Stamp making

Over her winter break, granddaughter Sophia spent a few days with me. 
I proposed some potentially messy projects, but she said she wanted to carve stamps.

One of the things I've decided to encourage now that she is older is to take some time before a creative endeavor and think a bit about it. That is partly because that is something I would like to do more myself. 

So instead of willy-nilly, freeform carving of this and that, we took time to draw a few designs and plan the stamps we'd like to have. 

That, and a reminder that words/letters/numbers should be carved reversed,  was pretty much all my direction to her. I was truly amazed at what she came up with and at her skill in wielding the tools. 

These were her first stamps:

Her design page:

Oh, and I also told her a horror story about running a similar wood-carving tool into the web of my left hand when I was her age, and so she was very careful with the tool.

Hands down, her stamps were better than mine, though I do like my yes!. I had her make some hearts for me and my husband asked for one for his band, PJO. 

My design page: