A Beginner's Guide to Stamp Carving

Difficulty - Intermediate

Carving your own stamps can be fun. Sometimes, you just can’t find that perfect stamp design, and making your own is a great creative outlet. This project is a basic, beginner’s guide to carving your own stamps from erasers and some of the commercial materials on the market.

In most cases, hand-carved stamps are not meant to last forever. If you find yourself using a particular hand-carved stamp a lot, it might be a good idea to have a custom stamp made of the design. However, the fun is in the carving, for sure! You just can’t acheive that hand-carved took any other way.

In my photo examples, I used SpeedBall’s Speedy Cut Printing Block. I used it because it was bigger, and easier to photograph. However, I prefer to use the Staedtler Mars white plastic erasers, which the company is now also marketing as a stamp carving material. It’s easier to work with, and doesn’t crumble and break apart like the Speedball product. I also like to use the product as an eraser; I think it is one of the best on the market.

However, Speedball now offers a kit called “Speedy Stamp,” which appears to have a more durable material for carving. See this page for more information about this new product. If you purchase this product, it replaces the carving material, carving tools and acetone marker on the materials list.

Warning: Cutting blades are very sharp. Kids should not do this project without adult supervision.

Materials

• Photocopy of sketch or clip art you would like to make into a stamp
• Acetone clear blending marker (check an art supply store; these are getting harder to find)
• Scotch tape
• Scissors
• Carving material, like Staedtler Mars Plastic Eraser or Speedball Speedy Cut Printing Block
• Carving tool and blades, like Speedball’s Lino Assortment #1, which comes with a handle and 5 cutters (shown)

Directions Directions

1. Make sure your carving material is clean. You may want to clean it with some water, and dry it thoroughly, to remove finger oils.

2. Trim your photocopied artwork (sketch or clip art) to within 1/4 inch of the edge of the design. I highly recommend using a photocopied image, as an inkjet print will not transfer with this method. I did not use a photocopied image, and I had a heck of a time getting it transferred to the carving material -- carbon paper did not work. I ended up using a colored art marker, which I allowed to soak through the paper and on to my carving surface.

3. Flip your design over, so the toner touches the carving material. With some Scotch Tape, tape down your design, making sure the tape does not overlap any of the design (this will interfere in the transfer process).

4. Using your acetone clear blending marker, slowly color all over the back of the design, allowing the marker to soak through the paper. The acetone in the marker melts the toner from the photocopy, and it will deposit on your carving surface. Be careful not to let the paper move, or the toner will smear. This is why we taped it down.

5. Allow the paper to dry (it shouldn’t take more than a few seconds). Then, carefully remove the paper from the carving material. Your image should be backwards on the surface, ready to carve.

6. With your finest, thinnest cutting blade, cut away the outlines of the image, as shown.

7. With your next largest tool, cut away the rest of the negative space in the design (whatever you don’t want to make a mark on the paper.). Remember, it’s perfectly OK to have little “artifacts” in your design -- it adds to the hand-carved look.

8. Ink your stamp with dye ink and make an impression. If you like what you see, you’re done. If not, you can still make adjustments.

Tips

• If you prefer to draw right on the carving surface, remember to draw any text backwards so it prints correctly when you make an impression.
• The cutting blades are sharp. Please take care when using them. All children attemping this project should be closely supervised.
• If the carved image is going to see a lot of use (say, a signature stamp for makring the backs of your cards, or a return address design), I recommend having the carved design made into a custom stamp, either from rubber or photopolymer. Most of the carving materials were made more for ease of carving than durability, and heavy use may lead to a breakdown of the materials.

Variations

• Draw right on the carving surface instead of using the transfer method. Refer to the first tip, above.
• Mount your carved creations on a wood block. Speedball offers wood mounts for their Speedy-Stamp carving material, which appears to be better than their Speedy Cut Printing Block, which I used for this project.