Just a little nutty...

Quick, what do you think this is?

Whoa!

Just my Remy wearing a birthday toy...on his face :-D

So here he is sans "nose wrap":

Can you see the resemblance?

Remy's antics have me laughing all the time. Am I lucky or what?

Repetitive Variation or 'Just the scarf part, please'.

I carved a rubber stamp for our holiday cards last week. Off and on I have been sampling patterned papers to use for paper-piecing just the scarf part of the image but nothing really worked.
So-o-o, I decided to create my own.

Sharpie red and green colors say "holiday" to me.

I like this kind of thing; it is what I think of as repetitive variation and I don't find it to be boring. I go into a kind of zone and before I know it, voila, done!

Picasso Dog-ging the Rhinoceros

Never having really studied a rhinoceros before, sketching one (even of the "Picasso dog" type") has given me a new appreciation of this stunning creature. I don't know much (yet) about their nature, but I do remember reading long ago in the mists of  time that rhinoceroses are not heavily endowed with intelligence, but so what...have you seen a baby rhino? Adorable.
So here's my Picasso Rhinoceros:

"Picasseros"? or "Rhinocero"???

Up close...

a beautiful sight:

"Even with the cold and overcast sky, I am still so pretty!", said Rose.

Just one of the blooms from Romy's rose bush continuing to surprise me every morning.

And then, when I was out in the back yard with Remy, this fallen aspen leaf caught my eye:

Cool, huh.

Not obsessed...

with carving stamps - perhaps mildly addicted!
I found a nice cigar box to keep them in:

Yes, I will need more storage :-)

Why all the fish? I was working on a monotype that needed a LOT of changes - color being the most critical:

Not liking the red...

So after I added more color to obscure the disconcerting red and yes, the muddy pink, I had something that reminded me of the sea. And then of course where were the fish and vegetation?...a nice opportunity to make some stamps for a specific piece:

Transformation!

Bummer :-(

I used a different material (Moo Carve) to carve a positive image. The results were not great, unfortunately.
Here he is:

O no-o-oh :-(

The intact stamped image is my test image. I washed the stamp and when I patted it dry the stamp looked like what you see in the photo. Ouch.
Moo Carve is really easy to carve - very pliable. Previous stamps I have done were carved from Speedball "Easy Carve"; it's a bit more dense and holds the carved line better.
So I tried a negative image with more success (yay!):

Negative image stamp using Moo Carve.

I am so new to stamp carving that every stamp is a chance to learn...something :-)

A bird in the hand...

which in this case is a bird critter:

Rubber stamps, yummy :-D

He's a pretty big stamp:

As a rookie stamp carver, I'm still experimenting material removal.

With Copic colors - hmmm, guess he has a crown now:

Perhaps he's an extremely tall duck???

I use my Copics more like watercolor - very little blending..