The 12 Brands of Christmas - Brand #12 Softcut

Ever fancied carving your own designs and making your own prints?  For our final brand of Christmas, I'm taking a look at Softcut (the cream-coloured stuff), Linoleum (the grey-coloured stuff) and the carving tools required for DIY printing and stamping.

I started with a piece of Linoleum, and drew a design using a waterproof pen.

Using a Lino Cutter with a narrow blade, I carved the outline.  (Always carve away from you with all fingers behind the blade, and outwards from the design, then if the blade does slip, you haven't gouged across your lovely image - or your fingers!)

Changing to a wider blade, I carved out the background areas.  It helps to ink the lino up with archival ink and make test prints every so often so that you can see what areas still need to be cut away.

Leaving roughly carved edges gives your image a rustic feel.  And it means you don't need to be too precise ;)  I brayered Dylusions Paint onto the image and took a print on white cardstock.

I popped the print onto a background of Distress Paints, and into a box frame.  Would make a nice 'new home' gift, I think.


So next, I had a go with the Softcut.  This is more flexible than the Lino and carves slightly easier.  I decided to carve circles, but somehow it morphed into a rose...

A few test prints on scrap paper...

Brayered with Red Dylusions paint, stamped onto a Gelli plate piece from my review of Gelli Plates.

A bit of paint for a stem and leaves, a bit of stencilling, a bit of black and white pen work, and it's ready to be mounted onto a card.

I hope you've enjoyed this little review, and maybe inspired you to have a go.  Have a wonderful Christmas, and I hope Santa brings you loads of crafting goodies :)

Shirley x

linocut part 3

Hello!

Last time I have told you what materials you will need for your first steps in lino cutting. Today I will tell you how to start working with linoleum.

You will need clean and dry area when cutting the linoleum. If you purchased a size of linoleum you wanted you can start your work, if not, cut the linoleum to the size you want ( you will need a cutting mat and a sharp craft knife ).

If you have an idea what image you would like to cut then you win already. For the start use some simply designs.
There are three different ways to start the work.
1. You can use your sketch as your inspiration - drawing a design onto your linoleum using a pencil,
2. Use a black carbon paper to transfer your design onto the lino block,
3. Simply start to cut without any pencil lines in your linoleum.

Remember that it will be a 'mirror image' when you print it!

For some of you linoleum can be to hard. Put the lino block near a radiator or use a hairdryer to soft it. SoftCut is soft already, don't cut it in a full sun ( my mistake ) because the SoftCut will be oily in touch. Not a nice thing and smelly!

Ok, when everything is ready we can start cutting...

There is really only one and most important thing to remember - WATCH YOUR FINGERS WHEN CUTTING! Always cut away from you.
Other things which can help you:
- cut the lino block in small strokes,
- do not cut too deep - if you will need you can always cut more,
- rub out the pencil marks when finished cutting,
- and really obvious - areas you cut out won't print.

When your lino block is clean and smooth you can start printing...next time I will tell you about this.

Magda x

Stamp Carving - Jaine

I think when Vicki announced she'd managed to get lino cutting tools and Softcut stamp cutting material in to the shop, there was a general feeling of excitement all round, then Vicki sent me a sheet to play with and once I'd got it on my table it just sat there looking at me. Not from lack of inspiration, I knew what I wanted from it but from fear of cutting into it. I imagined cutting the perfect stamp then slicing into it and messing up the whole thing.

So there it sat until a coversation with Magda sparked me off to just give it a go. Was I happy I did! Once I'd made that first cut I was hooked.

I wanted to create a head for using in my journals. A big enough sized head and without hair so I can add any hair-do I like.

I turned to my magazine tracing method again and found the perfect head shot and traced it out onto the surface of the rubber.

Making that first cut following the lines with the smallest cutting tool was scarey but  taking it slowly I could control the cut very well.

Now at this point maybe I should have listened to Magda because once I'd inked it up to test it, it became obvious that what I actually wanted to create was an outline stamp. This is not easy and not really recommended for beginners.

It was too ambitious for my first stamp and I made a lot of mistakes along the way but I'll know better next time.

 I cut away with a larger cutting tool testing the stamp every so often to see how it was looking. Here you can see I still had to cut a little bit on the left side of the stamp and in fact in the end I decided it was the type of stamping block I was using that didn't really help.

You can see that on the left hand side I've cut away a large portion of the face, this is because, not having an outline on that side meant I could cut away more rubber to save me having to scoop it out.

So there she is all finished. She's not perfect but I guess practice makes perfect.  I also cut the word LIFE too and used a Finnabair doily stamp by Prima as hair.

Happy Easter weekend

Jaine
Now I'm totally hooked and can't wait to

Power flower - linocut part 1

Hello everyone!
The weather has been fab in last few days! I can't sit and work in my studio that's why I try to work in my garden. Today I would like to show you my flowers. No! No gardening and flowers from my garden. But I used a cutting tool...

This is a very simple print. If you are a beginner it's something which you can make without any problem. If you are still thinking about lino printing but you are not sure where to start next time I will have for you some guides.

The first print is on a white cardstock.

The second one on a background which I prepared before using gesso and Dylusions Ink Sprays.

Magda