cleaning) I wondered why they couldn't be used to make tile and brick paper.

When I make small stamps I use the white ones that you see in the photo.  You can get them at Walmart and other office supply stores.  Walmart is cheaper. 

First I took one and simply ran my carving tool down the center and made four lines across it.  That turned out to be about 6" tile in real life.  I didn't try to make a perfect test print.  I wanted to see what would happen if I didn't re-ink it.  The center row it the results.

By the way, I first inked the block with the dark purple color that you see at the back.  I tried for a stippled effect.  Then I put on a coat of orange, pretty solid.  That gave it the look of sautillo tile.

I think that, if it were stamped on maybe gray or beige, it would look pretty good.  Then I could use a stylus on the grout lines to give it dimension. 

After that, I made one into bricks.  I free handed it.  I am just experimenting....Nothing serious.

You can see where I didn't press down hard enough in some areas.  If I were doing it seriously, I would use a brayer on the stamp.

If you don't have a lino v cutter, you can still do it with an exacto knife.  Run the blade down both sides of the line at an angle.

With tile and brick, you don't have to carve away the background. 

I just used the colors that I had on hand, but there are a huge selection of colors in stamping ink these days.  Scrap booking stores would probably  be the place to look.

Anyway, I am finished experimenting for now....I need to go back to cleaning....Ick!

See you tomorrow.