Sometimes finding the perfect stamp can be quite a pain. Often I have an idea of what I’d like to use for a project, but I just can’t find anything like it at the store. So I figured—why not try making my own stamps? It’s not as difficult as I thought it would be, and now that I have my own set, I can mass produce cards with a special handmade touch. And the control freak inside me is satisfied.
Check out the instructions below to learn how you can turn your own handwriting or doodles into stamps for your crafting needs. And be sure to check out the ink pad selection at the A Beautiful Mess shop!
Supplies:
–stamp carving kit
–static cling foam mounting sheet
–acrylic stamping blocks
-wax paper
-pens (a variety of thick and thin is nice)
-white paper (scrap pieces are fine)
-X-Acto blade and scissors (scissors are optional with the use of a blade)
-cutting mat
-ink jet printer with copying capabilities (I used this Canon printer)
-clear tape (optional)
Step One: Create your doodles on white paper. The thicker the lettering, the easier it will be to carve out. I had a difficult time with the “Happy Day” lettering, so I gave up carving it out. Lesson learned.
Step Two: Cut out your doodles and arrange them to fit on your piece of rubber. (My rubber was leftover from an earlier project, so I was working with less space.) Tape them together so they’ll stay in this arrangement when you copy them later.
Step Three: Cut out a piece of static cling mounting foam to fit to your piece of rubber. Then peel off the sticky side and attach it to the rubber. The other static cling side, when peeled off, will temporarily mount to acrylic blocks for stamping use, but when unmounted they’ll lay flat for easy storage too!
Step Four: Copy your doodles onto wax paper. To do this, just trim out a piece of wax paper to the size of your printer paper and place it in your printer’s tray. The ink will not be set onto the paper, so be careful when handling it. The wet ink will transfer easily to the rubber, so be precise when arranging the wax paper onto the rubber. I swiped the back of the wax paper with a card to transfer the ink to the rubber.
Step Five: Cut out the pieces of rubber and carve away the negative space from each design. For the more detailed areas, like the cursive “hello,” I had trouble using the stamp carving tools that came with my kit, so I carefully used my X-Acto blade to cut out the islands in the letters.
After your stamps are carved, you can mount them onto acrylic blocks for stamping use. The static cling side of the mounting foam will make the rubber infinitely repositionable, so when you’re not stamping, they can be removed from the blocks and stored flat. Much easier than storing permanently mounted stamps!
Acrylic stamping blocks are also really great because you can easily see the outline of the design through the clear acrylic, which allows you to accurately position the stamps.
I must say, this was actually my first time using the messy ink pads, and I was really happy with how saturated the colors turned out. I’m looking forward to using them again soon!
This is my first hand-carved stamp project! Not too bad for my first try, but I can’t wait to make some larger, more complex stamps for homemade greeting cards and gift tags. –Mandi
Credits // Author and Photography: Mandi Johnson. Photos edited with Stella from the Signature Collection.
50 Comments
Those are cute. Rubber stamps are so expensive. This is a great way to save money and make rubber stamps that you prefer.
http://askmelissaanything.blogspot.com/
This was one of my favourite project that I remember doing in Grade 7 art class. I carved Steve Carell in front of a Rising Sun background. We also used spade-shaped blade to kind of scoop out the design. Does your kit have a name for that tool?
These are super fun!
Warm Regards,
Alexandra
http://www.littlewildheart.com
I never even thought about making my own stamps but how cool would that be?
-M
http://www.violetroots.com
So creative! I need to try this!
This would make such a nice personal present!
50 Beauty and Life HACKS Every Girl Should Know♡
Love this sweet idea! They look so cute! Such a fun way to personalize letters!
http://sometimesgracefully.com
This is a great idea for mailers! It’s really strange as I was only just looking for a DIY stamping method and spotted this! Thanks! 🙂
Oehh i like this one!! This is so cool.
I love it! But how do you get all the negative space to be even, so it sits just so?
Great post! besides from the starbucks reminder!!so this is a starbucks sponsored post?? nice!!!
Cool
http://thepocketstyle.blogspot.com/
I love the idea of doing this! I would really love to make a stamp of my freelance/blog logo right now so I could just put it on everything! I’m definitely going to try this out!
This must be the coolest idea ever! I’ve been wanting to try a make your own stamp project and maybe now I just should!! Thanks for sharing.
Wow, I always wanted to know how people carve stamps so precise!
Love them!
x
http://www.apolaroidgirl.blogspot.com
What a cute project, and a great gift idea for someone!
<3 Haley @ http://www.beautyinthischaos.com
No, this post is not sponsored. :))
xx- Elsie
I love this idea. Perfect for getting just what you want!
Kristi | http://www.beloverly.com
FUN!! I love carving stamps, it’s such a creative and easy way to make cute cards, wrapping paper, etc. I also have given personalized stamps as gifts, with a few miniature stamp pads included.
I recently learned a simple method for transferring the image to the carving block, though it’s not as precise as the copier/printer method: place tracing paper over your drawing and trace your image with a pencil; then place the tracing paper on top of your carving block, pencil side down, and rub the image with your finger tip.
This is my favorite blog!! Thanks for being such awesome and creative ladies!! XX
Fun idea! My favorite is the made with love stamp–perfect finishing touch for goodie bags filled with homemade treats.
Happy Memorial Day 🙂
http://www.lovecompassionatelee.com/thinkoutloud
I love this!
http://www.misadventuro.us
Love them! This is my latest pinning obsession – hand carved stamps! Boy there are some amazing ones out there!! Must get carving! My sister in law made me a beautiful set last birthday and they were all carved out of erasers from the $1 store!! Brilliant!
THIS IS SUCH A GAME CHANGER. Amazing idea, you guys are such creative people, I’m obsessed! The designs look so pretty, I can’t wait to try this! Xx
THOUGHTS IN TIFFANY BLUE
This is so cool! I was justing thinking about how fun it would be to have a personalized stamp with a personal identifier of some kind! I may just have to put your idea and mine together. It’ll be so hard to refrain from stamping absolutely everything, but I’m excited!
Great tutorial. How did you “mirror” the original images for application to the stamp block? You don’t mention the need to do this or how you did it.
Lovely post (: reminds me of printmaking! Your stamps are super cute.
x Min, honeyandgazelle.wordpress.com
Lovely post (: reminds me of printmaking! Your stamps are super cute.
x Min, honeyandgazelle.wordpress.com
great post ! I was actually looking to get my own logo your post came at the right time ! thanks for sharing 🙂
http://allornothing-blog.blogspot.co.uk/
What a lovely idea! I can’t wait to give this a try, I had been thinking of having a custom stamp made with my logo on, but this looks like WAY more fun!!
http://www.emilymaydesigns.com
This is absolutely fantastic! thank u for sharing!
I love this idea. Perfect for getting just what you want!
Love this! Very creative and I hate having an image in my head of something and nothing in the store quite matches. These would be perfect for handmade product labels 🙂
Lara @ MommyKazam
You can cut out the printer step if you doodle in pencil. Then go over your doodles again in darker pencil. When you rub the paper onto the rubber, the pencil lead will transfer in the same way as the printer ink. It’s not quiiite as clear as the printer ink, but definitely visible. Nice for if you don’t have a printer.
These are so fun! I’ve been wanting to try this for ages!
perfect DIY <3 would be so perfect for holidays too 😀 I can just imagine Christmas themed stamps 🙂
http://amelodyofdiaries.blogspot.co.uk/
So fun! I want to try this soon!
Paige
http://thehappyflammily.com
I’ve been wanting to do this! Thanks for the tutorial!
Laura
http://laurahager.blogspot.com/
I’m sure there is a name for it, but I’m just not sure what it is. 🙂 -Mandi
The negative space doesn’t need to be even. As long as you carve it away, the positive space will be all the same thickness, which is where your ink goes. So that’s where it matters. Hope that makes sense! -Mandi
I didn’t want to show my credit card in the photo, so I grabbed another card from my wallet. This is my Starbucks employee card from when I worked there. -Mandi
You actually don’t need to manually mirror the image. When you copy it, the image is not mirrored. But once you transfer the ink from the wax paper to the stamp, it becomes mirrored. So no need to do any flipping— it naturally occurs in the wax paper transferring. Hope that makes sense! -Mandi
I love diy stamps! Large erasers work really well too! I carved my own wedding initial stamp which we applied it on all of our canvas gift bag. Very economic and gorgeous!
Juju Sprinkles
http://www.jujusprinkles.com
It totally just clicked that I NEED TO DO THIS! I’ve been after a rubber stamp but making my own sounds SO much better than ordering one online! Supplies going in shopping basket immediately! Thank you! xx
Such a cute project! I love it, I’ll definitely be trying this one.
Best rubber stamps around-
http://beastqualitystamps.com/
This is so cute! http://www.hannamarielei.com
What a brilliant idea! Thanks so much for sharing, I cant wait to give it a try!
The idea will help me with my school project
Wow Great post. Thanks for sharing this.
I love this so much!! I was looking for something completely different and now I’m super glad I clicked on your post. On to explore more. 🙂