Hand Carved Stamps

“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; It is because we do not dare that they are difficult.”  ~ Seneca

I’ve been wanting to carve my own stamps for a while now.  I bought the supplies last week, but was really nervous to start.  Looking back, it seems so silly!  These were ridiculously easy.  I used Speedball Speedy-Carve as the stamp material and a linoleum cutter to make the design.  Cutting into the stamp was like cutting into butter!

Here is a run down of the process I used.

Make a sketch in charcoal.  I just sketched on regular watercolor paper from my journal.

Place the sketch face down onto the stamp material and rub along the back.  You could use a credit card, brayer or that blue thingy in my picture that I have no clue what it’s name is.

Next, take a linoleum cutter and “scoop out” the drawn lines.  You could also do the reverse of this and scoop out everything but the drawn lines.  I’m thinking I may do that on the back side?  After that, I cut around the stamp design with one of the attachments for my linoleum cutter.  You could use an Exacto knife for this, too.

Make a few test stamps, do additional cutting if needed.  Voila.

Then be ready to start number two, because as soon as you are done, you WILL be addicted.

Annnnd number 3:

I have enough stamp material left to do another 4 stamps (plus a few small ones). 7+ unique stamps (14 if you carve the backs) for $13 is a screaming deal!

Started a few journal pages playing around with the new stamps… I can easily see this becoming a new obsession!

(Find your roots. Reach your petals towards the sun. bloom.)