If you love the rustic look of woodcut prints, you’ll love using botanical rubber stamps you design and make yourself. An envelope made of repurposed brown bag paper– then stamped with your handcarved garden motif — makes the coolest seed packet in the known universe. Here’s a quick tutorial on the process. Fun!
You will need: Some paper, a Magic Rub white rubber eraser, a v-gouge linoleum cutter or X-Acto knife, a 2B pencil or a fine-tipped marker and some nail polish remover. You might need a tablespoon — more on that in a minute. And you’ll need a stamp pad.
1. Sketch or trace a simple design on a small piece of paper… copy paper or tracing paper, anything fairly lightweight. Plan your stamp to fit on the surface of your Magic Rub eraser. Make your lines clean and bold, and avoid tiny details.
2. Now it’s time to transfer your artwork to your white rubber at eraser. There are two ways to accomplish this. Try each, and decide which works best for you. One way is to go over your design in black fine-tip marker, place it face-down over your Magic Rub eraser, and rub the back of the paper with a cotton ball dipped in fingernail polish remover or acetone. (Use good ventilation. Fumes aren’t good for you.) The other method, which I use, is to use a 2B pencil for your design, then simply place it face-down on the white eraser and burnish the back of the paper with a tablespoon. The pencil transfers nicely to the eraser, and you don ‘t have to avoid breathing while accomplishing your goal!
3. Time to carve. Cut away the negative space, leaving the lines of your design in place. Go slowly, and work in good strong light. A v-gouge, made for carving linoleum blocks and available at your local art supply store, will provide smooth and easy cutting. But you can do a very creditable job with an ordinary X-acto knife. You’ll need to cut at an angle, to allow you to remove slices of the eraser. Sacrifice an old eraser for the purpose of practicing this technique before tackling your design.
Hooray! You’re done. Ink your stamp generously on a color stamp pad and start stamping. This activity is highly addictive, and soon you’ll have an entire collection.
valwebb.com 
What a great post! I certainly will be trying this. THANK YOU!
thank you for the instructions!
Wonderful! I can’t wait to do this. My boyfriend in college was a printmaking major and I used to go to the studio with him to write while he created his mezzotints. Yes, we were a very artsy couple. 😉 He gave me a piece of linoleum one night and I made an elephant in tall grasses (copying a page out of an animal book). I loved it. Too bad I didn’t keep it! I’m eager to try this again.
You know….I think I’ll try this too, even without much artistic ability. Thank you for doing this, Val (and I think I’ll try making a butterfly, of course)
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My drawings are limited to stick figures. My carving skills will probably render the stick figures into a blog. Fabulous! A lovely blob stamp. Right-o. I will be making a stamp that will resemble a, uh, blob.
Email me if you want one. I am selling them! 🙂
Val, you overestimate us mere mortals.
–Robin (Bumblebee)
What a great idea! I’ve always thought rubber stamp art would be fun, but didn’t like the idea of being limited to what someone else created. I was also trying to come up with Christmas card ideas. Your post is definitely the answer.
Thank you so much for the instructions.
Hi,
Wanted to let you know that I posted an award for your beautiful blog over at my blog.
Cheers
Very cool and inspiring. I spend so much time drawing on my computer I forget about the beauty and fun of painting and priting by hand.
These are beautiful and the method looks so easy (translation – I can mess it up). 🙂
I love the look of wood block…..thanks for this tutorial!!
Great post !! and Great ideas.. I’m adding a link to your inspiring blog on my blogroll.. Thanks!
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Wonderful!! i haven’t thought of this in years so i really appreciate the reminder and refresher-instructions.
I like carving too. I love the flower that you draw.
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Very helpful post. Thanks!
Gorgeous job and fantastic tutorial, so artsy and fun!
Awesome tips, great post!
Hi: I linked over from Crescendoh.com and I’m so glad I did. I love your self portrait rubber stamp on your blog, too! How fun!
Candylei
I always wanted to try making stamps but never had a starting point – thanks for the inspiration!
Thanks, I can’t wait to make some stamps of my own!
…this is really cool! Thanks for posting. I might try this with a bird motif too!
The overall design of rubber stamp usage looks amazing and astonishing. I like the idea of transferring the art work carried out to the white paper, which is a class task. Thank you very much for producing such a nice blog.
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I love the idea of stamps and clay….they go together like bread and peanut butter….something impressionable like clay and something to make an impression like a stamp. I used to make stamps out of plaster (quick release) and use them to make impressions in clay…done it for years.
I really like this..I’ve did it a long time ago..
You did it great!!!
Dear greatings Elly
Can’t wait to try this tonight! Thanks for the ideas!
You truly made some fantastic ideas inside ur article, “Tutorial: Make your own botanical rubber stamps
”. I am going to wind up returning to ur page before long.
Thx ,Gilbert
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Such a good idea! I will definitely give it a try. Thank you!! 🙂
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Thank you Val. I’ll try this…sounds like fun.
I use softcut material from art supply houses, it is inexpensive, gives cleaner fine lines than the erasers and comes in many sizes.