super easy stamp carving

Ingredients :
Staedtler MasterCarve Artist Carving Block - I love this stuff ! It is by far the best rubber I've used ! Carves like a dream and take ink and paint wonderfully
Linoleum cutters
copyright free image book
Photocopied image It has to be laser copy , inkjet will just smear and be icky
matt gel medium
exacto knife

First- cut your image out. Coat the image with a generous amount of matt medium . I use my finger.. And lay the image matt medium down on to the rubber. With a non goopy finger smooth out any air bubbles. Try to not get any of the matt medium on the back of the image as this will make it harder to remove the paper.
Let this dry for about an hour.

Once it's dry stick the rubber under running water till you can see the image thru the paper .

Using your finger gently rub the paper off the rubber. Don't worry if a little of the image comes off. You can go over it with a marker to fill in those areas .

Then I use my exacto knife to carefully cut excess rubber off. And I use my linoleum carvers to carefully carve away the outline of the image. Watch where you put you other hand !!!! trust me those things are sharp and can really hurt !
I always try to carve on something as those little shavings get every where !
The harder you push down the deeper and wider the line will be. I use the smallest size when I carve out the inside . It's easier if you take short strokes as you're less likely to accidentally carve something you didn't mean to.
Once you're finished carving it out you can use the exacto knife to cut away any excess around the edges that you may still have.
Then ink it up and stanp it ! If you see anything you don't like simply carve it out !

Now what can you do with your new stamp ? Any thing you want ! The best thing is that since these are carved deeper then store bought stamps you can use paint instead of ink. Just make sure to wash it off !

Comments

[vicki cook]

What a cool tutorial! Gotta check to see what "carving medium" I've got and I'll write again to see if that could work... and will def share when i make my first one.

- vicki (cookievf on flickr)