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Sunday, September 13, 2009

The Rebirth of Block Printing

 have been trying to come up with some new crafting ideas. It has to be inexpensive, unique, user friendly and did I mention inexpensive. All this was rattling around in my head, when I had a flash....wait for it....wait for it....Block Printing!


 About eight years ago, my artistic Boyfriend took a Block Printing class. He really enjoyed it and had gotten quite good at it. He made a print that we ended up using on our wedding invitations ( making him my artistic Husband).
 Well, life goes on, and with the birth of our son a lot of things fell by the wayside. For me, it was playing the guitar and sleeping all day. For my Husband it was calling chips and salsa a meal and Block Printing. So, I dusted off his box full of Block Printing supplies and tried my hand at it last night.


 Block Printing is a lot like using rubber stamps except you get to make the stamps your self. It's carved with a nifty little tool into squares of printing linoleum. Next, you ink your image and press it onto paper. Speedball Art is a great resource for Block Printing supplies and has a great online catalog.


  There is a learning curve and I made A LOT of mistakes. But, it was fun! I got to see the beautiful Block my sweet man made for our wedding invites for the first time in years. Very special.


 Another plus is that we seem to have most of the supplies we need for this craft(except for the carving tool) which meets my "Inexpensive" criteria.
  Next I want to try carving some blocks myself. I have some ideas of simple designs (owls,acorns,ukuleles etc.)and I am so excited to try! 
 High Fives for rediscovering Block Printing!!