Hand carved stamps are my absolute favorite craft in the world. Unfortunately, it also happens to be a craft that I'm nearly incapable of doing!! I haven't entirely given up on learning though. Despite a zillion failed carving projects, I keep trying!!
These little houses fall into the stamp carving 101 category but I like their messy rustic look. I took some in progress shots when making these and I'm sharing them for anyone else looking for a simple introduction into stamp making!
You don't need any fancy tools for these stamps - just something to carve (an eraser works fine), an xacto knife and a pencil!
Start by drawing an "X" at the top of your carving block. This will make your roof line. Then draw two lines down from the "X" to make your walls and a line across the bottom for your floor. The inside of the intersecting lines is your future house!
Next, trace the lines you just drew with your xacto knife pressing into your carving block about 1/8 of an inch.
Now you'll turn your block on it's side and insert your xacto knife about 1/8 of an inch into the block and slowly pull down.
Since you already cut around the outline, this last slice will cause the area surrounding your house to fall right off.
Do this same thing around all of the sides! When you get to the roof, turn your block on the diagonal and slice that way.
You'll now have your simple house shape cut out! You can start stamping now or you can add doors or windows.
To add small details likes doors or windows, draw an outline of where you want them and then insert your xacto on an angle following the lines.
Cutting at this angle will result in a pyramid shaped piece of your block popping right out! See the little teeny pyramid cut out?
And that's all there is to it!! This little guy took me about 3 minutes of actual working time. I experimented with different shapes and sizes so that I could stamp an entire neighborhood of homes!
We recently had some new neighbors move in across the street. I made a little card with my house stamps that we'll be delivering to them with a bottle of wine and a friendly note. I stitched the card to a piece of burlap for an extra detail.
We also have our neighborhood block party coming up! I'm not sure what I'm going to make but I was thinking that fresh baked cookies would look cute in these stamped fry containers with a little parchment.
These stamps are simple and imperfect but I like them just the same! Hope you do too!
