Making your own stamps with bits and pieces around the house or cheap #1

I just got an excellent book by Lisa Walton, Creative Journeys, and she showed how to make stamps for your art work. Many people find it intimidating to carve, or just haven't got the grip they use to have. Others want intricate patterns, replicas of something and many other reasons why carving isn't always an option. Also finding money or the rubber for carving can also be hard.

Here are a few ideas to get you started on making your own stamps with your own designs. 

I go to the back of electrical appliance stores and they have sheets of white foam just being thrown out. Also large sheets of cardboard, either as boxes or the sheets protecting screens etc. I grab these, some pva glue and scissors and am ready to go.

This time of year in Australia, all the office supply stores are getting their 'Back to school supplies' ready. It is a great time to grab the extra large rubbers that seem to appear, and they are great for carving. these can be carved safely with carving tools, but my favourite is the Speedball Carver - which I tried to copy and paste a picture of but I am computer challenged and it didn't work.

 

 

 

This is a sticker that can be brought from a number of places. The reason it works so well is that it is one of those felt style stickers.  Great to put on a piece of foam. I didn't seal this one, as I wash it after every colour change. So far any old colours haven't come through.

 

 

This is just a set of wavy lines drawn onto the kids foam brought is small sheets. I cut along the lines spread them out and then added a scroll type flourish. Pva glued onto a piece of cardboard lying around, and onto the thick foam from packaging for a bit of grip.

 

These are the foam stickers you buy cheap at the store that the children play with. These ones have a sticky backing. Peel off the protection paper, stick onto leftover cardboard, Stick to packaging foam and seal with pva glue.

 

 

 

I tend to have a very ' give it a try' attitude, and I wanted to see what would happen if I ironed the thin foam sheets over metal embellishments. I used a protective baking sheet to cover the work. I tried laying the embellishment on top of the foam, laying the baking paper, folded a few times, over the embellishment and then layed and pressed the iron on it, and tried it the other way, both worked  The good thing about this is if the imprint doesn't come up enough, you just place it back in the grooves and repeat until the design shows.   I then cut around the crown and feather to get the outline. With the bicycle I stamped the design in the paint and then gently scraped off the excess paint with a old credit card to just get the bicycle.

 

 

This is one of those cardboard shapes used for scrapbooking, I wanted to use it but keep the shape for stamping. So again using children's foam sheets, I drew the shape and using thin small scissors cut it out, and kept both parts

 

In the children's section of many variety stores are the stickers that are nightlight stickers - or the 'glow in the dark stickers'. These can be stuck onto cardboard, and used as another type of stamp. If you find the paint etc slides off, either sand with glass sandpaper or use a fine grit gesso paint and paint over the entire pieces.  If you do this you need to make sure you let it dry well, and when you use it wipe it off straight away

 

This is a colouring in picture that I printed out, cut out the fence, rescanned and enlarged. I then printed it out cut around it and drew onto the children's foam.  Using this idea opens up a whole new world of possibilities.

 

As you can see there is no limit to your designs, if you are just willing to look at everything with new eyes. Hope you enjoyed this blog and I will try to update more often now that warm weather and getting outdoors and making a mess are possible again