I thought I was probably done with this series of Variations on a Theme when I finished the textile version. However, quite some time ago I purchased a piece of linoleum for carving a stamp for printing and also a set of carving tools. They were sitting on the shelf begging to join the party. So I jumped into carving a stamp based on my photo for this theme.

You can see first the other variations and the original photo on these posts:
Variations on a Theme {Watercolor}
Variations on a Theme {Gelatin Plate Prints}
Variations on a Theme {Textiles}

My only other experience with using the carving tools was on a small eraser which was very simple. This time I was tackling something much more complicated. I probably should have watched a few videos about how to carve a linoleum block first, but I didn’t. Now that I carved it without knowing what I was doing, I probably will watch some to learn how to do it better next time. (I’ll confess I had to turn the linoleum over and start again after I carved away parts that I wanted to keep!)

My completed stamp:

I made the stamp a size that could fit on cards and stamped several types of paper using india ink, stamp pads, and embossing powders. I painted some of the stamped designs with watercolor and found out that my ink was not waterproof, but it still made an interesting design.

After all was dry, I assembled my stamped designs along with other papers into a collection of notecards.

Carving a stamp was fun and I look forward to creating more. Am I finished with my variations on a theme? Hmmmm…..