Hand Carved Stamps

So I recently got into this hobby of carving my own stamps a few months ago. Above is all the stamps I have carved so far.

I first got interested when I spotted some really cute stamps on Pinterest that were for sale and decided to buy them. They were a little expensive but too adorable for words.

While I was waiting for my stamps to arrive I searched Pintrest for more stamps and came upon this web tutorial on how to make your own stamps:

Stamp Carving Tutorial

After looking through it I thought that it looked easy enough - so off I went to a craft store to buy my speed ball carving tool and rubber pad. It ended up being so easy that I ended up kicking myself for buying those stamps instead of just making copies. That is right - I have no original designs - just make copies of things. And to justify my stealing:

So fast forward to today and I have made over 25 stamps. I use them to make my own wrapping paper and cards. Plus it gives me something to do between drinking and watching tv. 

My tools:

Xacto Knife to cut away excess rubber, bone knife to rub on image to rubber, pencil to trace image on the paper to rub onto the rubber and last but not least my speed ball carving tool to cut the images onto the rubber.

My helper:

My slab of rubber:

There are two types - white and pink of the speed ball rubber pads. The white is super easy to carve - almost too easy. As in so easy you can make cuts you didn't mean to. I think that is why I like the pink one better. But the pink rubber doesn't do so well with some ink stamps. It kind of beads up like water drops on the pad where the white one seems to be a better surface for it. 

Carving a Design:

Do you see the little ticks or lines though some of the spirals. I have to do that with some designs so I know where to cut. I had to redo this stamp because I started carving out the wrong areas because I didn't mark where to cut. :/

Finished Product: 

My favorite stamp so far:

My purchased stamps:

I want to get a bigger stamp set of letters. That is one thing that is so not worth carving it myself. 

I also have a growing collection of ink pads, but I forgot to photograph those. Maybe next time. 

FIN