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NewsletterMake a Stamp Today! Carving and Hand Printing
Happy Wednesday to everyone! Today I decided to get hands-on and carve some rubber stamps. It can seem like an intimidating process, but it’s not too difficult to create your own little designs for printing and there is always great satisfaction in creating something personal by hand. You can carve into everyday items like rubber erasers, art gum or even corks! I happened to have linoleum blocks lying around and started making a quote journaling stamp for a scrapbook page. I decided to finish the job and carve another stamp to test out printing.
I use a little table jig thingy when carving that allows you to apply pressure into what you are carving without the work slipping away – not sure what you call that. I think I’m pretty heavy handed anyway, because I’ve chipped off pieces of that white plastic thingy and certainly have had my share of slight injuries! I have to tell myself to slow down all the time, so be careful with whatever tools you are using.
After finishing up the quote journaling stamp I decide to carve another one with words. I printed out the word “smile!” on the computer first, so then it was easy to trace and transfer with pencil onto the block backwards. Remember you have to carve the mirror image of things! My little happy sun design turned out to be really detailed and a lot harder for me to carve out – what a challenge!
I didn’t have the tools (or maybe the patience) to get all those little parts of the letters and I also accidentally took off the dot above the letter “i” and the dot below the exclamation point as well. I decided it was okay, because I would add little hearts with a gel pen in their places instead. Don’t forget that you can always work with your mistakes.
In the end you have to go through a process of inking up your work and trying it out to see if you need to fix any parts or clear out certain areas. I like the grungy look of a hand-carved stamp and sometimes keep it very loose on purpose. Stamping with rubber stamp type inks worked okay, but wetting a bit of distress ink was nice also. I tried to use some paint but it was a bit too thick, so I think the trick is finding the right consistency for whatever you use to stamp. I ended up with a bunch of random stamping all over to test colors and consistencies. Either way it was fun to think of an image, get it carved out and then printed…so satisfying! I hope you will give carving a try as well…even if it’s just a little heart to stamp on the outside of your envelopes – that would make cute mail art 
I think I’m going to do that now with a cork!
Posted on March 24, 2010 at 4:31 pm | carving + printing
Hello fellow explorers and creative minds! My name is Linda, aka tortagialla - a nickname my adorable husband dubbed me meaning "yellow cake" in Italian. I'm your not-so-typical Californian girl who took the plunge and moved to the Tuscan hills of Italy. Now I'm living my dream designing, illustrating and crafting full-time. You can contact me via email linda [!at] tortagialla [!dot] com
I really wasn’t kidding – just carved out a heart on a cork and it stamps beautifully! Check it out http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindatieu/4460181456/
caspita, che lavoro certocino hai fatto con questi tibri, splendidi!
grazie grazie!
mi sono mangiata delle lettere ma spero si capisca cosa ho scritto
si, ho capito! tanto d’imparare nell’italiano…a volte non lo so se esprimere correttamente le cose nella mia mente! ma capisco abbastanza…penso!
What a talented crafter! Love your quote stamp.
Keep it up, you’re doing well. Looking forward to read more about your art adventure.
Thanks so much!
hmmm, ther is a cork on the counter from a bottle of wine I finished last night, maybe I’ll give it a go! I never had the patience for lino carving but I did a lot with the soft rubber carving blocks, they are so quick! cute stamps Linda!
Yeah, I think sometimes things can get pretty tedious and complicated, so these cork ones are pretty fun. Simple shapes with cool texture!
what a beautiful blog you have, linda!! thanks for stopping by and commenting on mine
dawn
Thanks Dawn!
Dear linda, you are really talented.
I would LOVE to try craving sometime…when i buy me the stamp carving tool kit! Your stamps are gorgeous, i really adore that one with the sun and the smile. Have a lovely merry happy day and love to you!
Haha, thank you but I think it’s not too hard to carve…I’m pretty rough at it….evidence from painful little knicks on my hands!
The smile stamp is so cute!!!!
Thanks so much, I really like it too! Would like to use it to “seal” envelopes actually…a nice phrase for when someone receives snail mail!
Awesome I love these!
Cool, thanks for checking out my work!
Love your CARVING! So rustic and beautiful!
Thanks…it’s pretty fun to create something that you can stamp over and over again…fun fun!
Lovely stamps! Carving stamps is so fun.
I agree it’s super fun…thanks!
Linocut is fun, rigth? Also it can my hands make hurt sometimes. Your fresh design is magically making me smile.
Thanks! I’m glad you like the designs…even though my hands ache sometimes, it’s worth it in the end!
Linda,
Sounds like you had a lot of fun in making these! YEY!
I remember I create a big stencil out of cork in Art class once in Secondary school, and I thoroughly enjoyed digging into it.
Thanks so much for the reminder!
Hi Ana, definitely fun creating…I wonder if I can try to make a stencil at some point. For some reason that seems more challenging to me…I can’t paper cut very well!