Block-printing fun

A couple weeks back, I hosted a block-printing party and invited all my girls over to partake in the stamping fun. It rained all day but that didn’t stop us from setting up our craft station under my carport. I was on a mission to get some of my Christmas gifts done, so I came with blank kitchen towels and geometric patterns for inspiration {more on my Christmas gifts later!}. . .

Heather brought all of the supplies, including the Carving blocks, ink, pencils, sketching notebooks, rollers and paint plates. Each of us came with material or fabric we wanted to print on — a note here, block-print on linen or something with a little bit of texture. As I mentioned, I brought towels to print on for holiday gifts. The girls brought a little bit of everything – blank totes, make-up bags, gift tags, blank cards and napkins. After doing some idea sketching and drawing out our designs, we started carving them into our blocks:

The rain came and went, and out came the rainbow — just in time for us to start stamping! Actually, we were all kind of in our own worlds. Some spent most of the time carving, others moved right into stamping once their block design was ready. The best part about block-printing with friends {in my opinion} is the ability to use each other’s block designs. Do a little wash, pick a new color, and you can mix & match block designs. Instead of using all my time on one design, I was able to use multiple designs for my towels {thanks, girls!}. I really wish I would have taken more “after” photos. Everyone’s projects came out so great. For a really great how-to on block-printing, visit this page. It’s pretty close to how we did it.  Or, you could spend a whole day browsing all of the block-printing designs on Pinterest. Lots of DIY inspiration there. I think I’m completely hooked. I’m already dreaming of my next project . . . onesies, totes, note cards, everything.