numbers book: the numbers!

I've finally added numbers to the numbers board book! Hooray! I can't wait to see this all come together. Next will be the numbers in words. I'm also trying to decided how or if to include colour. So far, I've printed the entire book in black ink. Not very colourful for a kid's/toddler's book, right? Though, something has to be said for the simple black and white contrast. 

We'll see what I end up doing with regards to colour or not!

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numbers book progress

Slowly making some progress with the numbers coaster book. For those of you who don't know what this is, it's a project I started last year! It's a small board book I intend to give to Marcus when it's completed. It goes through numbers 1-10 and is accompanied by pictures and is all hand-printed with my tabletop press. I'm printing a few extra copies, so it's taking me some time. But the good news is, is that I've finished printing all of the images. Now, it's onto the numbers!

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linoleum block on the lino-o-scribe

Over the last couple of weeks I was able to try out my first linoleum carving with the lino-o-scribe. Before I started I was so afraid that it wasn't going to work for some reason. But I gathered up my materials anyway and hoped for the best. I got some really helpful hints from Kinga, who also owns a Morgan Line-O-Scribe, on which type of linoleum she uses and how to set it up in the bed so that it's about type-high.

My first step was to decide on the size of linoleum I wanted. That was the easy part. Because the press bed is 14x22", I wanted to go as big as I could. The largest block I could find at my local art supplies store was 12x18" which was perfect because I sourced some cardstock at the same size. 

Next was trying to figure out what design I wanted to see printed. But I also had to think about 1.) what I could easily carve out and 2.) something that wouldn't take me too long do. I decided on hand-drawing a series of narrow hexagon shapes with various widths of lines on the inside of each. This was a good first-time design because there was just enough carving that I didn't get tired of doing it and that I got to use a couple of the carving blades. All of the straight lines made the carving go nice and smoothly too! Also, there's a nice balance between the negative and positive space. I wanted to carve as little of the lino off to make the best use of it's size. By keeping the design large, I was also able to see if there were any problematic, low or weak spots with the press and ink rollers.

After finally getting the lino to the height that the ink rollers could make contact with it, I was ready to test the block out. I was happily surprised with the result but as expected, I had some more carving to do at the top and bottom edges of the negative space to have it completely free of an impression.

As you can see in the photos of the prints, there is some variation with the ink coverage. I actually don't mind that. This design would look very different if the colour was completely solid throughout.

All in all, I am very happy with my first experiment with the line-o-scribe and a lino block. The press is in fantastic condition as are the rollers. I see myself doing many more of these lino carvings!

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numbers book: one

I'm back at it again! The last time I posted about Marcus' numbers book was before the Christmas holidays. I've only got two more numbers to go and then I'll be printing the actual numbers. I haven't decided if it'll all be in black ink or if the numbers should be in a different colour (maybe, red?). We will see!

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numbers book: 6

Six little rockets made their way onto the board book pages this week. Here's hoping I finish the book before the end of the year. I've still got numbers 5, 3 and 1 to do. And then I've got to handset the words (one, two, three etc.) and also print the actual numbers.

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numbers book: 4

I'm making progress with Marcus' numbers book. Four little cupcakes. This reminds me that I should probably learn how to bake a cake for his first birthday in December. I keep imagining that when he gets older and asks me to make him a birthday cake that I won't know how to and I'll feel like a complete failure! Or if I'm lucky and if he's anything like me, he might just ask for a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake instead :)

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numbers book: 2

Chris, Marcus and I all fell sick last week. Cold season is here and it pretty much put my husband and I out of commission. Marcus, on the other hand, a little runny nose and cough didn't stop him from waking up at his usual time and wanting to go, go, go. We're finally on the mend and feeling much better today.

Last week I got an opportunity to print part of Marcus' board book again. I would've liked to have done this in sequential order but I didn't have alot of time so I chose to do a short run. So here we have two little crowns to accompany the number two of Marcus' book. Hopefully, I'll get back on track and print for the number six!

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numbers book: 7

Seven little butterflies for page 7 of Marcus' numbers book. This morning's frost on my windows almost made me long for warmer Spring days. Almost, but not quite. I'm looking forward more to Thanksgiving gatherings and hot chocolates.

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numbers book: 8

We've been getting a nice dose of rain lately and it's got me hoping for an early autumn arrival. I love it when the sun is out, not a cloud in the sky and the air is cool and crisp. That kind of weather already has me thinking about Thanksgiving! And soon after, Christmas will be here before you know it.

Above are shots of Marcus' numbers book in progress with 8 little unbrellas.

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numbers book: 9

Here's a peek at another page of the numbers book I'm printing for Marcus. Nine ice cream cones! Makes me want a chocolate cone just looking at them. Also, Marcus turned nine months yesterday. I tried to get him to laugh or give me one of his big open mouth smiles for the camera so that I could show you his budding teeth. He wasn't having it. But trust me, the teeth are now there and ready for some chomping.

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his first numbers book

I stole a couple of hours before Marcus woke up yesterday to start a project that I had in mind for a while. It was nice to get to quietly play some music in the studio before dawn, lay down some ink on the press and get the work out that's been in my head for a few weeks.

This project is going to be my DIY version of a board book for Marcus. Though board books are intended to be durable and printed on thick paperboard, I opted for what I had on hand - blank coasters. These coasters do have some weight and are the perfect size for his little hands. Once the book is done, I'll most likely wait for the time he starts to learns numbers to use it with him. That or, bring it out from time-to-time so that he can experience the pictures, patterns and textures of the book.

I'll be printing 10 editions of a 10 page book (plus a front and back cover) that includes the numbers one through ten accompanied by pictures for each number. I started with the highest number which took the longest to print because I had the time to do it. It took so long because I decided to use what I already had in terms of dies which are the dingbats that I've used before for workshops, postcards and other personal stationery. This meant that I had to register the image (the anchor) ten times and print the ten coasters one by one which comes out to 100 passes through the press. I could've just as easily created, ordered, bought , and waited for a plate of ten anchors, registered it once and pass the ten coasters through the press once but where's the fun in that?

I'll be printing this project in stages as I try to carve out the time to do it. It's all hands on deck with Marcus so finding the time to get inky is hard to come by. Stay tuned for updates on the book and more pages to come.

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