If you’re a fan of 52 crafts on Facebook or follow me on Twitter you’ll know I was celebrating my birthday on Saturday and therefore felt slightly delicate yesterday! Plus I was suffering from a severe lack of inspiration and motivation.
This lack of motivation continued into today but I forced myself to get out my sketchbook and drew a chrysanthemum (they were dotted around my house in glass jars for my party) in the hope that inspiration would strike. No.
So I decided to fill a page with scribbled flowers to try and get some ideas going. And it worked! The super quick drawings at last inspired me to start cutting into my lino block.
So, to lino print, you need: a pencil, tracing paper (possibly, I didn’t use any), lino cutting tool, lino (I used easy-carve), ink, roller (brayer), something to spread the ink on (I used the glass left from the photo frame I used last week) and paper/cards/fabric/whatever you’re printing on.
I drew directly on to the lino with a soft pencil but you could use tracing paper to transfer your design.
Just like with stamp carving you cut away the parts you want to stay white when you print. I decided that I actually wanted to fill my design with colour so I only cut away the scribbled flowers. Make sure you cut away from you – safety first! To go around corners smoothly I find it easiest to slowly rotate the lino as I cut.
I mixed up some ink to get a light blue and used my roller to get an even layer on the glass. Then I rolled it over the lino. Once it was all inked up I placed it carefully on a card and rubbed all over the back of it – ideally you’d use a clean roller but I didn’t have one so I used the back of a spoon to rub all over the back.
And that’s all there is to it. Once the cards were dry I used a black pen to add poems about flowers on some of the cards and some more scribbled flowers on others.
Have you tried lino printing? Any other printing this week? Share your projects in the comments here, on Twitter (using the hashtag #52crafts52weeks), on Facebook or Flickr.
Flasback: Week 3 in year 1 was all about papier-mâché
52 crafts in 52 weeks 
Hope your birthday was fun!
The only lino printing I’ve done was in art class in grade school. I used tracing paper and a page from my favorite coloring book. I can’t remember now what the picture was! I just mentioned it to my mom and she said, “Duh, it was 20 years ago!” :-D It’s bugging me though, because usually my long-term memory is terrific.
Thank you Panya. I last did lino printing at school too but I have no recollection of what I printed. I seem to remember I didn’t actually enjoy it though!
Well Happy Birthday, Chickie!! Surely you can take your birthday week off! Your dedication is inspiring and frankly, I think your first sketch was beautiful and could be a craft in itself. You sure have the talent! Anyways, hope your birthday was a blast!! Hazelruth
Thank you! I am a new convert to sketching and I really love it. I hope you’re enjoying the month of printing. x