The Gift of Stamps

Closer look of the actual carved stamp (1 of 3) 

These are finally done, and the recipient which is my friend Kyle Ankney, knew they'd be late for his Christmas gift. Which if you don't know him you can find him on Twitter, and Youtube. These homemade stamps very much describe him as a person, since he will be the first to admit/joke that he is an Elitest, likes pretty things, and would love to pound a denied stamp on any piece of paper in metallic gold ink. He also complains that he has horrible handwriting, so I made him a set of stamps that will look the exact way he wants, every time. Plus side is he also loves them, so the gift was successful!

Denied is upside down, but here is all the respective stamps in gold ink. 

 Anyway, onto the process. Everything here is handmade except for the knobs on top. Those I just bought unfinished cabinet door handles and glued them on with E6000 glue. If you don't know what that is, it's industrial strength glue to be used on pretty much any medium. Those handles won't be going anywhere. The rubber is just the typical wood block print rubber, but the softer kind. I just cut it with a knife to the sizes I wanted, drew on my letters and then carved it with a speedball tool.

A look at the clear coat and color of the wood.

The polyurethane process, due to the current cold weather is what gave me the most trouble. I had to wet sand them a few times since it was causing bubbles. I got them out though, and what usually would only take two coats, took four. But I'm happy with how they turned out. I did not stain them before hand with anything, so the color there is the natural wood and amber of the polyurethane. I think they turned out really pretty, and despite my set backs I think they look good.

I've shown these to a few people and they actually said they'd be interested in buying their own set of custom stamps. Since I have been making plans to sell original paintings soon, would this be something you all would be interested in as well? Let me know in the comments! I really enjoyed the process and would have no problem making more of these little things. It was also fun to do something different and make me problem solve on another level.

Christmas Gifts

So here are two out of the three things I have been working on lately for Christmas. And now that they have them I can post them up to share with the rest of you! Though there is one other that is taking longer, that I'll post up later. But for now, 2 out of 3 isn't bad right?

The first is a picture of my grandparents dog Bruiser. Who recently passed away due to bone cancer. We all miss him dearly, and when they unwrapped it everyone got a little emotional. But it was happy tears, or at least I would hope. I decided to depict him in one of his funnier moments so it'd be something nice to look back on. And since you have not seen a picture of him, that painting is to scale. He really was that huge.

This other set of three images I did are of a video game my sister and her boyfriend are obsessed with, which is Red Dead Redemption. I can't say I don't love it myself. But! Their apartments decor is mostly art prints, and ones where the alignment of the prints are off on purpose. So instead of making just a poster like image, I thought it'd be fun to do almost a deconstructed set of three images that reflect the main character of the game. 

The other goal is to make it similar enough to where it would work with the other prints they already had. Which all have a very rough, possibly hipster feel to them.  I may do this again and make a series, since it was fun to try to think of three different instances, or objects that I felt really reflected the character as a whole. Doing John I found was difficult since he is such a complex character, so trying it with others could prove a nice challenge. 

They seemed really excited when they got them, and immediately pointed out that they would work well with their "gun prints" which was the point. So all in all, 2 out of the 3 so far have been successful! The third you will be updated on soon, probably in the next few weeks. 

Dog Chase

This is just a simple warm up sketch I did a while ago, nothing too fancy. Though I do feel like this may represent me right now. Running to keep track of all the holiday things I have to do. I missed a week of posting, but I've been working on Christmas gifts. Which I will post after the holiday is done since I know the people they are intended for are watching my blog. In the mean time though, you can have this funny little sketch, I may post up another later today to make up for my absence.

If you don't follow me on Twitter as well then I would like to take this time to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! :)

Bad Mr. Fluffykins!

Mr. Fluffykins has been caught by the caring, but angry woman of the house...

This is just a simple holiday wallpaper I promised I would make you guys this season. If you need smaller sizes let me know via the comments (don't forget the dimensions!) or in the contact form I have. I hope you all enjoy it! I thought it was a hilarious little story, which was sort of inspired by a friends cat. Oh, and made it less busy for people who enjoy less on their screen. Which is understandable if you use icons. It starts to look cluttered quickly.

Anyway, keep staying in the spirit of the holidays and don't forget to tell people how much you care this season!