10¢ Homemade Stamps

To make a long story short: I go to the store to buy a simple, heart, stamp design. I couldn't find anything under 5 bucks that I cared to use!  I'm not sure if any of you have gone to a hobby store lately to browse the stamps, but I can't justify paying those prices for a piece of rubber (Even if they are beautiful, and fun, and neat, and....nevermind).

Like a majority of the population, I am not blessed with a magical money tree in my apartment's backyard. To make up for my lack of funds I came up with this recipe for a simple, cheap, homemade stamp.

Here is what you'll Need:

Erasers:   The Stamp itself will be made of erasers. I bought these at Dollar Tree. They come in a pack of ten for $1. Their estimated size is 1.5in.x1in. 

Stamp Carver:   Okay, I'm not sure how popular this app is, but the hobby lobby app is the key to making

 crafting affordable (for me).  Within the Hobby Lobby app there is a reusable, non-expiring, free, 40%-off-of-one-item coupon. And it's wonderful. You can use this baby once a day, everyday. I believe my stamp carver was 10 dollars at Hobby Lobby. I got it for about six dollars. There are cheaper carvers than the one I bought as well. Be sure that you buy the additional pack of carving nibs, because you will need a very fine nib that isn't included with the carver itself. 

 Pencil or Sharpie: How confident you are with free-handing your design is the deciding factor when choosing between these two writing utensils.  If you feel you will need to correct mistakes, go for the pencil. If your design will be simple, go ahead and use the sharpie, because it writes much more smoothly on the eraser.
Safe Surface: When I say "safe" I am implying that your surface should be safe to use sharp cutting tools on.  I don't see a point in buying 20 dollar cutting mats, so I bought a $1 cookie sheet from Walmart. It works well for this, because we won't have to apply much force on our working surface.  If heavy force is required it can be troublesome using the cookie sheet, because there will be pre-existing lines in the sheet that shift the path of your blade's cuts.


Let's Begin!:

Making Your Design:

You can follow my lead and simply draw on the eraser (1). If your drawing is more complicated, you can sketch it out on paper first. Go over your completed drawing (still on the paper) multiple times with your pencil. Once you have done that you can lay the design face-down on the eraser and rub it to transfer your sketch to the eraser's surface. I suggest drawing on graph paper; especially if you'll be drawing geometric shapes. 

Next, I suggest lightly swiping the eraser across an ink pad to make your carving grooves more visible (2). It helps me identify any missed spots and it helps me gauge how deep my cuts are going. 

Carving/Cutting Your Design:
(Important: When cutting you should move the eraser, not your carving tool. Otherwise, curves and depths of carving with come out inconsistently.) 

You should use your smallest, finest carving nib for this step (3). Begin by cutting around the outside of your design (4). Don't worry about making your cuts deep yet. It would take ages with this nib. 

Finish cutting around your design, then carve out the small, inner details. (1).  

Change out your nibs to a wider nib with a deeper, medium curve. I included a picture to help you compare the shape of your first nib to the one you should be using now. Use the larger nib to cut farther out from the design (2 & 3).  This gets rid of the background. This step is optional depending on your design, of course. 

Cleaning Up Your Design:

As you can see from the picture, you want to make your cuts deep enough so that pushing your stamp into the ink pad won't cause you to ink the background. Cut away the excess eraser.  The size of your stamp's "mount" is completely up to you. (The way I see it: The smaller the mount, the less you have to carve!) You can use a carving nib to clean up the ripples in your stamp, but I find that an X-acto Knife is ideal for this step. Use what is available to you. (The X-acto Knife I have is $3.87 at my local Walmart). 

 Tada!:

Press your stamp into the ink pad (Studio G Ink Pads: 97 cents at my local Walmart). When you use your stamp for the first time you will be able to see any unwanted marks on the paper where you didn't carve deep enough. Continue carving those spots away until you achieve your desired image. You'll have to stamp the eraser a couple of times to make a smooth image. The ink has to soak into the pores of your stamp.

Questions, Suggestions, and Comments are welcome. Happee Crafting!-Ash