Rubber Stamp Tutorial

After all the enthusiasm you showed for my stamps, I could hardly wait to make a tutorial for you all so I took twenty minutes yesterday and made up this cute little bird stamp for spring time. All the things you'll need to carve a stamp are available at your local art store or online here and here. You'll need the following materials:

• Speedball lino cutter set
• Ink roller
• Speedball Speedy Cut block
• Block printing ink in your choice of color
• Pencil, paper
• Imagination!

Start by getting the image for which you want to make a stamp. If you know what it is already and can draw go a head and make up a sketch. If you can't draw then look online for free images or clip art and print that out at the right size to fit on your block. Once you have your image, using a pencil trace over it several times so there is enough lead to rub off onto your block.

Cut your block so that it's just a little larger then your image.

Place your image lead side down on the block. Using a bone folder or other flat object (back of a butter knife) rub all over until the image is transfered onto your block. (you can see I was doodling other things to make a stamp from on the back of this paper)

It should look like this above.

Now you're ready to start carving. Take out the medium size carving knife and attach it to the handle.

Before cutting, decide if you want the image to be the color of the paper or the ink. For this bird I wanted it to be the color of the paper. So I cut away everything but the black lines. But you could also cut away just the black lines and the surrounding outer block.

I start by carving away space around the drawn lines. That way I am less likely to make a cut into the part I want to save.

Depending on how close or small your lines are you might need to switch out blades every once in a while.  For example I used the smallest blade for the space around the feet and wing details.

Once all the lines are cut around you can begin to take away all the extra unwanted block.

Carve away until your image is elevated above the rest of the block. When you are satisfied with how much you've carved away do a test print to see if you need to remove anything.

Put a blob of ink on a piece of paper. Using your roller, roll over the ink in a w shape to cover the roller with ink.

Apply into to the stamp.

Place the stamp ink-side down a clean piece of paper and press down with the whole palm of your hand. Let off the stamp straight up, so you don't risk dragging ink across the page.

You can see there are some points outside the bird I need to carve away. So I took the carving tool and removed the parts with ink on them.

Ink up the roller again and the stamp. You'll need to repeat this every time you make a print.

Now test again. If it comes out how you want you are all set.  Start printing away. If not repeat the previous step of carving away and testing.

Here are the four test prints I did. I love how each bird varies slightly. That's the wonderful thing about hand printing, each print is a unique creation even if it's done with the same stamp. You can also see prints from my other recent stamps, the carrot is my favorite!