A Parade of Elephants - my Stamp It Up Swap pouch finish!!

A few weeks ago I signed up for Nicky's Stamp It Up swap. I was, to be honest, pretty apprehensive about my stamp-carving abilities and how it was all going to work out, but willing to give it a try. In the back of my mind, my plan was if the stamp carving all went terribly wrong was to buy a stamp, rather than disappoint my partner.

I ordered my supplies, raided the local pound shop for rubbers (at 27c each, they were not a huge investment of money!) The supplies duly arrived and I looked at them fearfully for a few days until I finally worked up the courage to give it a shot.

Luckily though, the stamp carving turned out to be a LOT more fun that I imagined it would be. I had a look at some of the tutorials recommended and gave it a whirl. I played around with lots of different ideas - some turned out terribly, some worked ok and could be developed a bit more. It became pretty addictive actually. (Despite stabbing my finger pretty badly with the scalpel in the process.)

But I was still looking for an idea, and rummaging around in my fabric stash I came across an elephant print and decided to try it.  I managed to replicate the shape reasonably well on the rubber. My first effort was too small, and didn't have the sort of clarity I wanted.

So I tried out a bigger carving, which I was much happier with. And then I realised my big and small elephants could work as a parade of mum and baby elephants for real cuteness factor.

I was pretty sure my partner would be happy with that, but I tried another idea, just in case. The elephants won out in the end though. I was really happy with these leaves though and think I might try and work them into a design of some type when I only have myself to please.

The process of carving stamps is definitely fun and worth a shot. Fabric stamping is something I'm new to but I will be continuing and I think I'll buy a little set of letters as they would be so useful to have.

Once I had my idea in place, I stamped it on some Essex linen, and used some of my new Koi fabric to set off the purple and pinks. I back it with fusible fleece and added some hand quilting and beading for the eyes. Then all I needed to do was add the lining and zip and sew it up into a zip pouch.

And its all ready to send off to my partner, in perfect time for the mailing window. I hope she likes it because I certainly had fun making it!

Linking up to Finish it Up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts.