When I first started making rubber stamps I was using a regular old x-acto knife, I was doubtful the rubber stamp carving tools were actually worth the money.

Well, at this point I made enough stamps to make the investment so I got the carving tools from Speedball (sold at Michaels) and wow, what a difference in makes! I was telling all my friends how easy it was to make stamps, but these tools make it REALLY easy.

I made this duck stamp in 20 minutes.

And then made a couple more…

(Now that I’m looking at them, they all need a bit of cleaning up still.)

So, to confirm: the tools are definitely worth getting.

What do you think? I’ve just redone my blog and changed the name of it to ‘The Little Nuthatch’. I painted all the details in this design- the border, background, text, and of course the adorable little nuthatch! I had so much fun doing this and it may be silly but it makes me a lot more excited about my blog! I am going to be working on many changes with my blog and website within the coming weeks.

And speaking of nuthatches I am currently working on a bird nest painting of a red breasted nuthatch in a nest box, you can see a tiny glimpse of it in progress in this photo with my kitty Scout.

The Sparrows are done!!

Aren’t sparrows interesting? They are so similar but all different. I don’t think I could EVER identify one as anything specific but a “sparrow”.

Taking a tiny little break from the bird list project now to work on some bird nest paintings. My thought was that if I do 5 more bird nests paintings I will have enough pieces for a 2011 calendar, with no repeats from the calendar I made in 2009 (although that was just for family + friends)! I am working on a cute pekin robin and one red breasted nuthatch with eggs.

We are having lower humidity today, so it was a nice morning to be out. I am going crazy being indoors all the time, but it is usually very hot and buggy (made far worse with the humidity). So today I took the chance to go around to my parents and take a walk.

This wild bunny is often seen in my parents backyard:

Clavulinopsis laeticolor:

I also got to observe some birds and deer, although I did not have the camera ready, they made me quite happy!

While there are many more water birds to go, there are even more perching birds! So I am starting with sparrows.

My bird list paintings continue! Quite a selection of birds in this one! I started with the list of ‘Limpkin, Rails, Gallinule, Coot, Loons, Grebes’, then added in the ‘Shearwaters, Storm-petrel, Pelicans, Gannet, Cormorant’.

199 birds to go!

Hi, little skink!

Oh. Bye!

I had a nice day at Wekiva Springs today. Although this blue tailed skink only stayed still for a second to let me snap a photo!

Yay, I finally have access to a camera that can take amazing high quality photos suitable for prints!! I use a scanner for most prints, but my Bird Nest series has to be photographed. So I spent today making a light box, taking the photos, and making them into prints. There are more to come as well, and the nicest thing is that now when I do the paintings I can make prints right away!

Check out the new prints:

Oh, summer. I love the beach, and the afternoon rain, and most especially all the fresh fruits and vegetables that are in season. But I miss being outside so much! I’m a wimp in summer… it’s hot and super SUPER humid, and even when it’s nice in the morning/evening there are mosquitoes to be dealt with!

Alas! Here is a cute little buggy I was admiring the other day…

What is it?

I finished my painting of the “Vultures, Hawks, Falcons, Osprey” from the birdwatching list.

The hawks look so similar to one another! My Audubon book wasn’t cutting it so I had to go buy the National Geographic Field Guide to Birds to help in learning the differences between the birds. But who knew you could get a really nice copy of National Geographic’s book at Borders for only 5.99? I used a coupon and it was 3.59, brand new! So very glad to have added that to my collection! It’s a great book.

Oh god, there are 230 more birds on the list! Next I am doing “Limpkins, Rails, Gallinule, Coot, Loons, Grebes”.