You’ve wandered down the stamp isle at the craft store thinking it would be fun to start stamping. But when you look at the price of individual stamps, it can be a bit discouraging if you have a limited budget. Individual stamps can cost up to $15.00 each, and how often are you going to use the same stamp? There are times when a pre-made stamp will be exactly what you need for a project. If however, you want to play around with lots of stamps and design possibilities, try making your own stamps for little cost.

I wandered down the isle of craft foam at our local craft store and bought the following items for $15. Craft foam comes in all kinds of pre-cut shapes as well as flat sheets you can cut yourself. The kind I purchased is the self adhesive type craft foam. Then it was time to play!Melinda found a small empty jar and attached a little foam flower to the lid. She rubbed the flower with the stamp ink pad and stamped away. Super simple stamp!Meanwhile, I took some of the foam letters to make the word, LOVE. I laid them out backwards on a piece of cardboard, with the adhesive side facing up. Once I had them placed where I wanted, I put a spot of glue on the foam side and glued the letters to the cardboard. Then I peeled off the backing paper. I rubbed ink on the sticky letters and it helped to cover the adhesive. The stamp worked!Since I have a lot of craft paint at home, I lightly rubbed some paint onto the stamp with a foam brush. It gives a different look and the thicker the paint the more of an outline around the stamp design. 

We searched around the house to come up with more ideas for stamp backers and took apart a CD case. That worked great for holding the self adhesive craft foam.

Even the center of the CD case can be used. Melinda put letters around the circle part of the case. Only just like the “LOVE” letters on the cardboard, the letters had to be put on backwards with glue. 

Then Melinda tried attaching the foam to a small bottle to make a rolling stamp. She cut strips of foam from the flat sheet of craft foam and brushed paint on the strips with a foam brush. She then rolled the bottle across the paper with her fingers.

Next she tried some shapes on the bottle, applied paint and rolled them across the paper.Another effect can be made with the craft foam, by drawing on the foam with a pen (pressing hard) to make an indentation. Then using ink or paint, stamp your design. Where the pen made an indentation, you will see the design. It makes your plain shapes look like they have cutouts.We found a few more possibilities for stamp backers in the recycling box. You can use the plastic lids from food containers as well as bottle tops for your stamp backers.We did not want to stop playing with the stamp making, but there is always another day and loads of creative possibilities. What kind of stamps are you going to try making? Be creative. Be different!