My co-worker has a son who hates mustard so much that it has become a curse word in her house. If something goes really badly, he says "Mustard!", like it's his own private curse word. If I were to have a word like that, it would probably be 'squirrel!'. They're always stealing my garlic plants and digging up my delicate early spring plantings looking for nuts they forgot about. They've destroyed all of my melon seedlings one-by-one, and all my rare cucumber seedlings. I check on them everyday and at least half a dozen times every spring I'll see them mangled with a little hole and a peanut shell sitting at the scene of the crime. My neighbor, however, loves squirrels and is the source of the peanut menace. My owl statue and occasional squirts from the hose don't deter them in the least.

I'm going to make my own squirrel stamp today and use it at work as an indicator of shenanigans. I'll use it to mark old scripts and other print-outs that would wreak havoc if taken as the latest version. And if I still make the same mistakes I'll yell 'Squirrel!' and not the f-word, which I have become more and more accustomed to using. I can also use it to mark old things in the fridge. Yes, this two week old pasta salad is squirrel, indeed.



I have a little bag of Mujirushi erasers that has lost its utility now that I rarely use pencils. One of these will become my stamp body. I'll also be using a carver that would be typically used on lino or wood blocks.



First, I took a regular pen and drew a picture of my squirrel on the eraser.



Next, I carved out all of the spots without marker. I like to leave a little bit behind, however, to add texture to the finished image. The top of the eraser is only 1.5 cm on each side, so I went slow and used small strokes.



I did a few test stamps and carved off extra bits to get a clearer image. Finally, after a few rounds I had the image I wanted.

Labels: papercraft, projects

posted by Alison 1/14/2009 10:28:00 PM : (0) comments : splink