Happy Fall!! Time to get ready for the holidays!!
Christmas is right around the corner and I love Christmas…
This year I am working on several new projects for my Etsy stationery shop: colburncreativstudio in preparation for the holidays. My favorite discovery in my ventures has been the discovery of carving custom stamps. It is really kind of simple and so much fun! It’s a very intuitive process and mostly just about being careful and working slowly since once you carve it off it can’t go back on.
For my stamp I used Speedball Easy Carve and the Speedball Cutting Tool. You could use woodcutting tools as well. The materials are pretty inexpensive especially for small stamps and it makes for a fun quick project. I discovered this while working on my Christmas designs, but I think a custom stamp will also work very well for heat embossing Thank you cards.
Instructions:
- Trace design onto some tracing paper. I like to create my own digital artwork, because it allows for a unique but refined design. It allows me more control over the initial design than drawing freehand will.
- Place tracing paper face down on Speedycut material and with edge of a soft lead pencil rub to cover entire tracing. (I used a 3b drawing pencil for this project). The design will come out in reverse, but this is correct and any text on the finished stamp will stamp on the paper in the correct orientation.
- Start cutting out smaller v-shaped blade first to start outlining the design. Remember only the uncut areas will show. Move onto the bigger blades as there are larger areas to remove. Be careful to start small since you can’t put it back on.
- Once you are close to finished you can ink the stamp and then cut any extras away. Remember that it’s the imperfections that make it look handmade so have fun and don’t worry too much. I really like how it looks when there are little extra lines surrounding a stamp design. It gives the design a kind of rustic and hand-crafted look.
I hope you enjoyed this simple project.
Happy Crafting!
April