MAKE YOUR OWN RUBBER STAMP

Material:-

1.)  Plain copy paper
2.) A pencil (I used an art pencil from Faber Castell – 2B)
3.) An eraser for fixing mistakes in your drawing
4.) A thick piece of rubber or other material meant for carving stamps – I used Speedball’s Speedy-Cut…they make a pink one and a white one . The white one seems to be softer than the pink one but both cut “like butter” as it says on the packaging for many such products. )
5.) A carving tool (Mine was a set that came with 5 differently sized cutting heads – Speedball’s Lino Cut Assortment)
6.) Ink specifically for your application (fabric, paper, cardstock, etc.) – just make sure it is a thicker ink if you plan to apply it with a roller. 
7.) A piece of wood just larger than your final stamp to use as a backing

How to do it:-


1). First make a line drawing. If this is your first ever stamp-making project you might
want to keep details to a minimum and stick with thick, wide lines. This will make it easier when it’s time to carve. You can either color in the areas you plan to carve with your drawing (this will be the space that doesn’t get inked) or the areas that will print so it will look more like your final piece as your carving it – just decide ahead of time and stick with it.

2).  The Speedball material will actually pick up the outline of your drawing…no tedious tracing needed! Put your drawing face down on the material and rub the back of the paper with something hard and smooth.  Also take care not to move the drawing once you have started transferring the image.


3). Once your image is sufficiently transferred onto your rubber material, you can begin carving out the details of your drawing. I start by outlining the areas with a small tool then cutting in with the larger tools.

Carve out the parts of your image you do not want to print

4). Once you have cut out all the fine details you will need to remove the excess material from the sides so your image comes out cleanly. If you are used to creating shading and dimension in your artwork you can get a similar effect from making shallow, light, strategically placed cuts in your stamp.

5).Glue your finished stamp to the wood backing…if you don’t put a backing on it, it’s wigglyness may cause an uneven impression on your finished piece. Sometimes I get excited and skip this step, but it is the proper way to do it.


Get ready to do a test print!
Ink your rolling surface and get a good, even coating of ink on your roller. Roll the ink on to your stamp and test it on a non-essential piece of paper. You will likely see areas you need to fix in your stamp. Just cut these areas away, and test one more time before you’re ready to create you’re finished stamped piece.