Mark Making Ideas 5

Today I have a great tutorial for you on how to make your own rubber stamps for mark making. These are so quick and easy to make and VERY inexpensive. I love carving my own stamps and I think you are gonna love these ideas.

I carved this stamp a while back and you can see it is well used. I find it very useful for adding marks and it appears in lots of my work.

But since deciding to share these mark making tips with you I have carved myself some more and I can’t wait to use them.

You can buy this Stamp Carving Kit very easily on Amazon.

And this is what you will get.

It is very inexpensive and I would definitely recommend you buy the stamp carving tool, which you can also buy separately I believe (with different shaped blades too).

But as you can see I haven’t even opened the Speedy Carve Rubber yet. And that is because I use these.

Yes that’s right. Just everyday erasers. These were all very cheap erasers. Just pennies really. And they are perfect!

You will also find a craft knife very useful. Indeed you could do the entire carving with a craft knife but the Speedball Cutting Tool does make the job easier I find.

So, let’s carve our first rubber stamp then, eh!

First of all I draw my design directly on to the eraser. I use a very fine marker pen for this. I don’t choose elaborate designs, just simple shapes. They are purely to add interest to my work.

Then I use my Speedball carving tool to begin the carving. Here is my first cut.

I continue in this manner just cutting the outline of the shapes.

Then I continue to carve with the tool, making sure that the background to the shapes is well carved away. It needs to be a significant depth so as not to attract paint or ink when applying to finished stamp.

If the design is more intricate then I use the Craft Knife for the tricky bits as I can get into the nooks and crannies more easily with this. Make sure to carve a little at a time in order not to make any heavy handed mistakes in the cutting. !!! Do remember you are working with very sharp tools, so be careful not to slip and cut yourself !!!

When I am happy with the cut aways I then use an emery board (nail file) to sharpen up all my edges to complete. When you are happy with the shape and cut aways make sure to brush away all the loose crumbs of rubber. I do this with a small dry paint brush.

Next, ink up your completed eraser to make sure you are happy with all of the carving. Make sure that no parts of the eraser are picking up the ink that you don’t want to. I just press mine on an ink stamp pad.

And then test it out on a piece of paper.

If you are happy with the stamped design your eraser is ready to use. If you are not happy with the stamped image go back and re-carve until you are satisfied.

Here are the other stamps that I carved.

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Can you believe how easy it is? I have stamped these carved rubber stamps here and there on to this painted background purely so that you can see the effect.

They are cool, aren’t they?

You can use them with ink pads or any of your paints. I use mine a lot with acrylic paint. I do give them a bit of a scrub with water and a small scrubbing brush after use. You will never get all of the paint off but you don’t want to get the grooves clogged up with too much paint.

I do hope you have a go at carving some of these yourself. They are so easy to do (each one took me about 15 minutes to make) and there are infinite possibilities for designs.

I will save my Speedy Carve rubber mat for a more intimate design I think. But for the moment I can’t wait to go and try out these new rubber stamps that I have carved for you today.

Happy Carving!