Chinese New year

Yesterday we studied about China and the Chinese New Year, I prepared lots of activities and we worked through them during the course of the day. I tried to keep it mixed up but he was also free to pick anything else if he wanted a break. My original plan was to do a couple of things each day that went out the window when I got the dreaded lurgy (which hubby has now, he left the house at 7.30am yesterday and was back by 8am!)

We started off with by preparing the tea eggs, I had boiled them and cooled them then Ebi-kun cracked the shells. We let them simmer for another 30 minutes and the just sit until lunch time. In parts of China the tea eggs represent nuggets of gold.

We started off by talking about China, we found it on the map and he drew around the outline then labled the map. We compiled all the pages he made (will make) into a book.

Then we made flags, the first was out of felt so we could put it on the flag pole and the second out of construction paper and stuck it onto a sheet to add to the book.

Then we had a snack break, I really wanted to have a Chinese snack but failed, he wanted raisins and dried veg and since they dry grapes in Turpan on the silk route it is kinda relevant (OK, at a stretch!) We talked about the silk route, he really likes We're Riding On A Caravan and I have just finished reading Extremes Along The Silk Route by Nick Middleton - I highly recommend it, so we had a good chat about it all over snack.

After snack we made some Chinese lanterns, these are easy to make and great for cutting skills. I prepped the paper by adding the gold tape to the edges, this was a good marker for him since I told him to cut up to the tape.

He did 2 and I did 6, we chose to make 8 since that is a Chinese lucky number. 

We then read The Great Race, it is a lovely book, great illustrations another Fab Barefoot book, he has a set of bean bags that represent all the animals in the Chinese zodiac so we lined them up as the winners came in (we have lost the rabbit so she was represented by her cousin!). 

Still on the zodiac theme we used these cards for matching and then to play memory, I like that these are more stylised not the usual cutsie cards you get, they also have the kanji for the different animals. I got them from here but I can't find the exact page again!

Then he decided to have a break from China and wanted to do some pin pushing, I had left this on the shelf from Christmas and he suddenly had the urge to have a go at in again.

Just before lunch I introduced him to the 7 pick up game. This is easy to make, cut 1" squares of felt, sew two pieces together on 3 sides, add a little rice then sew up the last side. You need to make 7, they are small so it doesn't take long. To play the game you need to drop all 7 on the floor, they need to be quite close together. Pick on bag up and toss it in the air, whilst it is in the air use the other hand to grab as many of the other bags as possible then catch the tossed bag. Easy? Not as much as it sounds ;o)

Then we had lunch, I had planned a fancy pants menu for the day but Daddy-ebi arrived home (30 minutes after he had left) with the dreaded lurgy and wasn't up to eating so we ended up with a much more simplified menu for the day.

Egg fried rice, spring rolls, bean sprout and cabbage salad, pork and tea eggs.

For dinner we had chicken stir fry and wrapped it in lettuce leaves, mess but fun!

We didn't finish all the activities so we will do some more next week, R will be back for his lessons next week so we might do some of the games and things with him.

Diverse Art ~ 5 women ~ 5 countries

My good friend Liv is having an art exhibition, here in Japan. She is an artist by profession but has taken a break whilst the kiddies are small, so this is her first showing in 4 years, also her first show in Japan.

This is one of her pre-kids pieces, it will be interesting to see how she has changed as an artist since I am sure she has changed as a person - motherhood and extended time living abroad tends to do that to ya! If you are in the area, please drop by.

The exhibition is in Chiba City. Feb 19-24. For more information check out the details here.

Our exciting news is that we might be going to Shanghai for Golden week. My brother-in-law and family are out there at the moment but might move back in the summer, so if we want to go, time is of the essence. 

Now I am off to google some easy Chinese dishes that ebi-kun and I can make together...

The Big Nasty Bug

I think it started Sunday, I had a lovely day but my tum was feeling a bit off, thought it was the after effects from the party and the Biwa Moonshine!
Monday I was feeling decidedly worse and by mid afternoon I was throwing up, daddy-ebi made it home early in time to do the whole bath & bed thing, I was in bed myself by 7pm with a raging fever.
Yesterday, I woke up feeling like a piece of chewed string and spent most of the day feeling sorry for myself on the sofa. Ebi-kun was great, he played with his roads and cars for a while, I asked him if he wanted me to read a book and he said 'no Mommy, I will read you one' and got his easy readers out, we read several. He also made a cake-making-robot with his blocks and gave me several cakes to sample, each one had a special ingredient to make me feel better. He also did his doctor bit by taking my temperature and giving me injections LOL.
I don't really use pre-made/processed food so of course we had not-a-lot to eat in the house. I ended up just chucking a load of veg in a pot then whizzing it up to make soup and the bread maker came to the rescue, it was just what the doctor ordered, phew.

I am hoping it was just one of those 24-48 hour thingies. The house is a complete wreck and I am completely behind on everything now, oh well.

One breakthrough over the last few days is that Ebi-kun has started to give his people fingers and bodies - before the legs went straight from the head. It is a bit odd, when he first started drawing pictures of people they had bodies but then as he concentrated more of facial expressions the bodies disappeared, this is one of yesterdays many pictures....
This picture is a bit un-clear because I couldn't be bothered to get off the sofa! but he has the kidneys from the 3D torso puzzle and he is drawing it, I didn't manage to get a picture of the finished image because he wiped it clean, one problem with the magnetic drawing board.
I had started to get some bit and bobs together for Chinese New Year, we might start some today, once I have sorted the laundry, cleaning, etc. etc.....

For those doing the swap, you have a couple more days to get those swap packs in the post.

And those just like getting goodies for free, there is still time to enter the OWOH give-away, you don't have to give anything yourself you can simple join in the fun, there are over 650 blogs doing it now! I have had fun jumping from one to another, I have discovered some great new ones that I will be going back to, come on, join the fun!

A Lovely Weekend

I hope you had a good one too. Saturday we went to a friends house to celebrate two little girls turning one, we saw a lot of friends that we haven't seen for quite a while, the kids had fun playing together and it was good to let out hair down. 

Sunday I arranged to meet a friend in Nippori to do some fabric shopping, the only problem was, when we got there most of the shops were shut, including  the place I buy my fabric from agghhhh. So, we had a wander around the neighbourhood, discovered a little Korean market the ended up back at the station. Since there was little going on in Nippori we decided to head to Shimokitazawa. I can't believe I haven't been there before, it is FAB. It is made up of lots of little streets with a great mix of shops, there were used and vintage clothes shop, antiques, nik-naks, ethnic and a good smattering of cute cafes too. The weather was lovely so we just wandered and chatted, I can't remember the last time I had a day out like that! My friend Kate is from my hometown back in the UK, although we met out here, we don't manage to get together that often but  it is always fun when we do and I don't have to think about the English I use, she understands all the slang and daft phrases :o)

We had lunch in a tiny cafe that seated about 16 people - including a tarot card reader in the corner.  Then we mooched some more, popped into a couple of small art galleries and wandered some more. It was a very inspiring day, the funniest thing we saw was this...

It is a cat cafe, so you go and have a cuppa and a piece of cake then you are given a cat to pet! Apparently they are the latest craze. I know there are doggy cafes with a similar concept or you can 'rent' a dog for an hour or two and not so far from where we live is an Italian dog restaurant, an Italian place BUT they have special chairs so that the dog can join you at the table and they have special doggy pasta and cakes. I am pretty sure that this wouldn't be allowed due to the health regulations in the UK but here, anything goes!



***There is still time to sign up for the Give-Away****

Rainy Days

The weather has been pretty grim the last couple of days, I had hoped to do some errands yesterday but is was cold and wet and certainly not bicycle weather! Instead we have been doing crafts, or rainy day crafts as Ebi-kun calls them. One was a pom-pom bird, the final one in the set and then he wanted to do more sticking so I let him loose with a bag full of bits, the glue and the box from the pom-poms to decorate. That kept him busy for quite some time, he also experimented with which things he could cut with his scissors and wanted to know what everything was made of.

We also did lots of painting, started out as marble painting but ended up with full on hand painting. This surprised me because he doesn't like getting his hands mucky anymore but he initiated it. He was also interested to see what happens when you paint of different types of paper/card, a lot of experimenting went on.
The rest of the day was filled with marshmallow building, marble run building - I always get roped into helping with that one! making things with cardboard boxes and of course playdoh. I had printed a couple of activities out from the web but we never got round to them. I feel we may have another similar day today as the weather is looking grim right now - I really need to get to the post office though, fingers crossed that it will clear up soon.

My top tip for moms of little ones is to keep a couple of rainy day activities hidden in the draw for such days, Ebi-kun knows I have a secret stash of rainy day activities hidden away and actually gets excited when it rains :o) Any crafty kits he gets as presents get put away in the draw and although I usually have a supply of crafty bits and bobs knocking around the house I try to keep a small stash just for rainy days along with a pot of glue.

What are your favourite rainy day activities?

A Morning Of Matching

This was actually Tuesday morning but I have only just got round to posting about it. Ebi-kun seemed to have a matching thing going on, almost all the work he picked was matching one way or another. First we played a reading/writing game and the he got the 3 letter word cards out - I think these are the 'pink cards' but as you can see they are white in reality. He started off with about 10 pairs

but then, he decided he wanted to do all of them....
Then he got the human organ cards out, I got these from Mrs Riley's site, I would have liked more parts, maybe I will have to make my own.
He is really into his body parts and already knows what all these bits are, he got a 3D body puzzle for Christmas so Dr Ebi can study up!
Then after a small break of writing practice we were back to matching colour labels to their counter-part.
He is also in love with Starfall, we are in a language phase at the moment, most other work on the shelves don't even get a look in. We did do some painting yesterday and 2 hours were taken up with glitter playdoh - oh how I LOVE playdoh :O)

There is still time to sign up for the amazing world wide One World One Heart give-away, 350 bloggers are playing along now! Come one, join the fun!

Shop Update

Come and have a peek, new cards, postcards and hand carved stamps now available.

xxx

One World One Heart - give-away

Yesterday I happened to stumbled across this fantastic idea to get bloggers around the world to unite, extend friendships and introduce themselves to new blogs.

The concept is simple, yet genius!

If you have a blog, you have a give-away, send your info to the host (click on the logo above) and she will add your give-away to the party. As I type this there are 239 in the list on the sidebar of her blog. (click the logo above!) Anyone can go and click away and sign up for any or all of the give-aways in the list! What fun!! I have already visited a few and there are some fab prizes out there and loads of fab blogs, I am going to have to be peeled away from my Mac...

So, you know I like a give-away as much as the next person and so I am giving away two prizes, the first is a bag of goodies, inside the bag, which is stamped with my Kids of the World hand carved (by me) will be a set of Kids of the World hand stamped postcards, a cuddly happy bear, a set of writing paper and envelopes, some hand covered buttons and a pack of funky felt. I will also include one of my own hand carved stamps - I haven't made it yet so that will be a surprise for the lucky winner :o)

The second is a PDF copy of my Serenity The Mermaid pattern usually available in my shop any mommy's who sew will love this :o)

What do you have to do to get your hands on the bootie? Just leave a comment on this post ONLY, anyone can enter but you must leave some way for me to contact you, a winner will be chosen by random generator on Feb 12th.

If you have your own blog there is still time to join, come on, don't be shy! If you have found your way here via OWOH then please pop again sometime, I am always happy to see a new face or two.

All good things come in 3s

and here is number 3!

Thank you to Jennifer AKA Montessori Mama, a blog I love not only for her creative ideas and all the things that she shares but also for her blunt, honest posts.

Here's what I've gotta do:
The rules are:
- List six things that inspire my creativity
- Pass the award on to 6 more kreativ bloggers
- Link back to the person who gave you the award
- Link to the people you are passing it on to and leave them a comment to let them know.

1. Living in a foreign country, there is always something new catching my eye.
2. Other peoples blogs, often ideas are sparked by something I have seen on the net.
3. My son
4. The great outdoors, design ideas often come to me when we are in the park.
5. books - especially kids storybooks, so many great illustrators out there.
6. window shopping in zakka stores

Now the hard part, who to pass it on to, I am trying to stick to the rule that I am giving them to people who I haven't given one to before....

1. The Crafty Crow (have you checked out the Monday Give-aways?)
2. Her Cup overfloweth (MTD queen)
3. Gray Family Circus.
4. crafting a green world
5. Croqzine
6. jumping overboard

So go and check them out, they all inspire me in very different ways, as always it is a mixed bag of blogs :o)

Yesterday was a much better day, thank you for all your well wishes. We don't know what causes his nose bleeds, he gets them all year rounds, weather isn't a factor. The doctor said, as long as the blood clots, not to worry and he will probably grow out of it, which is probably right since my brother and my mom had the same thing when they were kids.

The Japanese say nose bleeds are caused by too much peanuts and chocolate, he doesn't eat peanuts and only a small amount of chocolate (and if chocolate was a cause I would be having the nose bleeds, not him :o) )

Be sure to pop back tomorrow, I have discovered the bestest give-away thingy. Not only a give-away on my blog but LOTS of them. I have my Japanese class today so you will just have to wait and see what I am am waffling about....

A day of disasters

Yesterday was one of those days, you know the sort. Daddy-ebi decided to take Ebi-kun out in the morning for a couple of hours so I could get some stuff done. I wanted to make some rabbits, my plan was to make 2 for presents and to make 2 more for the shop. I had made a pattern for an idea that had been in my sketch book for quite some time. Half way through, I get a call from Daddy-ebi to say little one had thrown up everywhere in the car, should he bring him home? Apparently Ebi-kun was feeling OK and wanted to play, so off they went. Back at the sewing machine, I sewed up the first bunny and stuffed it and taa-daa I had an alien, looked nothing  like a rabbit. Grrrrr.

So, I decided to try something else, I had the Scottie dog pattern in my folder, downloaded from Allsorts so I thought I would try that. The first one I used the actual pattern size and it was a right fiddle to sew on the machine, many a swear word was muttered, just as well little one wasn't around.

The sickie boys arrived home, the car stank, all his clothes stank - luckily daddy had been prepared and taken a change of clothes with him. We had lunch and did the shopping then when daddy sorted out the stinky sickie car, Ebi-kun had a nose bleed, blood everywhere! wahhhh.

Anyway, it all calmed down, Ebi-kun is OK and I gave the dog pattern another go but enlarged the pattern which was much easier to work with. I also made a matching bib to go with the little dog but it's not quite finished. At least I had something at the end of the day. 

I would like to say it got better but Ebi-kun had another nose bleed in the night and then ended up in our bed! Let's hope today is better.....

Of Snowmen and Spuds

We actually made these the other day but I forgot to post about them. When I was a kid, this was one thing we always did with my gran. She would make meringue snowmen and we would decorate them with liquorice allsorts, it is a fond memory and I had hoped to do it with Ebi-kun as a Christmas activity but we never got round to it. Now I am glad we waited since there is that after Christmas lull in the air. It is the first time I have made meringue and it wasn't very successful, they were a bit flat, more like half melted snowmen :0) And I can't get allsorts her so we just used sweeties from the supermarket and a strawberry as a hat.

To make the snowmen whisk 2 egg whites (that are at room temp - found this out afterwards!) and 100g of sugar, add the sugar slowly. The mix should be thick and stiff, dollop or pipe onto grease-proof paper and bake at 110 deg C for about 2 hours (until dried through). Decorate with sweeties, use some icing sugar and water to make 'glue'.

And on a completely different note, we dug up the potatoes yesterday. Daddy-ebi researched about when to pull the up and apparently if they look like this they are ready...
To grow the spuds we drilled holes in the bottom of the tub for drainage then put in a layer of Mel's Mix (the stuff used in square foot gardening) and some sprouting spuds (don't use supermarket spuds, you need to by some from the home-centre) and more Mel's mix. When that lot started to sprout we did another layer of sprouting spuds etc. I think we ended up with 3 layers in the end.

To get them out we tipped the whole lot onto a tarp and sorted through it. Ebi-kun really enjoyed looking for the spuds and was really interested on how they had grow, the cool thing was finding an old spud with the new ones still attached to the shoot, I should have taken a photo but didn't.

Here is the final bootie, not loads but enough for a few meals and since spuds are expensive here - usually you get 4 or 5 medium sized spuds in a bag - honest! I am a happy bunny. We had some last night with home made quiche, delicious.

Zipped Pouches

Now in the shoppe !

questions

if you asked a question, please check back to the comments, I try and answer them there.

Re: teapot - I am still working on trying to find a website for it....

snow, snow, snow

We haven't seen a single flake much to Ebi-kuns disappointment, he is dying for it to snow, poor lad!

Yesterday we did some snowman painting

The finished artwork is now framed and on the shelf

and while he painted I made some snowflake matching cards, I used this site for the images and I made the cards here on Mrs Rileys Page Builder (thanks Shannon), I thought I would be able to download the files to share them but I can't. You can share them on the site but then I can't give credit to the owner of the pictures so this time you will have to make them yourself - sorry!

It does look like a good site and it is easy to use, maybe all us Montessori moms and teachers should get on there, make a ton of cards to share before they start charging ;o)

We also made some glitter playdoh which went down a treat, for those in Japan wondering where on earth I got my hands on some glitter - it was in the ¥100 shop in the false nail department!

one word

ADDICTED

this is a collection of the stamps I have been carving, some for a purpose, some just for the hell of it, all of them are my own designs (except the ones Ebi-kun did) so please do not copy them. I will have some stamps for sale in the shop soon and I am happy to do custom orders, if there is something you want, drop me a line and we will see what we can sort out :o)

Swap Partners

have been sent out.

If  you don't get an email from me let me know but check your Spam folder first!

Thank you to everyone who signed up and a special thanks for those who offered to send a package to India, you are stars!

Yesterday - imaginative title, I know!

After getting all the chores out of the way we did marshmallow sculptures, I have been wanting to do this for a while but we always eat the marshmallows before we have chance to try it! He made the cube by himself, I just had to assist with some stick holding under his instruction, although I said it was a cube he insisted it was a car!

Next we did some counting practice, Laura posted about this site the other day, it has got lots of great activities and although I prefer to make things myself, sometimes time doesn't allow for this - a hard lesson for me to get into my skull. This one has dino eggs to count, then you fasten a peg to the correct number. I had stuck small stickers on the back of the correct number so that he could self check. I am having problems with the self checking thing because he checks BEFORE he has finished, which kind of defeats the object. Any advice on how to stop him? I have tried explaining and I don't think he is cheating, in his words 'I am just looking, not checking' hmmm.
In the afternoon R-Kun came for his lesson. I had no idea what he did and didn't know, so I planned a series of games to test different skills, to start I asked both boys to put on their aprons and explained that it was work time not play time and that they could only use English. This worked well. Here the boys are matching the objects with the 3 letter word cards, they did a great job working together. It turned out the R-kuns reading is better than Ebi-kuns but the opposite applies for writing so they were helping each other.
After playing a number of games we went downstairs for a snack, we did some TPR (Total Physical Response) this is a popular method when teaching ESL. The teacher calls out a command and the student has to follow that command physically, the idea is that the child will remember the new vocab better when it is combined with a physical action. You start off simple, with things like 'stand up', 'sit down' then extend it to things like 'touch the door', ' open the window' R-kun was good at this too so we ended up with long instructions like ' take a bath then gets dry and put on your PJs' The boys loved doing this and there was much giggling.

We played the mystery bag game where I noticed that R-kun struggled with every-day vocab so we can work on that too. We finished off with some yoga, this was also a big hit as you can see by the lions below!
I am pretty sure R-kun will be fine once he starts at the international school, for now we just need to build up his confidence, I think the next few weeks will be fun.

On a different note, the swap is now closed, I will be sorting out the groups over the next couple of days.

The National Museum of Nature & Science

Monday was a national holiday so daddy-ebi was off work - yeah! So we went to Ueno to check out the museum, I have been before but years ago and they have updated all the exhibits and modernised it all making it much more interesting. Lets face it though, there is only so much you can do to jazz up old bones and lumps of rock :o) Of course, Ebi-kun was only really interested in the dinosaur bones, he was quite surprised how big they actually are and I was surprised how small Dimetron was! We spent most of the morning there then left to get some lunch and returned to do the last 2 floors in the afternoon. If you want to go, I recommend getting there early, it was much quieter in the morning.

Inside the museum is a 360 deg movie theatre. It is basically a big ball that you go inside and you stand on a platform that is suspended in the middle, the platform has a perspex floor so you can see below you. The film is then projected onto the whole of the surface of the ball which makes it feel like you are floating inside, you have a complete 360 deg view and so it is possible to miss things that are going on behind/above/below you. It is a very unique experience, the film we saw started in the clouds then took us down to earth and through the sea, we went through a coral reef and then into outer space where we went back in time, then it was back to earth to hang out with dinosaurs. The film is about 8 minutes long and it was well worth ¥600 entrance fee to the museum just to go in there!

When we got home Ebi-kun decided he wanted to build his own 360 theatre, so I left him to it. He gathered up all the chairs and the bench and tried to use his little blanket for a cover but it was too small so I got out a sheet and helped him put it on.
We then got his origami dinosaurs and put on a scary shadow show.

view inside Ebi-kuns 360 theatre

I love the way that his mind works and the need to re-create an experience and seeing the dinosaurs at the museum has re-sparked that love for them, today robots are out and dino's are back in :o)

Would you like a swap partner in India?

I have someone wanting to join in the swap BUT she is in India and where she lives the postal system in notoriously unreliable so the only option for her is to send and receive parcels by registered mail.

If you are willing to send a registered parcel to India please let me know and drop me a line at montessori.swapshop at gmail dot com

I am going to leave the swap open for a couple more days to see if we can fix her up with a partner.

Thank you!

****UPDATE - swap partners have been found, thank you!*****

Thank you...

...for the teapot love! Although hubby bought it he didn't do it unassisted, I had spotted the cutie and raved on about it, there were only 2 in the shop so I was chuffed that he took the initiative and bought it! For those in Japan, it was bought from Passport, a girly zakka type of shop, I know there are a number of these stores in our area, I 'm not sure if they are nationwide.  On the bottom of the teapot it has 'Sun Art'. Sorry, that is all I know, the box has long been recycled. 

I can't seem to shift this head cold, my head feels like it is full of cotton wool and snot ughh.

We did go to a science museum at the weekend, it is next to the Urawa Reds stadium for those who are interested. It was free and had some hands on equipment which Ebi-kun enjoyed using they also had a science show, which was that rubbish it was funny, none of the experiments she was trying to demonstrate worked properly and she was totally disorganised. The museum is really better  suited for older kids, elementary age and up, I imagine it is a great resource then for kids wanting to do projects. We won't be going again in a hurry but it was a good way to kill a couple of hours.

This was the favourite, you had to turn the wheel to get the ball to the top and then it went through a series of runs, we literally had to drag him away from this!
I really need to get into 'work mode' (opposed to snuggled on the sofa with a hot cuppa, a blanket and small boy, feeling sorry for myself mode). Tomorrow I start tutoring a friends son in English, to try and get his English level up before he moves to Malaysia where he will attend international school. He is painfully shy so although I know him quite well, I have no real idea of his English ability, making planning lessons quite difficult! So my plan is to have a number of games and exercises out tomorrow so I can try and try and work out where he is and what he needs to work on. 

Today is the last day for the swap, if you want to sign up, get that email sent off quick sharp!

whoo-hoo another award!

Lovely Emma the bagladee has given me an award....

5 Addictions...

1. Making stuff, any stuff, I have to making something all the time.
2. Fabric - need I say more?
3. Chocolate, if it is in the house, I will eat it!
4. My Mac (the computer type not a coat)
5. Life On Mars - which has just started showing here and I am hooked.

and now for my 5 nominations...

1. Tricia Rennea Art
2. Stevens happy Accidents
3. WhiMSy Love
4. fon.ne.tic.lee speaking
5. Clare Corner

All fab people in their own way, go check them out and have course go and have a mooch around Emma's pad, I am sure she won't mind :o).

The cutest teapot in the world

At snack time, Ebi-kun now asks me if I am having Russian tea, this teapot is the reason why! It was a birthday present from daddy-ebi :o)

Take her head off to reveal...

another cup, Russian tea for two!

I have been featured!

On today's Cuteable! Whoo-hooo

I would jump around the room in excitement if this damn cold hadn't zapped all the energy out of me.

Childs drawing to a rubber stamp tutorial

I hope this is going to make sense, my head is full of cold!

You will need...

• a drawing
• rubber (a plastic eraser can be used)
• something to carve with, a proper tool or shape knife
• ink
• paper to test on
• something to print on (I used a T-shirt)
• Iron (depend if you are printing on fabric)

First, find a suitable picture, if it is too big/small you can resize it. It might be an idea to make a copy of the original rather than use the childs masterpiece. Trace over the picture with a soft pencil, I like to use B4.

Place the paper over the rubber and rub with your finger nail, this will transfer then pencil to the rubber.
Remember that your image with be reversed, this is important if you are planning on using text, the writing should be backwards on your eraser.
Now for the carving, with this robot, I carved away all the white but that last robot I carved away his mouth and eyes for a more solid look. Just make sure you decide before you start exactly which bits you are going to carve. My tool is a Speedball and comes with 3 blades that are stored in the handle - very handy.
Once you have carved away the rubber you need to test it, there is always a little bit that might have missed, in this case, I need to remove more around his anteana and the edges. You might prefer to cut away any bits around the edge that are not needed. When you are happy with the print you can mount it on a block of wood, which makes it easier to use. If you stamp the top of the wood, double check that you are sticking the rubber piece on the same way or you will end up with upside down prints (she speaks from experience).
Then get printing, there are lots of different inks available so check you have the right kind for the surface you are printing on. 
For the ink I used, it needs to me set with a hot iron (no steam) for 30 seconds.
Then you are done and you then need a model to P-O-S-E. Luckily I had one on hand...

(click image for bigger picture)

When you are finished printing, stamp of a piece of paper to get rid of an excess ink then wash with warm water, don't scrub at it, the rubber with break off. Pat dry and store in an box, try and lay big stamps flat.

For me, stamp carving is very relaxing, I can get into that 'zone' where I am at perfect peace. As much as I love sewing, I don't have the same feeling when I sew, some people say knitting is relaxing in the same way, for me, if I got into that mode with a pair of knitting needles I would end up tangled in a big ball of yarn, I will stick to the carving I think.

If you give this a go, let me know, I would like to see what you come up with.