Splashing Through Life - Art by Patricia Henderson

My painting and collage have been put on the back burner for a while due to the holidays and then some family stuff. Until I get back to it, here is a little tiny tutorial on how to make stamps easily and affordably using things you might find around the house and the dollar store.  First of all, head to the dollar store or Walmart and buy yourself a package of craft foam that is adhesive on one side. Draw designs on the foam, and then cut out with a craft knife or scissors. You can then peel of the backing of the foam and adhere your design to almost anything. It doesn’t have to be fancy. Here are some examples of stamps that I have made: Craft foam adhered to jar and bottle lids. Leftover mat board, one with elastic bands, and the other with craft foam. Craft foam adhered to styrofoam cut from fast food containers. Design carved into styrofoam from fast food container with a ballpoint pen. Pattern carved into erasers with a craft (X-ACTO) knife. Be careful!...

At the Mary Todd Beam workshop, she showed us an easy way to make stamps. All you need is a small section of foam insulation that you can score and break into small pieces. From a craft or dollar store get some of the thin craft foam that has the peel-off backing. You can cut shapes from that and stick on to the pieces of insulation and voila! A stamp! I used some of these to stamp patterns on some paper to make collage material. I stamped the pattern first and then applied watered down acrylic paint. Fun!