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Our local library has a fabulous event called Crafternoons. It is a fun craft activity, hosted by two of my favorite librarians, and completely free... what's not to love? Unfortunately it usually takes place on a Wednesday afternoon, which is also when I have to take Katrien to her harp lesson 35 minutes away. To fit both things in, I knew I would have to craft at lightning speed. The featured activity of the week was carving rubber stamps. Meira wanted to try it out. My almost reclusive kid interested in art? I had to go! I warned her she would have to blitz through. She agreed. Good thing she has agile fingers! In order to cut corners (no pun intended), I decided to draw some ideas ahead of time, and since the craft was based on Pinterest, I thought maybe I should check it out.... Ah, Pinterest... there should be a warning in big red flashing letters: BEWARE! ENTER AT RISK OF LOSING ALL SENSE OF TIME! One hour later...
Some preliminary sketches. I was trying to come up with a design that could be stamped onto soaps and with an "R" for either "Renata" or "Renunculus", which is my Etsy alter ego, should I choose to open a shop there in the future. Hey, a girl can dream....
After I threw common sense and responsibility to the wind, and went on Pinterest, I saw that you could make stamps out of craft foam. I just so happened to have foam from a project Katrien did for Christmas (see, it pays to be a hoarder), and a wooden block leftover from propping up the Christmas tree in its stand. I tried the gnome first because I knew I wouldn't have time to carve him at the library event. Basically, it just involves cutting out your shape and then using a ballpoint pen (knitting needles and skewers work well too) to make lines. So why the two heads, you ask?
I tested out my stamp to see what would print. A couple of things were noted: First, the gnome's face was pretty cute, but was fairly dark, and Second, the "R" should have been reversed, duh, because the print is the mirror image of the stamp. The "R" was an easy fix. I just thickened the one side and the original wasn't that obvious of a letter anyway. The head was harder to figure out since it would require a lot of negative space especially around tiny details like the mouth and eyes. I decided to swap out just the head, and this is what makes craft foam stamping so wonderful... you can make this fix very easily with scissors and glue.
You can sort of see the progression via the sample print sheet as I switched heads, tried to make the eyes smaller and the beard bigger. Final print is in the top right corner. The final physical stamp is kind of freaky looking, but the print was much better. I wish the delineation of the beard were better, but I figure I can just draw in a couple of small lines by hand.
Since I was on a roll, and had the ink out anyway, I thought I would try and see how things like buttons would stamp. Pinterest had this idea of adhering foam trees and yarn to a lint roller to make a continuous scene for wrapping paper. I thought that was BRILLIANT! If you can stamp with yarn, what other possibilities are out there? I was even contemplating making a knit swatch, just so I could stamp with it... if only time were immaterial! Anyway, I didn't have another wooden block, so I found an empty dental floss container (we get floss from the dentist about once a month so we have loads of these!) and stuck the buttons on there. It worked!
Here are some other stamps: the rubber ones Meira and I made at the library, mine tested in a few colors, and finally another foam one I made today, specifically for a soap I'm making for my mom's birthday... shhh.
Quick story: My mom loves Lily of the Valley and wanted it for her bouquet when she got married. Unfortunately she got married in the dead of winter in Canada, so none of these flowers were to be had for love or money, and she ended up with a bouquet of Honeysuckle (don't ask me how they procured that, in the dead of winter!). Every time she sees a bath item with Lily of the Valley, she is drawn to it, but it is getting harder and harder to find. Her birthday is coming up in May, and now I can make these bath products myself... I think I may have, in my possession, the last bottle of Lily of the Valley fragrance oil. After I bought it, the soap supplier went out of stock and has not gotten more in. I went a bit experimental on the soap, so only made a small amount. It used up half of my precious fragrance oil, blended with a couple of essential oils, and colored with green clay and oxide. If it turns out it will be worth it. My mom is worth it! I wanted to make a special label to wrap around it, so thought I'd try a foam stamp as a personal touch. I'm hoping that in six weeks when the soap is done curing, it will all come together. Crossing my fingers!
By the way, I totally recommend the craft foam stamp, if you want instant, cheap and easy paper stamping. The possibilities are endless and kids will not have to handle sharp implements, since safety scissors work too. However, not sure if the foam will hold up when stamping into soaps, or other firmer substances, so I will try out the rubber one for that and post results later.
Today the soap was firm enough to hold an impression, so I tried out the rubber stamp. It worked beautifully! Happy dance!
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