Make Your Own Rubber Stamp!

This is a really fun and easy project (depending on your stamp design, I suppose) that will set apart your crafts from everybody else's. Seriously... who else will have this stamp?!

Customizing Your Own Stamp

materials
*image to transfer (make sure it's flipped horizontally so it will be the right way when you stamp it)
*linocut or a large eraser (whatever fits your image; Michael's sells linocut!)
*rubber cement
*cutting tools

steps
1. Use the rubber cement to adhere your image to the linocut block. Please make sure your image is flipped horizontally! I made this mistake the first time I did it, and wanted to kick myself when I went to check the proof. :) Argghhh!

2. Know which part of the image you want to be the stamp. I wanted Ohio to be the stamp so I would cut all the linocut away except the state of Ohio. Use your sharpest tool to cut around the image's outline so you can start cutting away the larger portions of what you don't want.

NOTE: If you wanted the stamp to be the outline around the state of Ohio, you would cut away the state itself.

I also wanted the heart to be an outline so I took a finer tool and then traced around the outline of the heart. I then used a small, curved tool to cut out the inside of the heart at an angle so I didn't weaken my state outline.

3. Now it's time to check your proof! Stamp your image to make sure you have all the necessary linocut cut away to get a nice, crisp image. Cut more if you need to.

And now you have a totally unique, one-of-a-kind rubber stamp. Just another thing that makes you awesome. ;) If you wanted, you could mount your linocut stamp onto a wooden block. Our local arts store sells wooden blocks so you might have to do a little looking. I haven't seen those at Michael's, yet. Or you could make your own! I just ran a couple lines of removable adhesive down the back of my stamp so I can use it on any of my acrylic stamping blocks. Whatever you do, have fun with it!

Wrapping with Yarn

Now that our little girl is here, I can FINALLY reveal some of the artwork I'd been working on for her. If any of you had been following my pinterest account, I had become a bit obsessed with wrapped yarn letters. There's so much you can do with them as far as certain looks and styles, and they're a very unique addition to your decor.

After much trial and error (unfortunately, it's inevitable), I finally came up with something I liked. I started out by pulling a couple bobbins out of the skein of yarn I bought for the occasion. It was easier to wrap the letter with a more reasonably sized yarn ball. When I was searching for help with this project, I was surprised by the lack of instruction I found. They pretty much said keep practicing until you get something you like. Here are some of the techniques I found worked very well with this project. You will have to practice a lot to get the effect you like, though. Sorry for that.

I got my wooden letter at Joann's for maybe a couple dollars, and I've got yarn all over the house so that wasn't hard. Some other things you'll want are a hot glue gun and some assorted clamps to hold wrapped sections in place. First, I cut several small pieces of yarn to wrap around the end caps of the letter.

You'll be wrapping the yarn around the stalks of the letter so this will help cover those hard-to-wrap ends. Use the glue gun to tack these pieces of yarn in place. After way too much practicing, I finally figured I would try to wrap the letter in the way that it is written. I made a diagram I used to keep this in mind.

This is how I draw my Rs, and I found it worked very well as a guideline for wrapping the yarn around my letter. Of course, I also had to choose one of the hardest letters in the alphabet, but that just figures. From here, I just wrapped each letter stalk as indicated in my diagram, being sure to wrap about twice as much yarn very carefully (the yarn will tend to stack up on itself if you wrap it too much) where stalks met. Then you can use your glue gun to tack in place any yarn strands that are moving on you. I did all my tacking on the back of the letter because if will seep through the yarn and make it very hard and unpleasant-looking.

I also used some of my clamps to hold in place yarn sections as I was working on other pieces of the letter. You'll also see in this picture that you will be wrapping over the end caps you wrapped at the very beginning. I was actually able to wrap pretty far over the end caps by using my glue gun to tack yarn sections.

So, after much frustration, I was finally left with a project of which I was extremely proud. I wasn't able to reveal it before Miss Rosie came because we were keeping her name a secret, and this is for her bedroom door. Joey has a J on his, too, but I used paper to decoupage his. Also very fun and easy. :)

Of course, I also had to knit her a little rose that I attached to her letter. So now Miss Rosetta has her very own wrapped yarn letter for her door, and I am still trying to think of other projects where I can make wrapped yarn letters. It's really fun and pretty addictive. Good luck and happy crafting!