Bunny Old Skool block print

I've been working on block printing for a while and decided to go for something a little bigger than I had before, and with multiple blocks and colors. 

I also wanted to do something where I could vary the main print a bit by having different add-ons.  In this case, I have the rabbit as the main image, and the walkman can easily be exchanged for a cookie or a cross or a flower or whatever, and the text can be changed as well, making a totally different type of image.

I started out by carving a large (10") bunny in a different style than I am used to (usually, I do outlines, but this was filled).  I carved some alphabet blocks too, in a typewriter font, and then decided to add to it by making a walkman-style image to stick in the bunny's hand, and some earphones for his rabbity ears.  Here's the result:

 

So I made a giant patch with it and put it on sale in my etsy shop, figuring people could stick it on the back of their hoodies or jackets, or on a tote bag or something.  Clearly, the patch would need to be trimmed and sewn on, but I think it would make a cute design.   You can get it here in my etsy store!

I also used it as the basis for a zazzle design.

And you can buy the whole series of Old Skool walkman-wearing bunny stuff here in my zazzle store.

Not sure if anyone else will think it's as funny as I do, but just me thinking it's funny is a start, no?

Dish Towel and Naughty Fox

This is what I made today :0)  I think it's kinda cute, but then again, I really like this little cupcake stamp.  In any case, it's a dish towel, in case you couldn't tell, and one of those vintage-y looking ones made of faux-sackcloth.   You can get it here if you are at all interested.

I am rather disappointed in my other project, though.  I used my new little fox stamp to stamp on an old hoodie sweatshirt.  As my students would say: "Epic fail."  The first time I did this, the paint stuck to the stamp, for some reason, and then blotched on the hoodie.  I tried to fix it by reworking the stamp a little and then restamping over the first lines in a darker color.  Okay, that was better.  Set the paint and decided to wash it because the hoodie was all creased from being folded up.

Turns out the paint wasn't set.  Most of it came off, the black paint kinda smeared and it looks like a total fail, which I think it is.  Here you can see my shame:

The foxes were originally meant to be dark orange.  My paint was also a fail because it had somewhat dried and coagulated to a thick orange paste.  Oh well.  Some things just aren't meant to be.

Such a long time. Christmas hoodies, etc.

So I haven't posted in a while. It's been so cold here in the midwest that school was canceled in most districts two days in a row. I got Friday off, and Monday is MLK day, so I really have a four day weekend. I just realized that my doggie's multitudes of skin problems are not allergies but a reaction to electric heat and the dryness of it. So I have to keep the heat down at 60*, which he loves, the cats hate, and I tolerate. I live on the bottom floor of a three floor condo, so I was probably heating the whole building anyhow (which is why my electric bill is $170 a month for a tiny condo!!). Now, my neighbors upstairs can pay for their own heat! The I have the "ghetto humidifier": a pot of boiling water on the stove.

Made and sold a few things over break, and I have about $100 in my paypal account now, which is awesome for me. If I just listed things more often, I'd be $500 richer a month, right? Ha. Laziness gets in the way.

I made my first two stenciled hoodies for my brother and my sister-in-law. We have been into making gifts for each other, and hoodies are everyone's favorite thing to wear in the midwest in winter, right? Anyhow, I am abnormally proud of these sweatshirts, so here they are:


The DNA Geek one is for my lil brother. He is a biologist and a self-proclaimed geek. I am telling everyone that you haven't really lived until you've cut a stencil of a DNA double helix. Really.



This one was for my sister-in-law, who reads more than me, which I didn't think was possible. Haha. She blogs about it at: http://openmindinsertbook.blogspot.com/ . The stencil on it was much easier. The hoodie looks better on her than on my dummy.

When I showed people the hoodies, most of them said, "Won't your brother and his wife beinsulted?" or "That's not nice! Who'd want to wear something that said that?" Apparently, they don't know our family....

Thought later I should have kept the stencils and made more sweatshirts and maybe put them in my etsy store. Too late. Threw the stencils away; they were fragile and made of cardstock anyhow. Limited runs, I guess. Not that I think the world is running amuck with self-proclaimed book nerds and DNA geeks, but there's gotta be some.

That's all for now. Maybe I'll post again soon. Haha. That laziness thing again....

(If you do want a sweatshirt like this, feel free to go to my etsy store and convo me, and maybe I can remake the stencils....)