Making your own stamps is very easy and quite fun.  It’s so easy to carve out a beautiful design and get lost in the fun.  My son loves art and he always loves it when I can make him something he can use to create his own work of art.  So I thought I’d make him some car and truck stamps.

stamp carving

They’re so simple.

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Here’s what you’ll need:

Carving blocks (Speedball Speedy Carve Blocks are a great choice, you can find them here or here.)
A linolium cutter with different tips (#1,#2, #5) — I got mine from this great starter kit.
A utility knife or X-Acto knife
Pencil
Pen
Ink pad for stamping

stamp carving

Car Template, which you can download here.

stamp carving

Before we start, let’s take a look at the linoleum carving tips.  I have a #1, #2, and #5 tip.  The #1 tip (shown on the right) is used for outlining your image.  Tip #5 is in the middle.  It yields a wider cut.  On the left is tip #2, which gives a deep, but still narrow cut.

stamp carving

Start by printing out your image that you’ll use to make stamps.  You can use anything or draw something by hand.  Take a pencil and shade in the back of your image.

stamp carving

Turn it over and place your image on your carving block and trace the image with a ball point pen.

stamp carving

You should end up with your image in light pencil on your carving block.

stamp carving

If you like, you can darken your image with a ball point pen.

stamp carving

Using an X-Acto knife or utility knife cut out the stamp, to make your work surface a little smaller.

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Take your linoleum cutter and using a #1 tip, start to carve away along the outline of your image.

stamp carving

Keep going until you’ve outlined the entire image including any details.

stamp carving

Switch to a tip that gives a little deeper cut (like a #2 tip) and cut away more around your outline of your image.

stamp carving

Continue cutting away more with a wider tip (like a #5 tip).

stamp carving

Finally cut away some of the excess block from around your stamp with your X-Acto knife.

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Test out your stamp on paper.  (You may need to go back and remove a bit more, depending on how this test stamp looks.)

stamp carving

Continue for your other stamps.

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Finally let your little artist have fun.  (Make sure your ink pads are washable for your little ones!)  Here’s what Connor did!  I love it!

stamp carving

 

Happy stamping!

7 Comments

7 Comments on Stamp Carving 101

  1. Really, really cute! I don’t see a ton of boy craft ideas, so I love this – perfect for everyone! I love his final picture – it’s fantastic! Thanks for sharing!

  2. Hi! I love your step by step tutorial for stamp carving! Was wondering though, how do you carve small details particularly small dots when using your speedball linolium cutter?

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