stamps + midnight epiphanies

It was around midnight on a random Wednesday night and I had this weird burst of downright determination to create some cute stamp that could be used during a upcoming Women's Event. The focus of the event was to encourage college-aged women to feel loved and valued instead of criticized and put under a microscope of expected perfection.

At midnight, while my passion was at an all time high (I always get most excited in the middle of the night) but my willingness to spend hours crafting something was nonexistent, I whipped out a cute little stamp in less then 20 minutes. That night, I went to bed satisfied, having spent a little bit of that day with the best kid of soul-care: crafting.

If printmaking isn't your thing but you dream of creating cute custom stamps quickly and painlessly, here are 5 tools to start with and 5 simple steps that will result in something you'll be proud of... and all your girlfriends will be asking about.

5 Essential Printmaking Tools

1. Speedball Linoleum Cutters (I own four, completely unnecessary but they're great nonetheless): This is what you will use to cut your medium, they come with several different sized cutting edges. Pssst I also keep a Exacto Knife nearby for tiny little cuts or tedious pieces that I want to cut away without changing the edge on the Speedball Cutter.

2. Printing Blocks: These are the E-Z cut type from Blick, most stores carry a similar medium for Printmaking. I highly suggest those for beginners or even those that love printmaking but want something quick and easy. These are VERY easy to cut out of, making the time that it takes for you to cut out your design very minimal.

3. Paint: While you could totally use Acrylic paint (as pictured above) it may deplete the quality of the printing block quicker and it doesn't always transfer over as pretty to the paper you press it onto, I typically do try and use Water-Based Block Printing Inks if I have them available.

4. Brayer (Acrylic is my favorite kind, they don't fall apart like some of the others do): This is the tool used to get the paint from the pallet onto the printing block. If you can't afford one, just use a good paintbrush, it'll just take longer to paint it onto the printing block.

5. Baren: This is the tool you use to push the paper onto the printing block. If you can't afford one, just use pressure from your hand or even a book. It'll just take longer and depending on how many transfers you want to make, you may get rather annoyed with doing it without a baren.

Beyond that, you just need whatever material you want the custom "stamp" to stamp onto, depending on what kind of stamp I create and how big it is, I've experimented with scrapbook paper, pre-made cards, specialty paper at art stores, maps, envelopes, etc.

5 Simple Steps

1. Create the stamp (either draw it on the stamp itself or create it on the computer and print it out to size). MAKE SURE THE STAMP GRAPHIC OR TEXT ARE ALL FLIPPED HORIZONTALLY. If you do not flip the entire image horizontally, when you stamp the image it will be backwards. I've made the mistake before, don't make the same one.

If you create the stamp on your computer, print it out and use the old-school pencil the entire back of the paper and then trace the front to transfer the image over. Confused? Watch this video.

2. Cut everything on your printing block down using your cutting tool EXCEPT the parts you want to have inked. You don't have to cut the material down as much as you may think. When you use the brayer to ink the stamp, it won't go beyond the surface. Just cut it down enough so that there is two levels of the stamp, the inked part, and the below the surface part.

3. Ink the stamp thoroughly. The first time you ink it, you'll want to ink it pretty good, but after that one layer one time thorough should do to re-ink it.

4. Put the paper on the stamp. Using your baren or your hand press the paper down to transfer the ink. If the stamp is small though, you can just flip the stamp over and keep the paper on the bottom. Figure out what way works best for you, and stick with that.

5. Pull off the stamp of the paper, and you're done! Once you make a few stamps and get accustomed to printmaking, you will find some tips of your own. Also, the more experience, the more easier it will get!