Hello! It’s Robyn Wood with you today sharing a project featuring some home-made foam stamps. Although I’m a long-term user of commercially made rubber stamps, sometimes I want an image that I don’t have and like to make my own. Luckily with a bit of fun foam & Helmar Foam Glue, I’m easily sorted.
Fun foam is a useful product for crafters, it’s so easy to cut into different shapes and with a little heat it is easily mouldable allowing you to add texture to the surface. A bit of trimming and gluing onto a backing board and you have yourself a home-made stamp.
Supplies:
Helmar Foam Glue
Helmar Premium Craft Glue
Fun foam
Stamp bases – I’ve used pieces of corflute
Manilla tag
Acrylic paint
Gel Press monoprinting plate & brayer
Collage paper
Scissors
Heat gun
Heat proof surface
Ribbon, timber embellishments, ribbon & word sticker
Find some items from around the house that could be used to give the fun foam a bit of texture. I’ve used some bubble wrap & and both sides of a plastic tray.
Before starting, cut the fun foam into smaller pieces to make it easier to work with.
Have the texturizing material close by, then use a heat gun to gently heat the fun foam until the surface appears to change a little. Quickly press the texturizing item onto the foam and allow to cool. If you aren’t happy with the result, just reheat and try again.
Please note – the heat gun and fun foam will become hot so take care. Do this step in a well-ventilated area as the fun foam is a type of plastic & may give off some fumes.
Once the fun foam is cool, remove the texturizing item and cut stamp to the desired shape. I created a round one from the bubble wrap and two rectangular dotty ones from the plastic tray.
Adhere to stamp bases using Helmar Foam Glue. Take care to ensure the glue doesn’t ooze onto the stamping surface, although this just adds an extra element of texture. (I did this without realising for the round stamp)
Set stamps aside for 24hrs to dry and cure.
Spread some acrylic paint onto a Gel Press monoprinting plate using brayer. If you don’t have one, spread a thin layer of paint over a piece of Glad Bake.
Use one of the stamps to remove some of the paint from the Gel Press and print manilla tag to give a tone on tone effect with the texture pattern visible. Allow to dry.
Use some collage paper to make a trio of background images with the round bubble wrap stamp. I’ve ‘inked’ the stamp with grey acrylic paint.
Add an extra layer of texture to the tag using the second rectangular stamp and white acrylic paint.
Assemble tag using various embellishments and add a word sticker and ribbon to finish it off.
Making your own stamps from fun foam will have you looking at the textured surfaces around you with different eyes! I hope you have enjoyed learning how to create this project. Until next time…
