Undefined: The Stamping Tribute to My Brother

 In April my brother Parry past away due to complications from Crohn's Disease. 

My brother was wonderfully creative, and was a great help when something was not working right on a card.  He would give me one suggestion that always would complete the project. 

Parry was always looking through my Stampin' Up! Catalogues to find "manly" stamps.  I remember him asking "is there any paw print stamps?" 

I was very excited when Stampin' Up! came up with the Undefined Carving Kit, a kit that allows you to carve any image you want. I immediately put in an order and when I received my order started carving paw prints in dedication to my brother.  I decided to do a Wolf, Puma and Tiger paw as these are the animals my brother had drawn in the past.


The Undefined Kit includes two carving tools, rubber, foam, 4 wood blocks, one island indigo marker, 3 postcards, instruction sheet and a stamp image template.  

The steps to making the stamps are fairly simple. First you draw an image with a 2B pencil (something greater then HB). Turn the image over and rub it on the rubber with your finger, you will then get a reverse image.   The rubber is then ready to carve. Use the large tool to take out large spaces and the small tool to go around the edges of the image.  Be very careful not to over do it especially with small areas of your image, once you make the cut there is no reversing it.  Cut around the finished image with scissors.  Stamp the carved image with Staz-on ink and apply it to the block where you will be placing the image.  Then take the foam and cut around your carved image and stick the carved image to the block.  You are Done!  

I took the post cards and stamped all over them and sent them to a few family members. I can't wait until they see them, I bet they will never know that I created the stamps myself. 

Another project I have been working on is a CD Compilation for my Mom.  Parry was a huge music lover and had over 700 songs on his I-Pod.  This project was difficult for me to do as many songs remind me of funny times Parry and I had together.  But it also was very fun.     

I ended up making three CD's for my Mom to listen to.  For the CD covers I used my Undefined: Paw Print Stamps and the Morning Post Alphabet Stamps, which made a very manly front cover.    

For the back of the CD I printed out the song lists on very vanilla card stock and finished it off with a few paw prints

It is so wonderful that Stampin' Up! has given me a great creative outlet to deal with the passing of my brother.  I know Parry would have been very proud of what I have created.