As a bit of fun with my work colleagues, I ran a little workshop last November, the workshop was to decorate brown wrapping paper with patterns for Christmas.  

There was a great response from those that came along, each bringing ideas and sharing them with each other. From finger stamp reindeer to linocut printing, we used bottle tops to create stamps, using wood cut outs and foam shapes.  

Stamps and decorated wrapping paper created for Christmas 2019

I really got into using the craft foam for making stamps, so recently I have started playing with simple and more complicated designs, that can be used as fabric stamps or onto paper.  

The simple ones are flower patterns and leaves, which have come out lovely. You can either cut the craft foam with scissors or a craft knife.  

Warning; don’t make the design to detailed and when cutting it get a bit tricky and the stamp can end up with odd kinks.  

You can also create more interesting designs but simple created spaces between petals, like when drawing or painting and you use the negative space of an object to give more definition or depth.  

Also, everything you do remember, especially for letters that you work in reverse. I found it very useful to stick or draw the pattern/image on the opposite side to the stamping side, bit tricky to do in lining it up, but very helpful when you come to stamping onto anything.   

Simple stamps made interesting with simple affects.

I tried using a simple drawing of a mermaid that I had, which I then was able to mix colours on the stamp to get texture. I did add a bit more once it had been stamped. To add a little more underwater feel, I did some very simple bubble shapes, that turned out to be amazing once stamped.  

The most complicated design I have ended up making is a fairy; I got my inspiration from looking at silhouette images online. These were very useful, I still went and created my own image, but you can always print out and use these as you stamp design.   

Fairy stamp and the mermaid with bubble stamp design

For my fabric stamping I used a company called The Arty Crafty Place – they specialise in Indian woodcut stamps and paint that can be used on both fabric and paper. They sell fantastic sets to get you started. If you are quite keen on fabric printing, they sell them in different colour sets with or without stamps, to give you a starting point. Mine came in a box with sponge for each colour, which was also in a cotton bag. Really great place and they do online workshops as well. 

If you’re not sure, you can get cheaper ones from most craft places, but acrylic can work on fabric I just don’t trust it, but it works great on paper.  

Hope this gets you inspired. 

My Next Blogs:

Mono-printing and Embossing workshop with Annabel Wilkes
Local artist hosts workshop in her garden, see my creations and her story.

The Surprise Gift of Life
My surprise gift and the changes and connections that it’s bringing (will be a series of blogs)