DIY rubber stamp

Ok, so you want to make a rubber stamp, maybe for a logo or a letter head that you can use over and over again…where do you start?

1- buy a large rubber or look in your own stationery drawer
I bought this one in a superstore where I usually get my groceries

2 – decide on a simple image such as this seagull I drew from a photograph I took yesterday in Dartmouth. Sketch it out on the surface with a permanent pen (you may need to draw it in pencil first … I didn’t – see below why this may be a good idea!)

3 – once you are happy with the design you can then go over the outlines in pen. Remember everything you cut away will not get any ink on it so if you want texture leave areas uncut.

As you can see from the above, I’ve added the initial ‘J’. If you do decide to put any lettering on your stamp make sure you do it in reverse or it will print backwards like mine did! Ha ha ha! Ooops!

4 – you may or may not need to cut more away from the rubber, depending on how the initial print comes out. Also, depending on the shape and style of the eraser, you may have to ‘roll’ the rubber while still retaining its print position on the paper. My eraser is rounded at the edges, so to make sure my gull image came out fully, I had to roll it from side to side while applying pressure.

5 – finally add any special touches to your print. This one was the rubber stamp applied to a gelliplate monoprint of leaves. I also added pieces cut from another monoprint where I used a small pepper and some shells pressed into the ink. Finally, I applied a little white on the bird to bring out the features (note the difference between this bird against a blue/green leaf background and the gull on a pale background, where I didn’t apply any white)