Easy Stamps : A How To

One rainy day my daughter and I made stamps. We will walk you through the steps you need to create one for yourself. You will need some foam. You can use foam from meat or vegetable packing, or you can find foam in your local craft store.

Materials:
foam
pen
scissors
ink
paper

Draw the stamp shape on the foam.

Cut around the shape you have drawn.

Embellish the shape with drawn details, these details will not take ink.

You can mount your stamp if desired. I usually prefer to keep mine unmounted as the flat stamps are easier for me to store, though my fingers get messier during the inking process. To mount it, dab a bit of hot glue on the back of the foam stamp and place on the large foam block. Next I gently pull way the edges of the foam block so only the foam stamp will print, not the mounting block.

Now your stamp is ready. Ink the stamp by carefully pressing the foam into the ink pad.

Once the foam stamp is evenly coated with ink, turn it onto the receiving paper and firmly rub the back of the stamp into the paper (If your fingers have lots of ink on them like mine typically do, place a scrap piece of paper over the stamp back so when you press down the ink on you hands transfers to the scrap paper instead of the clean paper you are printing on.)

Voila!! you made a stamp.

You can do a large stamp like the peacock shown here. In this case I used a square piece of foam, I did not cut the peacock shape out. I often like to add some drawn details into the completed stamp, like more dots for the peacock, or stems for the flowers.

Make a pattern with your stamp, or just make a singular beautiful stamp!