How to Carve Your Own Rubber Stamps

Buying stamps at an art store can become extremely expensive. Unless you are a great hunter of yard sales, discount racks or have really giving friends around holidays, stamping can lead to bankruptcy! After a while of buying and selling stamps online, not finding what I particular wanted, I began learning how to carve my own. Thankfully I had learned once in high school art class, so picking up the skills didn't take very long. It is a very fun and rewarding hobby, and can even be profitable (I run an Etsy shop). So how do you make a scrapbooking collection of personalized touches? Here are the major steps to take:

You may have noticed that the stamps you buy from the store usually have a wooden block attached. While nice for display and the like, as well as ease of printing, it is not necessary. I tend not to attach blocks to my creations, as it makes them harder to store. Online, I have had a much easier time selling my non-mounted products than selling mounted!

1. Rubber

You have to go find some rubber sheets. Some people can go to a hardware store and get some heavy grade materials, but they are very tough to carve in many cases, and the financial savings are usually minimal. I recommend going onto Amazon and buying The Speedball Speedy-Carve sheets if this is your first stamp carving adventure. It is soft and flexible, and it is easy to pierce and guide tools through. At first, I bought the entire Speedy Carve Stamp Making Kit, so I could also get a few basic tools to carve (at a nice discount). There are other brands of rubber sheet, but Speedball has worked best for me thus far.

Some people also use the pink, rubber erasers. While it is nice if you want to carve a few, small stamps to buy a couple of erasers and finish, it will not work for a large stamp (for obvious reasons). If it is simple lettering, then don't be afraid to find a pack of pink, rubber erasers!

2. Carving Tools

Maybe you bought the whole Stamp Carving Kit, at which point, this is a little useless to you. Not entirely useless, as there are still a few important pieces! Any artist needs tools to cut into the rubber. Some people find household solutions, but the easiest choice is to pick a few small, cheap tools at first. There are the V and U shaped tools which are basic starters. I also suggest a type of knife (I use X-Acto) to cut the finished stamp out of the rubber block.

3. Drawing Tools/Design

The easiest way for a beginning artist/carver to get a nice layout is to get the right drawing materials. The first step, however, is to find a design. I used old pictures from vintage schoolbooks, I traced photographs lightly and even design my own now. It is up to you what you want your first stamp to look like, be it a church, dog or just a basic letter. That is the beauty of self-carving stamps!

Once you have your design, you need to transfer it to tracing paper with a #2 pencil. That would mean tracing the design, basically. This does two, important things. It flips the image, because remember, a stamp has to be a mirror image! It flips when you flip it! Secondly, it makes the design immediately transferable to the rubber and easy to carve. So this means you should find some regular tracing paper and a regular pencil, and with that you have all of your supplies (besides ink for future stamping!

4. Begin!

It starts, again, with the design you chose. I first chose a photograph of a bird. I traced it with the pencils and tracing paper until it came out how I wanted it to. After you are satisfied with the image on the tracing paper (this will be similar to your finished stamp if everything goes accordingly), bring the rubber sheet into the mixture. Taking the side of the tracing paper you drew on and press it against the surface of the rubber flatly and without sliding. Imagine the graphite is like an ink you are stamping! Press down. I like to take the eraser from my pencil and rub it over the tracing paper for pressure, much like someone applying a temporary tattoo.

Once the image is thoroughly transferred, and you are satisfied with the design, you may begin carving. This will be the hardest step (I always feeling guilty cutting into an untouched sheet). Remember, do not touch the pencil graphite (if you can help it) with your hands. It will rub and smudge, causing the image to distort as you are working, making the whole thing that much more difficult.

Some people enjoy taking the X-Acto knife and immediately cutting out an area around the design. I don't like to do that, because the weight of the entire rubber surface makes it easier for me, but it is something each artist decides for herself over time. Once you are ready to carve, take whatever tools you have acquired (I like to start with the U), and then you can start cutting out the NEGATIVE space. That means, unlike tracing, you aim for everything that isn't the graphite drawing. By sight, looking at the stamp above, you can most likely father the meaning of where to carve and where not to carve. This will be difficult, and for most people it takes a little while to get down the feeling of guiding the tools. Don't be disappointed if you make mistakes, because that is part of the learning!

What I like to do when I feel like I'm close to the finishing cuts is, I like to test my stamps. Get a handy ink pad ( again, hopefully... you have one.)

Use the stamp like you would any other. Coat it evenly with ink, apply it to paper with equal pressure and see how the stamp comes out. You may notice some little odd areas, or that maybe a few lines are crooked and thick. Take your stamp, rinse it clean and fix the problem areas! I will do this 5-10 before I finish the average stamp.

When you're finished and satisfied with your stamp... well congratulations! You are now the proud owner of a hand-crafted, one of a kind stamp AND the ability to make as many more as you wish! If you have any questions, I'd be glad to try to answer them, and I offer good luck on your stamping adventures! Happy stamping!