Sometimes you have to sacrifice the body for your art

I had no idea that this could happen.  That seven educated woman could gather in our regular place, ready to take on the craft at hand, not knowing what would be waiting for us once we started.  If I had, I would have been more afraid. We laughed, told stories, ate a bit, .........and bled.  Never before have I encountered such a deadly form of creativity, and we have had people sew their fingers before, as well as the glue gun incident of the felt owl project.  Our group somehow manages to make crafting rowdy, but this was ridiculous.  I think only two of those present made it out without a call the the Red Cross, and some had to use more than one life line over the course of the project.  So, what craft is it that sends shivers down the spine of the most seasoned creator?!?! I speak, ladies and gentlemen, of the fearsome, the frightening, the always terrifying making of the rubber stamp!
(I will give you a moment to tend to the small children who are inevitably crying in fear and the sentence you just read)

 Anita made this craft sound so simple, just bring a well defined piece of clip art and she would provide the rest.  "The rest" being a mat to be carved, tracing paper, pens and markers for tracing and outlining, some awesome sets of carving tools and, thankfully, band aids.  We had picked some truly cool clip art to do, a wonderful collection of the lotus, a turtle, a mushroom, a sakura flower, an owl, a paw, and a sweet branch with cute tiny flowers.

So you cut out your clip art, trace it on your mat, and either carve out around your item, or carve the picture out for a reverse stamp.  Sounds easy, right? Well I am sure for an experienced carver, one with a slow steady hand, this would have been child's play.  But for us, all hopped up and sugar and laughing, it spelled a constant cry of "oww, BAND AID" added into the din of the talking around you.

But sacrifices must be made, so we buckled down and took one for the team. The crafting must go on and in the end we made some awesome stamps!

 Look what a good craftin will do to normal calm woman. See the insanity in her eyes, the lust for more crafting, this is it people, this is is the sickness!

The only cure is more crafting! So to save our friend, and host of our craft adventures, we dug in carved more and bled, all to save her. It was worth it. We got to make several stamps a piece and Anita didn't lose her mind, a little blood yes, but not her mental faculties. Thank goodness for that, she's pretty darn entertaining!

After we created our collection of cuties we help fulfill the destiny of every stamp, we inked those babies up!

EEEEE, I bet you are dying to see which stamp we are inking. Any guesses? It brings you a long balanced life, full of love and calming influences. Ha Ha, enter the Lotus!

Once all the stamps were done our lovely friend, saved from the illness above, stamped up all the personal carvings on fabric to be collected into a wonderful piece.  We do have a bit of a sad note to add at the end of this adventure, this is that last Craft Club for one of our members, though, hopefully not for good.  Renee is moving off to Canada for work.  We have volunteered, or threatened depending on how you look at it, to come see her and explore the crafting possibilities of her new home as soon as possible. We Love you Renee and we can't wait to come see you.

We sure do enjoy the craftin around here. Here's to hoping you do too! Remember, always keep the First Aid kit handy when crafting, truer words have never been spoken. Especially with this group.

Keep the crafting safe,
Kelly, the origami ninja

Sadie came away from this adventure exhausted.  I guess stamping can be hard without thumbs.

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