Carving Thanks, Not Potato.

감사 means "thanks" in Korean.
Not to be confused with 감자, which means "potato."

So I used a dark graphite pencil to write 감사 on a piece of vellum (any paper will do).

Flipped it over and rubbed the back side so the image could transfer onto the rubber. Then I carved the strokes that make up the word. The effect is that the negative space of the word gets inked rather than the actual strokes that make up the word. Make sense?


Love the sweet little stamp cause it gives you lots of ways to react to it for art-making. I also like that the negative space that gets inked and stamped kind of looks like a potato. :)

Carving Swords and Gloves

Thought I'd show you the fun I've been having as I continue to carve more rubber. I've been interested in sword fighting. Not real fighting but just the moves involved with it. In particular, I'm interested in Japanese sword fighting. Mainly because I've been inspired by a fitness instructor in my life named Lynn who has these amazing sword moves that she teaches. Amazing.

Anyway ... here's my first carved sword. A little bit wonky, right? But as I was explaining to a friend recently, the great thing about carving rubber is that sometimes, it becomes wonky. And that's a good thing. It makes the process and end result unique and memorable. Unique.
On guard.

And here's my wonky pair of boxing gloves.
So imperfectly wonderful, right?
Gloves on.

Rubber Carving and Doodling Tutorial

The thing I love about carving rubber is that even when you carve popular images and shapes, no one will have the exact same stamp as yours, because each piece of handcarved rubber has its own unique characteristics.

Like the single raindrop. I love the shape. And my carved raindrop is something I use all the time.

You can do so much with it ... like rows and rows of red drops all pointed in one direction.
Or three columns of black drops with some pointing up and some pointing down to create a different pattern.

And then clusters of brown drops that look like flowers.

Add some doodling and they are over-the-top fabulous.


Same thing with the popular hexagon shape. Such a popular shape these days, right? So carve yourself one, two, or three in sizes small to large and you can make these shapes your very own.

Experiment with them and see what they can do!
And as always ... add doodling to bring them to life.


The details of carving rubber are explained thoroughly in my new book, Stamp It!, which is availalbe here. Happy carving, stamping, and doodling. :)

Studio Explorations :: Practice. Play. Persevere.

Practice. Play. Persevere.

Brown sandwich bags stamped, lettered (with sumi ink),
and embellished with washi tape and sheet music.

DIY Rubber Stamped Water Bottles Tutorial

Here's another easy peasy project for you: Water bottles with super cute stamped labels!
Here's how I did it.

I used basic rubber carving methods to carve an image of a little boat onto rubber. Here is a tutorial that I shared with you a while ago on how you carve rubber. Although the original tutorial was with an eraser, you can also do it on larger blocks of carving rubber, which is what I did.

After carving the stamp, I stamped it with a blue inkpad onto pre-cut labels that are designed to be used for water bottles. I found these in the bridal section at Michaels.

I peeled off the existing label on the water bottle and then slapped on the stamped one around it.

All together now: Easy Peasy!

Happy crafting. :) (All photos by Cynthia Shaffer)

Stamped Pencil Jar Tutorial

Check out my cute little pencil jar.

I first started by carving a sweet little heart stamp. (You could use a store-bought stamp as well.) Next, I painted a sheet of ledger paper with red and yellow acrylic paints.
Then I used my carved stamp to stamp a row of red hearts onto the painted paper. Once dry, I tore the paper into a thick strip.
I inserted the strip into a mason jar and then placed my pencils inside.

(All photos by Cynthia Shaffer)

Happy crafting. :)

Cello Doodle Carved Rubber Art Journal Tutorial

Check out my new cello rubber stamp that I carved. So cool, right?

As you may know, I love to carve rubber without too much fuss. I just like to take my pen to the rubber and doodle what I want. No transferring, no fussing ... just going for it ... and embracing all the imperfections.


I did however practice doodling cellos first. Basically, a few scribbly vertical lines, then a two lines to make the cello's silhouette. Then nobs at the top and mirrored "f" shapes on the cello's body.


So once the rubber was carved, I inked it with a brown inkpad and stamped it onto a piece of German music paper. I used some black markers to outline it and add some doodles.

I also used the eraser of a pencil to stamp dots and doodle more lines.
I also added a paper cutout that I made from this tutorial. And then I attached it to an art journal page with black photo corners.

Foam Stamping Tutorial

Check out my cute little doodled flowers with texture stamped centers. So cute, right?

The way I did the stamping is first to take these cute little foam stamps I picked up from Michaels the other day. I had no idea what I'd do with them but I thought they were so cute ... little foam marshmallow shapes.

So the first thing I did was to heat up one side of the foam shape with a heating tool until it got nice and soft and pliable. And then I pushed the heated side of the foam shape into a piece of crochet that I had made a while back.

Which caused the foam shape to take on the texture of the crochet.

Then I inked the foam shape and stamped it. The great thing about foam stamping like this is that they keep the shape until you heat it up again and then it becomes nice and soft, ready to be pushed into something else to take on different textures.

So cool, right?

Happy foam stamping. :)

Rubber Carving Tutorial :: Jeung

I've talked about the concept of jeung with you here and here. So I wanted to see if I could carve the very special word to make it into a rubber stamp.

So the first thing I did was to write the word with my brush and ink.

The character starts with a small horizontal stroke, then a downward stroke, diagonally.

Then it's a small little stroke in the opposite diagonal.

Then an itty bitty horizontal stroke ...

Then a longer straight downward stroke ...

And then a ring stroke at the bottom.

Check out the many I made as I practiced with my sumi ink.
I picked my favorite one and placed a translucent piece of paper over it and traced the storkes with a pencil.

Then I turned the traced character over so that it rested on top of a piece of carving rubber and then rubbed the opposite side with pencil so that the pencil-traced character would become imprinted on the rubber.

And then I took my carving tools and carved around the character.

I stamped the character with a brown inkpad on watercolor paper, added a pencil doodle, watercolors, washi tape, and then mounted it onto a mini Moleskine.

This makes me happy.

DIY Crochet Stamp Printmaking Tutorial

Check out my new stamp. Not made of rubber. It's made of crochet.

I used hemp yarn to chain 12 and joined with a slip stitch and weaved in all the ends.

I used spray adhesive to mount it onto a piece of cardboard into the shape of a heart.

Using a sponge brush, I loaded the stamp with acrylic paint then stamped the image onto paper. To finish, I added washi tape, sheet music, and doodling.

Happy creating. :)