Cut Your Own Rubber Stamps

This blog continues to help inspire me as an artist and I hope helps you as well, in order to grow as an artist you need to challenge yourself. Whether that is in your media of choice or perhaps in a new media, it isn't necessary to be an expert with the media you simply need to enjoy the process. You might surprise yourself when you discover that you find new and interesting techniques that will carry over. There are so many fun creative techniques out there in this day and age that we should all be excited by something new and different. To me it is fun to find some opportunity to expand on my current knowledge base and pass that information on to you. When I set out to write this blog I intended to write about creativity and how that will enhance all of you and myself as artists. These current posts have dealt specifically about cutting rubber stamps, I love finding new and interesting ways to enhance my painting repertoire and this may be one of those techniques. Not to mention the fact that they are just fun to do.

To date I have cut a number of stamps and used acrylic paints to stamp with them. My next plan is to try using my stamping pads but my initial thought was that I could duplicate a design element on a project quickly and easily. I have not tried them on wood as of yet but am hoping to do that when I find the right surface. I began by stamping with just one paint color and then continued to apply two and sometimes three paint colors directly onto the stamp with a variety of results. The nice thing about this technique is that once you have your stamp finished the material will hold up for years of use and is pliable enough to bend around a 3-dimensional surface. It is necessary to clean your stamps but do not be concerned if the paint stains that stamp. It will not interfere with the use of the stamp.