How to make stamps at home

Let's have fun making some personalized and probably unique stamps. This is a very simple way to make stamps at home that allows everyone to create his/her own stamps without using super duper materials and get a first approach to the whole process of making stamps.

Just some months ago I attended a course on how to make comic books and during the course the teacher also showed us how she makes her own stamps using a particular rubber sheet and some special tools suitable to cut rubber very easily. I found it very interesting, but at the same time, a bit complicated. First of all, I looked for that kind of rubber sheet everywhere without good results. I also wrote the teacher of the course I attended asking her the name of that material and where I could find it, but I never received an answer. :/

So, I thought of trying with some materials I had at home and the result wasn't bad...not professional, not extraordinary, but nice. :)

This is what you need:

• Crazy glue
• An eraser (old or new, it doesn't matter, but make sure its surface is flat)
• I sharp cutter
• A pencil or pen
• Any mini paper craft punch/stencils (not extremely necessary since you might even want to draw the subject yourself)
• A wooden or plastic cube (this is also optional as long as the eraser is pretty thick)

I used a footprint-shaped paper craft punch just because I didn't like the foot I drew and I wanted to be more precise, but, as I previously mentioned, it is not necessary...you can simply draw it without using a “guide”. :)

Draw the subject you'd like to transform into a stamp on the surface of the eraser and cut the whole external perimeter of your subject.

After this, cut all the extra rubber around your figure away. At this point, if you have a drawing that doesn't need to be cut inside, too, ( I suggest you start with something easy that needs to be cut only on the outer area) you are basically good to go. :)

If you have a plastic or wooden cube or whatever else on which you'd like to glue your self-made rubber stamp, you might need to remove some of the extra rubber which is below your drawing, and make the base of the stamp thinner - as shown in the last figure. Now, glue your stamp on the wooden cube and enjoy your new stamp.

In this figure, you can see that my layer is pretty thin, it's about 3mm, but feel free to leave a thicker layer.  

If you don't have a little surface on which to glue the rubber stamp, you can leave the eraser as it is , but remember to use a thick one, so that you can hold it quite well when you use it.

I hope you have fun making your own stamps and I also hope to find the rubber sheet I told you about pretty soon and come back with a more “professional” tutorial. In the meantime, I just wish you a good time in making as many stamps as you like. :)