If you’ve used rubber stamps in art or craft projects, there’s a good chance you’ve wondered how to make your own rubber stamps.

Rubber stamps are used for a variety of art and craft projects, and having rubber stamps with your own designs and artwork allows you to add a personal touch to your projects, while reducing the amount of time spent on them. Processes like lettering, patterned backgrounds, and repetitive designs are made simple with the use of rubber stamps.

It’s great to have a rubber stamp made from one of your own original drawings, but even if you don’t draw, you can make rubber stamps from clip-art, photos, fonts, items scanned into your computer, and just about anything else you can photocopy, print, or trace.

Of course, if you plan on using the stamped images in items you’re going to sell, be sure to check the copyright and licensing information, or contact the image owner for permission.

Once you have an image or two you’d like to use, there are a variety of ways to make your own rubber stamps at home. You can send the artwork to a rubber stamp manufacturer; purchase a machine that will create polymer stamps from your own designs; or you can carve your own rubber stamps.

This article focuses on the simplest and most affordable way to get started in making your own rubber stamps: carving them yourself.

The basic items you'll need for making a rubber stamp include a carving surface, a carving tool, and of course your artwork.

Surfaces for Carving

Several companies manufacture printing blocks or rubber carving blocks made specifically for carving art stamps. Available in a wide selection of sizes and thicknesses, these can be found in art supply stores. Alternatively, some artists will use larger rubber erasers, although these can be more difficult to carve.

If you purchase carving blocks, be certain that they're compatible with the types of inks you want to use. Some carving blocks are designed to be used with water-based products, as solvents can ruin them. If you're using a non-specific rubber product for carving, you'll have to experiment to see if it will work with your ink.

Carving Tools

All you really need to carve a rubber stamp is a gouge or a linoleum cutter. Linoleum cutters (also sometimes called "lino cutters" or "linoleum knives") are used by artists to carve linoleum for block printing, and they also work well for carving rubber stamps. They are available with different tips or "cutters," and are often sold in sets that feature one handle with a variety of interchangeable tips. For a basic stamp, all you'll really need is one simple linoleum cutter, but buying a set usually won't cost much more, and will give you the opportunity to try a lot of different cutting tips.

Listed below are a couple of other tools that are sometimes used in making rubber stamps.

Carving Needles

For very fine detail, some artists will use hypodermic needles intended for horses as carving needles. These are much trickier to use, and are probably best left for more experienced carvers.http://www.atlasquest.com/about/wiki/browse.html?gCatId=33#q114

Utility Knives

Simple utility knives, like X-Acto brand knives, can also be used to score and cut away rubber when making a rubber stamp.http://www.tn-nature-stamps.com/makeyourown.php

The most important thing to keep in mind when drawing or transferring an image for rubber stamps is that what you see when you're looking at the stamp will print in reverse.

For example, if you draw a letter "E" onto rubber, and carve it into a stamp, the stamp will print the "E" backwards. Obviously, this is especially important in the case of text and numbers.

There are several ways to put an image onto rubber; below is a list of some of the most popular methods.

Drawing Your Image for a Rubber Stamp

The first, and perhaps the simplest is by drawing it on with a pencil. The pencil marks may smear, so before carving, you may want to go over the most important lines with a permanent marker. When drawing directly onto rubber, you'll want to remember that the stamp will actually print a mirror image of what you draw.

Drawing Your Image on Paper and Transferring to Carving Surface

Perhaps you don't want to think about drawing a mirror version of your image, or maybe you'd prefer to trace an image to be used for your stamp. In either case, once the image is drawn with pencil on a piece of paper, you can flip it (pencil-side down) onto the carving surface, and burnish it onto the rubber by rubbing the back of the drawing firmly with a burnishing tool or pencil.

Lift a corner of the paper to see that the pencil lines have transferred before removing the drawing from the carving surface.

Transferring Laser Prints or Copies onto Rubber

If you have access to a toner-based laser printer or copier, you can use acetone (found in acetone-based nail polish remover) or xylene (found in some colorless blender markers) to transfer your design onto your carving surface. This can be especially useful if the image you want to carve is clip-art, or something you've printed from your computer, but be sure to use proper ventilation when working with either of these chemicals.

Take the toner-based image, and place it face down onto your carving surface, then take an acetone-soaked cotton swab or paper towel, or your xylene-based blender, and gently dab it on the back of the paper until it is dampened. This should transfer the image to your carving surface, but proceed with caution as rubbing or soaking the image too much can smear the ink. 

Lift the corner of your paper to see that the image has transferred before removing the copy or print.

If you want a positive image stamp (a stamp that prints the same lines as on your original artwork), you will want to carve away everything but the lines you made on the rubber.

If you want a negative image stamp (a rubber stamp that prints everything around the lines of your original artwork), then you will carve away only the lines that were drawn or transferred onto your carving surface.

You may find it helpful to use a utility knife or pen to mark the part of the surface you planning on carving away.

Hold your cutter in your hand in a position that is comfortable for you. You will want to use your other hand to stabilize your carving surface. Begin pushing the linoleum cutter away from you slowly and firmly. Don't feel as though you have to carve very deeply at first; just skim away the top layer of rubber. If you'd like more carved away later, you can go back over it.

Carve slowly to insure you catch any mistakes before you've gone too far.

Know that you've made your own rubber stamp, you'll want to start using it. While stamp pads are one of the most common ways to ink a stamp, you can also dab paint onto it with a foam sponge, or brayer ink or paint onto the printing surface of your stamp.

You'll want to experiment with how much ink or paint to use on your rubber stamp, as using too little ink can result in uneven printing, while using too much can cause you to lose definition in your final print.http://www.ehow.com/how_5058435_apply-ink-rubber-stamp.html