the twelve makes of Christmas: handmade stamps

So, the big day has come and gone (hope you all had an ace time, and you ate as much as we did. The Husband just sat on the sofa groaning all afternoon!), but technically the festive period is still underway, as traditionally it doesn’t end until twelfth night. Which is handy, really, as I’ve still got a few crafty posts waiting in the wings that I couldn’t find the time to post before – so get your craft foam out, today we’re making stamps!

For the life of me, I can’t work out why I’ve never done this before. I love stamping stuff, and I’ve spent waaaay too long slicing fingers left, right and centre with lino cutting tools – I’m an impatient crafter, I like quick results with minimal fuss (probably one of the reasons why I crochet instead of persevering with knitting), which is why I was overjoyed when I discovered the idea via the wonderful Davina Drummond of The Making Home. She’d used (if I remember correctly) foam to cut out triangle shapes, then stuck them to blocks of wood and stamped onto fabric or paper. ‘Oh aye,’ I thought, ‘if you can do it with triangles, I wonder what else you can do it with.’ And so the dove-tree-peace-joy-triangle-coolyule extravaganza was born….

You will need:

Craft foam (I found mine at Hobbycraft in the kids section – handily it was self-adhesive on one side)
Wooden offcuts
Ink pads or acrylic paint

1. Choose your image or phrase, and print it out; if you’re using words make sure you use a simple font – foam can be fiddly to cut, especially if your scissors aren’t as sharp as they could be, and curves can end up a bit messy.

2. Reverse the image and trace it onto the foam, then cut it out carefully.

3. Peel off the backing, and stick your foam shapes or letters to the wooden offcuts.

4. Print onto everything!

Excuse the crappy iPhone picture!