Art Journal Every Day: Homemade Two-Step Stamps

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Today we have a guest post from Nicole Maki that is going to make you run out and buy plexiglass and caulk!

Homemade Two-Step Stamps

 When Julie asked if I’d share the simple way I make home made two-step stamps with all of you I did a little happy dance all over my living room. I’ve been a huge fan of Julie’s work for several years and am incredibly honored to be here today.

The idea to make simple foam stamps with matching acrylic style doodle outlines came to me while I was drooling over Claudine Hellmuth’s Creative Layers stamps (gorgeous!) and shortly afterwards I saw a great tutorial on the Craftzine blog for "no carve acrylic style stamps" made with plexiglass and silicone.

I combined the two ideas and came up with my own DIY Two-Step Stamps.

What you’ll need is plexiglass, silicone caulking, basic craft tools and a stencil (optional).

Take your plexiglass, decide on the size of base you want to cut and then score it several times with an craft blade. Next, hold the scored-line against the edge of your table and WHACK IT really hard. For my second batch I bought thinner plexiglass than suggested in the original tutorial and it snapped with ease while still being rigid enough to stamp with. 

You'll need two plexiglass bases for each layered stamp set; one for the foam stamp, one for the silicone.

To Make a Stamp Set Using a Stencil

 Choose a stencil with an image that fits your base. I got this set at the Dollar Store as it has great stamp-style images:

Trace the stencil onto your sticky back foam and cut out. Trim as close to the image as you like, I prefer to leave a little space around the edges.

Attach foam to base. If using sticky-backed foam, peel the paper backing off and stick it on the plexiglass. If you’re using the thicker foam, glue it to the plexiglass with Aleene’s Tacky Glue and let it dry overnight.  

For the silicone step, trace your stenciled image onto scrap paper and place the matching-size base over top. Trace the pattern in silicone. Let dry over night. The type of silicone I use says, “shower ready in three hours” but I let it dry longer.

Tip: If you’ve tested your foam stamp on paper, don't lay your plexiglass over your stamped image for the silicone step as it'll come out backwards because your outlining the mirror image. I did it...not good.

Now have fun stamping. Brush paint on the foam stamps and then once it's dry use paint or ink on the outline stamp. I love using Staz-On ink with the silicone stamps.

To Make a Stamp Set Using Your Own Hand Drawn Image

 The method for hand-drawn layered stamps is basically the same but instead of copying the stencil you draw your own image and transfer it to the paper side of your sticky-backed foam.

And here is how it all comes together in my ‘Out of the Journal’ finished piece:

Tips and Trouble Shooting

• Ink goes on to the silicone better if you rub fine sand paper over it very gently.
• Wash these carefully - they aren’t as durable as manufactured stamps.
• I’ve had a few silicone pieces come loose when rinsing. It seems to occur where my line of silicone was too narrow. But, when I’ve let them air dry they reattached.
• Repairs or additions to your image can be made at any time, just add more silicone.
• To make three-step stamps create your foam background layer and silicone outline. Then make a third layer of designs to fill the outline. For example, with the banner I could make a layer to add stripes or polka dots to each pennant.
• Choose versatile shapes and make multiple silicone toppers. A rectangle could have a matching high rise layer but also serve as a text block (remember to mirror your writing so it’ll be oriented correctly when stamped), bricks, a border design, presents etc.

Thanks so much.

Warmly, Nicole

I'm a SAHM to three giant teenage boybarians and have been married to my sweetie for sixteen wildly eventful years. We homeschool, in part for the ever-present opportunities to blow things up in the name of education, and I write on occasion for money. Sadly, I've only managed to sell articles on learning and parenting not my scandalous choose-your-own-adventure novels for grown-ups about reality TV. Bummer. Mixed media and scrapbooking has been my passion for a good part of the last twelve years and card making has became a happy necessity as I need to do something with all those scraps. My work can be seen in Memory Makers, Scrapbooks Etc., Family Fun, Home Education, ScrapStreet, Scrapbook News & Review, Altered Arts Magazine,  Art Journey Journal and the book,  'A Card a Day' by Paper Crafts magazine. My blog, Made By Nicole is a strange mix of creative pursuits and scandalously rich desserts.

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P.S. The Crafter's Workshop is sold out of a bunch of stencils, including the 12x12 Chevron, the 6x6 Rain and a bunch of the other popular ones.  They are getting more in in the next week or so, so most of the orders from my shop (which are fulfilled by The Crafter's Workshop) are being held and will ship once the stencils are back in stock.  Thanks for your understanding!