Create your own Hand Carved Stamps

My favorite medium to carve into is PZ CUT. I create my hand carved stamps quickly and easily with this wonderful product. You can buy it here http://www.stampeaz.com/ . You will also need a piece of tracing paper, pencil, wood/lino cutter tool, #2 and #3 V shaped cutter blades and an ink pad. That's it!

1. Draw your design on your tracing paper with a pencil.
2. Flip the tracing paper wrong side up onto the PZ CUT and trace your design lines over again with your pencil to transfer your design. Your drawing will look backwards on the PZ CUT. Don't worry, this is correct. Your stamp will produce your image the way you drew it when we are done.
3. Now you are ready to carve. You do not have to carve deep to make a line. It takes very little pressure to carve in PZ CUT. Carve out all of the areas that you want to be white (or not print). Leave alone all the lines and areas that you want to be black (or the color of the ink in the ink pad you choose).
4. Press your stamp onto your ink pad and stamp on your favorite paper. Voila! You have created your own hand carved stamp that you can hand color with paint, colored pencils or even crayons.

Tips: My favorite ink pads are the raised ink bed, acid free, pigment stamp pads made by Color Box.

The raised bed allows you to easily ink any size stamp you create without worry of bumping into the edge of the pad. The pigment ink takes a little longer to dry so leave it alone for a few hours after you print it to make sure it does not smudge.