Stamps are a great way to personalize anything from paper napkins to RSVP cards, and small muslin bags for favors to after-party back-of-the-hand style party antics. Whatever your reason for wanting a stamp, you can create a pile of them easily, mixing and matching them to suit your needs. Best of all, do-it-yourself stamps are highly customizable.
Here’s how to make your own.
Materials and Tools
- Tumbling blocks (I used an off-brand Jenga set that came from a Goodwill find.)
- Foamies sheet
- Scissors and/or Fiskars Paper Edgers
- Liquid Stitch fabric glue
- Ink pad
Step 1:
Cut a strip of the foamies that will fit the width of your tumbling block. You may decide to do stamps on the smallest end, in which case, you should cut a smaller strip of foamies.
NOTE: You can use edger scissors to cut out strips that are ready-made patterns.
Step 2:
Use Liquid Stitch to glue the foamies to blocks – the fabric glue is a permanent adhesive and works like a charm to hold fabric and fabric-like materials to the wood. Other glues you have on hand should work, too, but don’t expect regular school glue nor wood glue to hold properly, FYI.
NOTE: If you’re spelling out words, remember to reverse them when you’re gluing them down! (See the RSVP stamp.)
Step 3:
Tada! That’s it! Just wait for the glue to dry (liquid stitch takes about 30 minutes) and then you’re ready to stamp away!
Applications:
Handmade invitations and other paper goodies seem like a natural fit for this project. You can also use these stamps to mark your paper napkins, stamp your bamboo picnic cutlery, or on thank-you notes.
You can also use stamps for many other reasons. Rock out with some hand stamps at your after-hours party, for example. You can also use special inks to permanently stamp fabrics, to customize ribbons, to decorate glasses or candles, etc.
Tips:
Make sure any lettering you’re using is reversed when you glue it down, or it won’t read correctly when stamped.
Your first application stamps will need to be pat into the inkpad thoroughly before they gather enough ink to be legible. After that, they’ll act like any other foam stamp.
Niche:
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Foodies! Stamp your own party napkins to save a bundle.
- Poly folk! You can make a stamp that hearts you + all of your family members.
- Gamers! Eight bit = made for stampin’ things. Zelda hearts FTW.
- Music-lovers! I’m dying to see a custom rockin’ hand stamp. Dying.
Your Turn!
Fess up — how are you planning on taking this project on and making it your own?
