Mike and I had the great idea of assigning tables at the wedding by beetle family, so each table will have its own beetle. I was brainstorming ideas for representing the beetles at the tables. I thought we could just find a cool picture of a beetle from each family and put it in a standup photo holder, but that isn't very creative or interesting. So I did a little googling and learned a little about stamp making. I thought it would be really neat to create a stamp for each family and then use that stamp on the table identifier and on the name place cards. I got pretty excited about the idea so I went to the craft store and bought a
Speedball Block Printing Kit like this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Speedball-Super-Value-Printing-Starter/dp/B000SKT0US
Mike and I jumped in creating our stamps after dinner. I chose to do a weevil because it is relatively simple. Mike decided on a stag beetle, significantly more difficult! So we drew our stamp idea on a piece of paper and then transfered it to the Speedycut Block. I carved around the weevil and Mike carved out his stag beetle so we could get an idea of the difference. I was not exactly patient with this so I jumped in a little aggressively and while the final product was ok, it could have been better if I took a little more time (I just wanted to see the final product!). Mike, the essence of patience, took his sweet time and turned out a lovely stag beetle stamp!
In the end we decided not to use the rubber stamps for the final stamps because it is too weak and easy to cut through. We'll probably move over to the lino blocks as they are much more stiff. It was a learning experience and a fun activity to do together. With a little more patience we could come up with some really neat stamps and cool table identifiers.
Here are the stamps on paper:
Katie's Weevil
Mike's Stag Beetle (where all the single males will sit)
After a couple of weeks I finally learned how to sew hexagons together with a machine using this tutorial: http://www.ladyharvatine.com/2010/03/hexagonia.html
Last weekend I worked on a second stamp. This time I used a Speedball Linoleum Block. These blocks allow for more control when carving and don't crumble like the rubber blocks did. I was able to create more detail with this block and even though it took about 2 hours to make, the end result is very nice. I think using these blocks, the prints will turn out really nicely for table identifiers. I also have a new business idea! Since these blocks are going to be long lasting, I might as well do something else with them...like make cards. Here is my first attempt. I used Artoz cards from the local craft store and oil based ink. I would eventually buy nicer paper and probably use something other than oil based ink (it takes forever to dry), but I think there is a whole world of bug lovers who would eat these up. Here's my first set of 5 cards. What do you think?!
