When I am stressed, I find working with DIY crafts to be very therapeutic and relaxing. It takes my mind off my stress and I just concentrate on getting my piece of craft done. I get a sense of happiness and achievement when my craft piece is done. One of my favourite craft / hobby is handmaking my own rubber stamps.
I started off with carving on soft rubber blocks or erasers with a regular pen knife but that did not turn out well. I can only do straight lines and that is quite limiting. So, I invested in a set of Linoleum Cutters and I tell you, it is really worth it!
This is what I use:
- A set of linoleum cutter
- Soft rubber / eraser block
- Ink pads
- 4B pencil
- Tracing paper
This is what I do:
- Have an idea of what you want to make and draw / sketch / trace out your idea out onto a piece of tracing paper with a 4B pencil.
- Stain your rubber block with an ink pad. This will make carving much easier as it will allow you to see that areas that you have craved out. Allow time for the ink to dry or you can stamp the stained rubber block on a piece of paper a few times to fast track the drying.
- Transfer your image from the tracing paper to the rubber block. You do this by laying the tracing paper faced down onto the rubber block and rub the back of the paper with your finger tip.
- When you have the whole image traced onto the rubber block, start craving with the linoleum cutter. Start with the thinnest cutter first to carve out the lines of your image. Follow with the thicker cutters to complete the rest of the carving / stamp.
- Ink your completed rubber stamp and start stamping! Super for your scrapbooking projects!
Visit our shop and check out our Rubber Stamp Kit!
Till the next blog post, make something with your hands! =)
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