Stomping in my sketchbook.

Have you ever seen those pretty stamps in scrapbooking or art shops?  The ones with the wooden handles and rubber stamp bit?  Yummy designs but a little pricey for just one stamp?  Well, here's what I'm doing to get around it - and it's so darn easy I don't know why I haven't done it before!

Take one cheap rubber (or eraser if you're so inclined!) and draw your design on it in a soft pencil.  Grab your x-acto knife or sharp craft knife and carefully carve away the bits you don't want to stamp (I've coloured those bits in to help my brain recognise which bit to cut).

Place your stamp on your stamp pad and happily stamp away.  I've used my stamp with paint and on fabric as well as paper.  This isn't the method to carve anything really intricate, unless you are very skilled with an x-acto knife, but it's giving me lots of pleasure anyway. 

Work over your cutting mat (self-healing mat) so you don't blunt your knife if you slip and, just like cutting vegetables, always slice away from your fingers. 

Wash your stamp in water after using.  Heat set your designs on fabric with an iron once they are dry.  And carve on both sides of your rubber if you want to be frugal.

You can make your own birthday or special occasion cards (and at $5 a pop, I certainly don't buy them anymore unless they are really beautiful), use the designs in fabric postcards, ATC's, art quilts or make your own border fabric for a traditional quilt. 

For kiwi's:  I found the x-acto knife and rubbers at Stationery Warehouse.  The ink pads were from Spotlight and The Warehouse. 

And credit where credit is due, I'm pretty sure I got this idea from watching a preview Quilting Arts DVD with Lyric Kinard.