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Thursday, April 28, 2011

rolling pin stamps

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I am always trying to find easy ways to incorporate layers of pattern into my surface design when I am making hand painted paper and fabric.


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My favorite way to incorporate pattern is by making my own stamps and wood blocks. But after buying a few mini rolling pins, I had the brilliant idea to create some rolling pin stamps that I could use to create quick layers of pattern.


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I started with mini rolling pins (and for the life of me I can't remember where I got them!) but you could also use full size rolling pins.


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Originally I thought I would carve patterns with my wood carving tools into the wooden rolling pins but I ran out of time! Since I use craft foam for a lot of my own hand carved stamps, I have a lot of it on hand! I decided to use the foam to cut out shapes- it is flexible and very easy to use with paint.


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I cut out lots of shapes from the foam


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and then with hot glue, I glued the shapes to the surface of the rolling pin.

It is not necessary to use craft foam- you really could think outside the box and use just about anything that could be glued to the surface and create a unique pattern.


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After the entire surface of the rolling pin was covered I used a brush to add paint


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and then I rolled it across the surface.


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I was able to roll it across the surface about three or four times without adding more paint.

This is MUCH easier than stamping or using a wood block where you often have to add paint or ink after every transfer to the surface.


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I got creative and used all sorts of different shapes cut from the craft foam


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and even carved some simple details with my wood burning tool.

tip- a wood burning tool will carve (or burn away) texture from the surface of the craft foam.


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I created all kinds of papers,


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I added the patterns to the top of canvas that had been painted


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and even rolled pattern right over the top of hand dyed muslin.


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Such a quick and easy way to add pattern, layers and texture to your surfaces!

70 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:39 AM

    How clever! This would make gorgeous wrapping paper, or on the muslin such a pretty tote bag. Thanks for sharing!

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  2. Oh I love this idea! Thank you Alisa x

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  3. that is so awesome! I love the heat tool effect! This will be great to do with Dyllan for wrapping paper. Thanks again! :)

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  4. Smart and simple! Thanks for the inspiration.

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  5. You are so clever!!! I have been carving my own stamps out of erasers and speed ball stuff..can't remember the name of the darn thing..this is just down my alley...thanks for the demo..you wonderful girl!

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  6. Great idea! I'm going to give it a try. Thanks for sharing.

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  7. Seriously, you're a genius!

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  8. just amazing & awesome..love the idea :)

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  9. What an awesome idea! Definitely giving this a try. Thanks for sharing.

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  10. Fantastic idea! I would love to use it!

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  11. This is brilliant! The pictures are very great. Your side is full of inspiration. Thanks!

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  12. This is awesome! Where do you get your craft foam from? It would be awesome to get large sheets right there.

    Thanks!

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  13. What a brilliant idea! I will definitely be trying this.

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  14. This is great, I have to try this with my daughter :)

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  15. Wonderful idea - love it! Thanks.

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  16. Love this, I'm so so gonna try this.. love love thks for sharing with all of us!

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  17. Wow, that is an awesome idea! You are the absolute clever-est!

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  18. These shapes are so fun. They remind me of marshmallows. Now that would be an interesting thing to use :)

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  19. This is brilliant. Thanks for the tip.

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  20. this is brilliant !! i saw a whole heap of old rolling pins recently and was wishing i had use for them....your designs look fabulous...

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  21. What a fantastic idea I love it, very cool.

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  22. Anonymous3:32 PM

    Super tutorial. You could even put pattern into the foam before you cut it... use an embossing gun and press it onto stuff... rice, paperclips, seashells, etc., then cut it up and stick it on the pins.

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  23. What a great idea! The results look great.

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  24. wonderously brilliant and simple!!!! LOVEit!!!!

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  25. Anonymous5:30 PM

    what a cool idea, thank you for sharing Alisa :)

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  26. I'm swooning... what a fabulous idea! Can't wait to try it out!

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  27. I would love to try this with my kids! We recently made our own stamped wrapping paper and cards out of found objects (buttons, etc.) by gluing them onto wine corks, but I like this idea much better...especially to cover larger areas and layering the patterns/color. Plus, my boys might have an easier time making the impressions with a rolling pin. Thanks again for the clever ideas!

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  28. Great idea - will be looking for those patterns in your work now!

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  29. Beautiful! Love the mini rolling pin idea. What a great way to make lots of prints.

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  30. Very cool idea! I'm obsessed with surface design lately, and you are a constant source of inspiration for me! Thanks for sharing! Hugs!

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  31. Anonymous3:09 AM

    Ooh, what a brilliant idea :)

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  32. Such a great idea. Thanks for sharing.

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  33. Alisa,
    This is aswsome! I am deifintely in the hunt for rolling pins! TFS!!

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  34. Alisa buena idea!, siempre sorprendes con tu capacidad de inventiva. Tambien te podria servir un rodillo de pintor de esos de caucho y pegarle tus texturas.

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  35. che bella idea, proverò anche io.
    grazie per l'ispirazione.
    ciao Dany

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  36. Brilliant and beautiful! Thank you.

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  37. this is so fun! I have a bunch of misc alpha foam stamps, how cool would it be to try this!

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  38. Simple, great, effective.. clever! I can imagine the possibilities!

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  39. I took a shot at making something similar! You can find it here: http://chicaesartistica.blogspot.com/2011/04/over-at-alisa-burke-i-found-cute-idea.html

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  40. What a fantastic idea. Love, love, love it. Thanks
    Lee:)

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  41. How fun! For those who don't have a wood burner I saw on another blog (sorry I don't remember where) where they used an empty glue gun to engrave designs onto craft foam.

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  42. Super-cool idea! Can't wait to try it with my own rolling pin!

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  43. Great idea, I have a lot of foam stickers (bought for my kids) which would be really easy to use in a similar way. I've used them as stamps, but I really like the rolling idea for making quick backgrounds.

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  44. genius! i will definitely try it!
    thanks for sharing and for inspiring:)

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  45. This is so cool. I'm going to add a link from my web page for this.
    Very crafty!

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  46. Seriously could you be any more brilliant!? If you don't take it easy there isn't going to be any good ideas left for the rest of us to come up with!

    xoxo
    Janee
    yellowbirdyellowbeard.blogspot.com

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  47. What a super cool idea Alisa! Simple and way faster than stamping blocks. That is exactly the kind of technique I love!

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  48. That really was a brilliant idea!

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  49. Anonymous1:11 PM

    That is a great idea!

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  50. Can you share a little more about the specifics of the craft foam? Where do you get it? The name of the foam? Thanks so much!

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  51. Amazing idea!! Love!

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  52. I have to agree, this is a brilliant idea! I don't generally use shapes for patterns, but I use items to texturize with and I never would have thought of this to wrap my foil or cloth or other materials around. This idea will make my life much easier, thank you!

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  53. Thanks for the idea, I plan to use this with the children I work with that work best with movement and art based activities.

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  54. hi Alisa

    found you on Julies tonight.. how beautiful is that inky blue, simple and zappy idea!

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  55. Anonymous12:30 PM

    fabulous idea. I think I even have a spare rolling pin.....

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  56. I just LOVE this idea! So, I dragged my 4 kiddos out yesterday in search of mini-rolling pins. Tried Jo-Ann's, no luck. Called Michaels, they said they had them...went, and they only had ONE in the whole store. Got it...but wanted more. So I went to the Dollar Tree...would you believe they didn't carry rolling pins at all??? LOL So final stop - HOME DEPOT. Bought a 1" by 10 foot PVC pipe, for a whopping $1.49; they cut it into 12 1-foot pieces for FREE, and now I have 12 of them to work with! :) Happy artist here! Hubby's taking my 6-yr old son to Universal Studios tomorrow, and me and the girls are going to play!!

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  57. Love these ideas thankyou so much
    now to find those little rolling pins.....
    Lillian
    http://www.canadianscraptramp.blogspot.com/
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mixedmediaart/

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  58. Hmm...Just thinking...what if you had a rolling pin or other round stock that a toilet paper roll would fit snugly over...(not to snugly, but not too loose either) and then you could creat stamps on the toilet paper rolls, and change them using the same roller. Hmmm...

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  59. In my opinion one and all should browse on it.

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  60. Anonymous4:19 AM

    These are just adorable. And sooooo simple. Thanks you.
    I have included them in a list of great tutorials to make for loittle boys and girls for Christmas.
    If you would like to have a look you can see it here…
    http://allysonadeney.wordpress.com/2011/11/28/handmade-gift-ideas-with-tutorials-kids-little-boys-little-girls/
    Thanks for taking the time to put this together for us.
    Ally on harrysdesk

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  61. The rolling pin is used by holding the handles and rolling the cylinder across the dough. The downside is that you need to place more force on the dough and as a result, the dough is not stretched as evenly as with a rod because you're exerting pressure in uneven ways.

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  62. Good website! I truly love how it is simple on my eyes and the data are well written. I am wondering how I might be notified when a new post has been made. I have subscribed to your RSS feed which must do the trick! Have a nice day! “Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.”

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  63. This really got me thinking about how to use this for polymer clay. Brilliant idea. Thank you!

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  64. wonderful ideas, thank you for sharing

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  65. Lovely fun. Now I'm keeping my eyes peeled for rolling pins at the second hand store. I use my gellli plate to charge my stamps: I have a lot more control over the amount of paint with how thinly I roll it out on the plate. Its also a lot faster. Grin.

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  66. When I make rolling stamps, I use the foam sticker animals. I select a set of animals (say lion and giraffe, or rhino and cow) and cut them in half / various organic shape ways and attach them to the roller (I use some excess rungs from a climbing swing thing.) The patterns created look AWESOME! each collection of animals is slightly different. My kids make them too.

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