There are many different ways to make your own stamp. You can use a number of materials - foam board, heavy weight card, potatoes, woodblock and rubber just to name a few. Obviously, if you want to have a permanent stamp, a potato is not something you want to carry around forever... but it is fun to experiment using different mediums to explore what you can achieve with each.

Here I am going to describe making a stamp with rubber, my medium of choice.

Things you will need:

1. A piece of rubber. This can be a pencil eraser (not the hard pink stuff, which does not make good prints, but something like Magic Rub which work well), or a block of rubber (Staedtler Mars is a good choice). You can find blocks of rubber of various sizes in a good art shop.
2. A linoleum block carving tool.
3. A stamp pad
4. A pencil
5. A few pieces of paper
6. A ball point pen
7. A bit of an imagination or good source book!

A Few Things to remember:

1. Rember tools are sharp! Please exercise care and supervise children.
2. If you are working with younger children, you may wish to use a WASHABLE ink pad. These can be easily found at hobby stores.
3. When considering your design, remember that you will be working with a MIRROR IMAGE if you are drawing directly onto the rubber. Lettering has to be carefully drawn out in reverse.
4. Firm rubber is easier to work with than soft fubber. Softer rubber can tear, leaving a jagged edge. Also a sharp knife gives a cleaner edge than a dull blade.

Making the stamp:

1. Sit down somewhere comfortable with a pencil or pen and piece of paper and come up with a few ideas. Play around with a theme; and if this is your first attempt, try to keep it simple. If you start with something very complicated you might get frustrated when it does not come out perfectly . My first stamps were very simple designs of the sun, moon, hillsides and simple trees.
   
   

 

2. Once you are happy with your drawing, trace the image onto the piece of rubber. An alternative is to moisten your rubber and transfer the pencil drawing by pressing the rubber onto the drawing. This also reverses the image for you! Make sure the letters are in reverse and when the stamp is held in front of a mirror, the letters are read correctly. Sometimes the image will come out very lightly on the stamp. I usually take a ball point pen and darken the tracing.
   

 

3. The first couple of stamps I made, I cut the interesting, detailed pieces out first and the "big boring bits" afterwards. This is wrong. The big boring bits keep the rubber around the small fiddly pieces firm and therefore easier to cut. The "big boring bits" support the rubber while you cut it, so save those until last!
   
4. When cutting a curve or circle, I find it easier to keep the blade in one place and move the rubber. It tends to make a less wobbly shape!
   
5. When cutting out the large white areas you might want to leave some rubber in place. This gives the look of a wood cut and breaks up any large white area, usually making it look more interesting. Another point on leaving some rubber uncut is that once it is cut, it cannot be put back.
   
6. You now have a piece of rubber onto which you have cut a nice pattern, scene or shape. It is time to test the stamp. Brush all lose bits of rubber of the stamp, and blow on it to remove all unwanted peices. Take your piece of rubber and put it on the stamp pad making sure that the stamp gets a full and even coat of ink. As this is the first impression you will be making, you will notice any areas that are left void of ink. If necessary, put stamp back on the pad for another coating.
   
7. Now carefully place the stamp on a clean piece of paper and push on the stamp evenly and firmly. Remove the stamp carefully.
   If you push down too hard, the rubber stamp may get pushed out like dough and leave smudgy edges. Again if you are not careful when lifting the stamp, you might smudge. You want the cleanest image you can get.

Take a look at the picture you have made. Look at all the edges to see if they are as even as you want them and the curves are smooth enough for you. Make a circle around the bits you want to change and CAREFULLY figure out where on the stamp those changes need to be made.

Remember: when looking at the stamp it is a MIRROR IMAGE of the picture you are now working from. Make the changes and make another impression of your stamp. Are you happy with it? If not, what would you need to change to make it better? Make those changes, either on the stamp you have created or start over if necessary. If you like your stamp, great. You have a stamp that you can either use as your "signature" when you go out Questing or your can use it for a box you plan to put out. Or for anything else you want to stamp for that matter. One thing I usually do is write TOP on the back of the stamp so I know when making an impression that the stamp is the right way up.

I hope this page has been helpful to you.

Happy cutting and happy Questing.

Shining Brow