Did you know you can carve your own DIY ink stamps out of Smoothfoam? All you need is a hot knife or other heated cutting tool and your creative mojo. Smoothfoam’s surface creates a really cool, rugged texture when you apply stamping ink – I love this distressed look!
Since July 4th is coming up, I thought I’d show you how to make carved foam stamps you can use to show off your patriotic spirit.
Stars and stripes are pretty simple to design. Make all different shapes and sizes and have fun!
Supplies:
Smoothfoam block (any size)
Heat carving tool
White cardstock
Blue fabric – 5″x9″
Wide red ribbon
Red embroidery floss
Fabric glue
Dimensional and flat glue dots
Red and white buttons
Pinking shears
ClearSnap ColorBox Crafter’s Ink in red and blue
1. For the star-shaped DIY ink stamps, draw a star (approx. 1″ wide) on to the Smoothfoam and carve away the area of foam around it with your heat carving tool. Carve an outline into the solid star to create a double star as shown.
2. Cut another piece of the block down to a square (approx. 2″ wide) for the square background stamp.
3. Stamp 3 squares with red ink and stamp 4 stars (separately) with blue ink on to white cardstock. Allow to dry (or heat-set if necessary). Cut out all 7 shapes, allowing a thin white border on the outer edges, and set aside.
4. Trim and score another sheet of cardstock to fold into a 5″x7″ greeting card.
5. Trim the blue fabric on all sides with pinking shears and wrap around the front panel of the card as shown. Adhere to the card with fabric glue, allow to dry.
6. Wrap and adhere the wide red ribbon around the front panel over the fabric. You may wish to glue another piece of cardstock to the inside of the front panel to cover the fabric and ribbon edges. Allow to dry.
7. Layer a star on top of each square with dimensional glue dots and adhere each square to the front of the card with flat glue dots or fabric glue, as shown.
8. Tie embroidery floss through button holes and adhere buttons to center of stars with dimensional glue dots. Adhere the last star to the ribbon border. You can use this same technique to create carved foam stamps in a variety of other shapes.