Today we will be using fun foam again to make more mark making tools. We are going to make a stamping tool.

First of all you will need your fun foam.

And an old credit card or Hotel room key. Often these types of card are used as advertising gimmicks too. Never EVER throw these away. They are so useful for many things in art. I will give you more ideas for these another time.

Cut yourself three small oblongs about 4″ x 3″. Layer and stick these together with quick drying craft glue.

Cut out some small shapes of your choice from the craft foam. I have cut out triangular shapes for my stamping tool. I have purposely cut these to odd shaped sizes for the usual randomness that I enjoy. (You can see they are not perfect and that works well for me). Then I have stuck them to one side of my old credit card.

Next you will need some old wine (or champagne) corks. Once again, always save yourself a little stock of corks. They are so useful.

I have cut down a wine bottle cork to make myself a small handle for my credit card. You can use a craft knife or scissors. This handle is not essential but makes the credit card stamp easier to use.

Now add paint and begin stamping.

It does add some more interesting marks to your artwork.

If you don’t have a credit card you can use the same technique to add foam shapes to strips of cardboard. Here are two of mine that I have stuck to an ordinary piece of thick card and a corrugated piece.

You will probably notice that for these cardboard stamps I only used one layer of foam. And I also carved some lines into them for more texture. They also do not have cork handles. These two stamps I use a lot. I find these marks very useful in my work.

I also use the edge of my corrugated card stamp to make marks too.

You see I am always thinking of ways of making marks. Just add paint and stamp.

These cardboard foam stamps were the original way that I made my foam stamps. Since then I have progressed to the credit card type. Why?

1. Because they are easier to wash off the paint (being plastic).
2. Because the cork handles make them easier to place and lift off my work
3. Because the three layers of foam add height and prevent the edges of the plastic from gathering paint and adding hard edges to my design.

But both methods work so just make use of what materials you have.

Here you will see glimpses of the stamps being used in my work.

Now it’s time for you to make some foam stamps. Let’s see what you come up with. Please leave me a comment below to let me know how you get on.

There will be another mark making post here tomorrow. I hope you are enjoying my ‘Mark Making’ series. Remember if you would like to follow this series it may be a good idea to ‘Subscribe to Posts’ in the top right hand side of the Home page or follow me through your RSS feed.