Some years ago I bought a few alphabet stamps from a friend selling Stamping Up products, so when one of the crafters at Craft Day turned out to be selling the same thing I was curious to see how the it had developed.

As before, I found that the quality was excellent and there were some really nifty effects you could get (and cookie stamps!) and they have a great range of stamp colours, but the stamps themselves don’t get me excited. I suspect it’s because I like things a bit more rough and bold and messy. The sort of project that requires a smock and washing up afterwards. I guess it would be best described as ‘Stamping Down & Dirty’.

Still, looking at the catalogues got me thinking about the stamping I like and got me inspired to dragged out my stamping supplies:

The stamps I’ve generally liked the most have been simply cut out of these old foam pet dish mats with scissors then stuck with double sided tape to a chunk of foam core or particle board. I also like the print block sheets, both the harder green variety and the soft white stuff that’s the texture of erasers. I’ve made stamps out of floor tiles before and it was really tough to carve, so I don’t recommend it.

The ink shown here is specifically for printing, but I’ve also used plain old acrylic paint with great results. You could also use fabric paint. Anything sticky enough to coat a roller and transfer to the stamp works just fine. And, of course, is water soluble for easy clean up.

Last time I made foam stamps I used them to make a batch of wrapping paper out of some newsprint from the craft store for life drawing classes that turned out to be too shiny to hold charcoal. I’ve just about used that up, so I decided to make some more.

Some of those wrapping papers were used pretty quickly but others weren’t at all because they didn’t suit any occasion. I still have some lovely paper covered in red hearts, but the only person I’d use it to wrap gifts for is Paul and we don’t bother with wrapping paper. So I reviewed the stamps I’ve made and wanted to make with this in mind.

The first stamps I made were cut from a cloud and two rain drops I’d made before, but never used (’cause what would you use wrapping paper of rain clouds for – a funeral?). I turned them into trees:

I used up some foam scraps to make a strip stamp for borders or stripes, using an offcut of particle board for the backing, then I got more creative and carved a key:

By then I was getting the feel for carving and made some shell stamps out of white rubber for a happy non-event specific theme:

I find keeping them simple works best. My back and hands won’t cope with long hours carving stamps anyway. For inspiration I trawl Pinterest and Etsy, though I suspect this is going to lead to me buying hand carved stamps because some of the artists have a wonderful, distinctive style. But for me half the fun of stamping is making the stamps.

Here’s a great tutorial on making stamps from free or cheap materials.

Alisa Burke has a mini online workshop if you’d like more guidance and inspiration.

Some handcarved stamp artists on Etsy to admire:
Enchanting Stamps
MemiTheRainbow
talktothesun
skullandcrossbuns

And these stamps aren’t hand carved, but I included them because they’re adorable:
Norajane