HANDMADE STAMP

Have you ever had a hankering for a different sort of a stamp? Perhaps one that you'd made yourself? Have you ever looked at one of your open dies and thought, "I think this would make a great stamp!"? 

Well, I'm here today to tell you how you can use one of your favorite open dies and some Fun Foam to do just that.

The card below shows how wonderfully one of these homemade stamps work in creating a good crisp image. Focus on the red flower.

Because these stamps are quite thin, you need to be extra cautious when inking them up. If you mount your stamp onto an old wooden block, you don't have to use such care. But you do run into stamping some of the ink you get on the block if used this way. So use caution.

A close closeup of the image I stamped using my homemade stamp:

Go ahead and choose one of your open dies and get youself some of the thickest Fun Foam you can find. Remember that, as you run it through your die cutting machine, the foam will compress quite a lot.

Follow along for a tutorial on how you can make your own stamps. It's easy and lots of fun! 

This tutorial is to make my sample card. Change things up as you wish.

SUPPLIES:

White cardstock

Black cardstock

Black and White Designer Series Paper

Plentiful Plants stamp set (page 63, Annual Catalog)

Poppy Parade ink

Die Cutting Machine

Fun Foam

Ornate Frames dies (retired)

Iconic dies (for the flower, retired)

Matte Black Dots (page 143, Annual Catalog)

Stampin' Dimensionals.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Fold a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" piece of white cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder.

To this, add a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of black cardstock.

To this, layer a 3 3/4" x 5" piece of black and white Designer Series Paper. 

To make a stamp:

Using a piece of Fun Foam, die cut it with a die that has quite a lot of detail such as the flower I used in my sample. You may need to run the die/foam through your machine twice so all the pieces are cut through cleanly.

Cut a piece of white cardstock that measures 2 3/4" square (for my stamp). Adjust the size for the stamp you are making.

Lay your new stamp onto a piece of scratch paper and ink it up well with any color. Move the stamp to a clean piece of paper, inked side facing up. Leaving it sit in that position, carefully lay the square of white cardstock over the inked up stamp. Gently use your hands to rub over the cardstock, being sure you don't miss any spots. Carefully lift the stamped cardstock away from the stamp.

Once the ink is completely dry, layer this piece onto a 3" square of black cardstock.

Mount this onto the DSP, leaving even margins at the top and sides, using Stampin' Dimensionals.

For the sentiment, die cut any label that fits well in the blank space at the bottom of the card, In matching ink, stamp a sentiment.

If desired, add embellishments to each side of the words.

Using Stampin' Dimensionals, add the sentiment to the card.

Homemade

Smiles.