I thought it might be nice to find a cheap way to make my own stamps for cards etc.

Here is what I came up with.

I bought a pack of kitchen, cleaning sponges for 60p for 10

this is a side view of the sponge

Lay the sponge flat and draw out the shapes or patterns that you would like to use. I kept it simple for this one but have been trying more ambitious ones since.

Cut out the shapes individually

With a craft knife score around the shape then remove the pieces of sponge around the outside. Any pieces you want to stand out separately like the centre of the flower or the middle of the leaf cut out the groove

Now use as you wish. I bought some sample pots of emulsion and painted it onto the stamps then used on card.

I made a few more shapes and kept stamping over the different ones with various colours

The biggest shape at the bottom is cut out of a full sponge

These are the cards that I have made so far

This was stamped onto some yellow card which is stuck onto a black card blank. Then I added some black peel-offs. I highlighted some of the flowers and leaves with gel pens.

This was stamped onto black card and stuck onto a pale pink card blank. I added a thin strip of gold peel-off around the black edges. Both of these cards would be suitable for any occasion-just add your own text.

I have made some more stamps from rubber packaging that was in the box that the Vax came in it was really easy to carve.

 Next up will be to try polystyrene packaging