I’m obsessed with rubber stamps, and I have a plastic bin filled with ones I’ve collected over the past five years. My favorite ones are: a heart, a fish, a patterned square, a ‘thank you’, and a lil cloud. I go back and forth with the leaves and tiny trees. I use them on zines, notebooks and planner, and of course, stationary. For a while now I’ve wanted to make my own, and build my own collection of DIY stamps. I recently saw a few videos on Tiktok of linoleum printing that got me inspired, and a bought beginner's kit to try it out.

Project #1 goes to rubber stamps :)

The first thing I did when I opened the box was figure out how to set up the line cutters. Once I had that done, I grabbed a rubber block, and went straight into it. I knew that I’d eventually watch a tutorial or two, but I wanted to feel it out and see what could happen if I just messed with the different cutters. I wanted to see what kind of lines each would make, and how differently they’d feel. Right now #1 is my favorite. I made lines that turned into a pattern, and I used #1 to draw one of go-to’s: overlapping mountains. I drew lines below, and added more lines inside. That was one of the first ones I’ve made, and my favorite one so far.

I got extra rubber blocks, and it’s been great because I’ve been able to carve without worrying that I’m not making the best use of them. I quickly learned that these cutters are quite sharp (I have at least 4 cuts right now), and that ink pads work quite well for impressions. I watched a tutorial, and learned that it helps to carve away from myself, and that I can draw things on tracing paper and transfer it on the blocks, as opposed to drawing on the rubber, which is cool unless you need to erase or edit in some way. I’m sure there’s a way to erase rubber marks made with lead or ink, but I haven’t figured it out yet. I did uncover my very old Rubber Stamp Album Book (bless you Strand $2 stack), and there’s a tip on using nail polish remover, but I haven’t tried it yet.

I thought that it could be really cool to have a stamp template for a blank monthly calendar. This turned out to be a much lengthier project, because I needed to basically carve out a grid with 40 or squares. I started by drawing a blank month calendar with pencil and pressing it on the rubber to get the template on it. The lines turned out to be quite faint, so I used the pencil to trace the lines again. From there I started with carving around the lines first with the thinnest cutter, #1, and then I used the other two to scoop out bigger chunks of rubber.

After I had most squares cut out (not all of it, but enough so that I could see an outline), I pressed the rubber on an ink pad and pressed it on paper to see how the lines were coming along. They were too thick, and I wanted more space inside, so I went back to cutting more and making the lines thinner. I found it much harder to trim the lines, and I kept making small gaps. Then I thought of making a larger one, because it’d be more useful, and because calendar templates turned out to be a good way to practice carving. I’ve been watching Good Girls on Netflix, and carving away...

I’ve been keeping my kit around with extra blocks so that I can keep carving. It feels nice to make something with my hands, and the focus it requires feels very nice and very calming. I’ve loved this, and I am definitely going to buy more lino cutters and ink colors. There will be more on block printing to come :)