Learn How To Make Your Very Own Stamp

Supplies:

Vase or old container

Spray paint

Plumer mat 1/16^th

Block of wood or acrylic to place stamp on

Glue to glue stamp to block of wood

Sand paper or nail file

Craft foam

Sola wood flowers

Acrylic paint

Old container to mix paint and water

Water

Paint brush and/or plastic fork to mix paint and water together

Optional: vegetable glycerin to soften the flowers

Optional: ribbon

This piece was a gift for my mom. She loves bunnies, but I could not find a good bunny stamp. So, I decided to make my own for her.

I cut my plumbers mat with my laser printer. You can also use a Cricut machine to cut out your design with the deep point blade. If you use a cricut to cut this material, then I recommend taping it down to your mat to insure it does not move when being cut. Select rubber stamp as your material and cut it 3 times. You should also use your strong grip mat, purple, a green mat could also work. Do not forget to move the star wheels out of the way since this is a thicker material and will not fit under them.

Once you have your stamp cut out, I recommend sanding the top a little to give it some traction. This also helps the ink to stick to the stamp better. I forgot to do this, and my stamp kept sliding on my jar.

Next, cut out a piece of craft foam and glue it to the back of your stamp you just made. Hot glue works well for this. This will give it a little cushion and give when you press your stamp down. You can use your Cricut machine to cut the exact shape out of this craft foam, or you can use scissors to cut a rough shape. It just depends if you want it to look pretty and nice, or just get the job done. If you decide to use your Cricut to cut the craft foam, then I recommend using the craft foam setting with the deep point blade for the explorer model or the knife blade if you have the maker model. I have also used the rotary blade to cut craft foam. I read to use the flannel setting, but it left cut marks on my green mat. You can read this post for more information about this here.

Now you can glue your wood or acrylic to the back of your stamp. This will make it easier to hold your stamp, and not to get the ink on your fingers. Hot glue will also work for this. Now that your stamp is done you should test it out.

I spray painted my vase first and set it aside to dry. The spray paint held onto the glass container well. I think spray paint is best for this project. If you were to try and hand paint acrylic or other paints on to a glass container, then you would need several coats/layers of paints to cover the piece. The brush strokes would also show on this type of container. The spray paint only took one coat and dried nicely.

Once my container was dry, I used the stamp I made along with another stamp I bought. I placed the stamps randomly all over my container, overlapping each other as well. Be careful not to smudge the newly placed stamps on your container, they remain wet for a while. My stamps were still wet and turned my hands black every time I touched my vase even a few days later. So, I decided to spray a clear protective layer of the container to help seal in the stamps. Even after letting this clear protective layer dry for a day, my hands still got ink on them when I touched the container. I just left the container for a few days, and eventually the ink dried, and it stopped turning my hands black every time I touched it.

For the flowers, I decided to go with 3 different types of sola wood flowers. This piece was for a gift for my mom. She has been wanting me to make a piece with the sola wood flowers for her. Her favorite flowers are hydrangeas and daisies. I was only going to use these two flowers in her piece, but one day she saw a piece I made with sunflowers, and said she wanted a piece with those in it, so I added the sunflowers to the mix.

For the daisies, I just hand painted the centers yellow. I used a paint brush to mix a little acrylic paint with water and painted the centers of my flowers. This was a simple and the easiest of the flowers to make.

For the hydrangeas, I first undid the bundle of hydrangeas. I did this by first removing the white tape around the wire stems, then pulled them apart one by one carefully. Next, I mixed a light blue paint color together. Once I got a color I liked, I added water and glycerin to the paint. I found mixing this together with a plastic fork works best to insure everything is completely mixed together. I then dipped each individual flower into my mixture and set it aside to dry. Once I was done with the light blue color, I did the same things with a darker blue color. For the darker blue color, I used a paint brush to paint the centers of my flowers with this darker blue color. This helped give some contrast and more color to my flowers. Some flowers I added more of the dark blue than others. I liked having them all a little different, and not all exactly the same. Lastly, I took a paint brush and painted the centers of these flowers yellow. You can see a slightly different variation of hydrangeas I made in this post.

For the sunflowers, I started out by mixing my yellow acrylic paint with some water, and glycerin. The glycerin helps make the flowers less brittle, softer and easier to work with. I then dipped the entire sunflower into my yellow paint mixture. Next, I mixed some orange and yellow paint together with the water, and hand painted the orange on my flowers. I started at the center and took my brush out towards the petals. Lastly, I hand painted the centers of the flowers brown. If you are interested in another piece I made with these beautiful sunflowers, then check it out by clicking here.

I let my flowers dry over night to insure they are completely dry. The next day I look them over and fix any areas that might have gotten missed. I then used a thin wire to poke a hole in the back of my flowers. I then applied a little hot glue to the end of the wire and stuck it back into the back of the flower and set it aside to dry. I found poking the initial hole in the back of the flower works best. Since, the hydrangeas already had wires in them, I did not need to do this.

I cut and hot glued a small piece of green floral foam at the top of my container. This will help hold my flowers exactly where I want them to be instead of letting them move around on their own.

I then just started adding flowers where I felt they needed to go. I tried to spread the sunflowers and daisies out and used the hydrangeas as filler. Since I had so many flowers, I decided to not add greenery to the mix. I think all of the flowers ended up blending together nicely. Once I was happy with the flower arrangements, I thought it still needed something. I did not like how the neck of the container showed, and stuck out, especially since there was not really and stamp there. I found a pretty ribbon I had in my stash and tied it around the bottle. I think it helped complete the look.

Which of the three flowers is your favorite? Do you like how all the colors look together? Do you like the stamp vase look? I am glad I did the stamps on the vase. I think if I had just left it the plain blue color, it would feel like it needed something else. Are you going to try and make your very own stamp now? If so, I would love to see what stamp you make, and how you use it. I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions, so please add a comment below, or on one of my social media handles. It is okay if you do not like something. Life would be boring if we all liked the same thing. So, let me know what you think, or what you would have done differently. Till next time, happy crafting.