Want to make your own stamps? Maybe you're a small business owner who needs a logo stamp for your branding material or a crafty person wanting to bring your crafts to the next level with some cool stamp designs. This blog post is for you!
I created a custom stamp of my logo with the lino-cut print method because I HATE signing my paintings with a signature or even just my initials. Having a stamp to sign all my paintings with is just so much easier and personally I think it also looks a lot nicer than my squiggly, ugly handwriting that I just never mastered with a paintbrush.
So here's what you'll need:
- A design for your stamp
- Linocut tools
- Lino sheets
Optional: graphite transfer paper
Okay, now we're ready to start making our stamp!
Step 1.The design
First we need to get our design on the lino cut sheet as a mirrored version of the final design. For just an image it is not as big of a deal, but with text/letters it is important that the design we carve is mirrored so the stamped result will have the letters the right way! You can either freehand your design on to your lino sheet or print out your design and using a transfer paper draw your design on the lino sheet. This is my preferred method and it works great for light colored lino.
Here you can see me planning out my two logo designs on the lino sheet.
Step 2. Now we carve!
Next the fun (and a little bit dangerous) part! Now we carve out anything we don't want to show in the design. For my design this meant carving out anything that isn't black. I did choose to leave out some of the smallest details. And please be careful, the dangerous part of the carving is the carving too slipping especially on a small lino sheet while working on tiny details. Watch you hands! I cut myself not once but TWICE as my carving tool slipped.
Step 3. Cut out your stamp.
Once I had carved my stamp designs, I chose to also cut out my designs from the lino sheet. Making them perfect little stamps. I recommend attaching them to a handle - like a piece of wood for example - to make the stamping process easier for your!
Step 4. Now we experiment with stamping!
Now you get to experiment with how to use the stamps you made! There is a specific paint meant for lino/block printing and a roller to distribute the paint on the lino sheet. This is one option. Because I am using my stamp on my paintings, I just chose to use the stuff I already used for my artwork; for oil paintings I use oil paint in any color I prefer for my logo stamp. For acrylics I use acrylic paint to stamp with. I did find it a bit easier to get the stamp nice and full when adding a bit of retarder to the acrylic paint to slow down the drying process. This gives me time to get the paint on the entire stamp and stamp it without having to rush. I also just use a painting brush to get the paint on my stamps.
I hope this post was of good use to you! Be creative and happy stamping!
If you want to watch a video version of the stamp making process, I've got one on YouTube!