How to Carve Your Own Stamps

Hello hello!

One of the best things about summer is having time to do all sorts of fun DIYs. Hmm... What should I do today? Carve my own stamps? Sure! Why not?

This was actually a lot of fun. At first, it seemed like a rather difficult craft, but if you have the right tools and a pinch of patience, the stamps turn out great.

Here are the supplies you'll need. I got everything from Michael's.

a block of rubber
Speedball Cutter with an assortment of blades
ink pad

First, draw your desired stamp design on a piece of paper. I drew a few drafts before I came up with my finalized design. Once you've sketched your final design, go over it a couple times with a blunt pencil so that the lines are really thick and there is a lot of graphite on the page.

Next, flip the paper over and press your drawing against the rubber block. Try to arrange it in the corner of your rubber block to conserve space. I used the end of the Speedball Carver (without a blade) to press down on the drawing.

When you remove the paper, there should be a copy of your drawing on the block of rubber.

Use some heavy-duty scissors to cut your design out.

Attach the thinnest blade to the Speedball Carver. Do this by unscrewing the top and sliding the blade into the loosened metal inside.

Using this blade, trace along the lines of your drawing. You don't have to press down hard.

Once finished, it should look somewhat like this.

Now, take a bigger blade and screw it onto the Speedball Carver.

Carve away the remaining rubber around the design. Throughout the carving process, freely switch between all the blades. Use the blade that best suites the area where you're carving. And don't be lazy--if you need to switch, then switch. Otherwise, you'll end up carving where you don't mean to.

Now it's time to test your stamp. Use your stamp on a spare piece of paper. The resulting image will show you where you need to carve more. Lines that show up where you don't want them to indicate places where more carving is needed. See the picture below.