Hello creative Plant Peeps! Welcome to another Botanical DIY project! In this post, I will show you how to carve plant stamps with designs representing some of the most popular and rare plants that are available today.
I tried out some stamp carving (formally, it’s called blockprinting) several years ago, and while it was interesting, I never really got too much into it. So I stashed away the carving tool and the blue rubber block and pretty much forgot about them. It wasn’t until I got caught in the rabbit hole of Youtube studio vlogs last week and stumbled across a stamp carving tutorial by Jenny Journals. I fell in love with her vintage-y designs and it inspired me to give stamp carving another try!
The tools necessary for stamp carving and blockprinting are pictured above: a Speedball linoleum cutter with various carving blades and rubber stamp blocks (and stamp pads, but those aren’t pictured here). I originally purchased my supplies at Michaels, but you can purchase them at most local arts and hobby stores or on Amazon. In terms of price, this particular hobby is quite affordable.
The Speedball linoleum block cutter basically consists of a handle with a metal screwing mechanism (the ring of textured metal). Loosening or tightening the screwing mechanism will allow you to insert a carving nib and secure it in place before you begin cutting. If you’ve ever used a straight calligraphy dip pen, it functions in a similar manner where the nib slides into a metal holder.
The first plant leaf that I wanted to carve was Philodendron gloriosum. I did a freehand drawing of a leaf onto the rubber block. If you’d like to replicate these leaf designs for your own stamp carving endeavors, just download the free jpeg that I’ve created for you! All you have to do is download, resize as you see fit, print, and transfer the image to your rubber block. Just remember, when you are drawing or transferring designs, the final stamped image is the mirror image of what you inscribed on your rubber block. So make sure you take that into account if you pictured your design coming out in a certain orientation.
All right, here we go with our first cut! I’m using the smallest, thinnest cutting blade available. I will be using it to carve out what would be the white veins of a Philodendron gloriosum. When I apply ink to this stamp, the ink will not be fill the veins, which will leave the paper showing through. I found it easier to carve the veins first before cutting out the shape of the leaf. This gives me a greater surface area to hold, and it keeps my hand from slipping and making a mistake (or gouging my hand open with the cutting blades). Exercise caution because these blades can be sharp and quite pointy!
It will probably take some practice to get used to this unusual medium. My first batch of leaf stamps looked rather clumsy (and you’ll see it later) because my lines were ragged and I hadn’t quite gotten the hang of how the rubber was responding to each of the different blades. Keep practicing and don’t give up!
Now that the veins are carved, I proceed to form the shape of the leaf. With the widest blade available, I start removing the rubber around the outline of the leaf.
As you can see in the photo above, I’ve essentially outlined the leaf by carving around it in bas-relief style (or is it bas-releaf? Hahaha. Ok, I’m sure you didn’t come here for the corny puns, so I’ll stop).
Now that the leaf has been fully shaped, I separate it from the main rubber block in order to refine it. I continue cutting away the rubber around the leaf to make sure that the ink won’t touch anything but the leaf itself. You could use a craft knife and simply cut all the excess away entirely, but having a slightly larger stamp will allow me to hold and grip it better, because I don’t intend to glue them onto wood blocks.
Testing out your stamp is important in order to help you refine it. As you can see in the photo above, when I ink up the stamp, some of the higher ridges on the right-hand side are tinted black. This means that I have to continue carving down that particular side so that it no longer touches the ink pad.
My test page is comprised of Philodendron gloriosum and Alocasia ‘Frydek’ leaves, and you can clearly see that there are quite a few stray marks where excess rubber picked up ink. You can also see that some of my cuts are quite clumsy and jagged, so don’t be disheartened if you don’t like your first attempts. It can take some time to develop your own technique, and to become familiar with each carving blade and the characteristics of the rubber. I found the blue Speedball rubber block to be much easier to carve than the pink generic one that I purchased in bulk from Amazon. The pink one isn’t terrible, but I found the texture a bit smoother and denser and I had to apply a bit more effort and control than I did with the blue Speedball block.
A few days after carving my first batch of Philodendron gloriosum and Alocasia ‘Frydek’ leaf designs, I carved a second batch of stamps comprised of Rhaphidophora tetrasperma, Begonia maculata “Wrightii”, Anthurium warocqueanum and Anthurium crystallinum (or clarinervium?).
I am much happier with this batch, as I was now familiar with the carving blades and my lines were much smoother and more uniform. Carving out the “polka-dots” of the Begonia maculata “Wrightii” proved to be a bit challenging, because the smallest carving nib that I used is not meant for making round, smooth holes. But, oh well, you just have to make do with what you have!
Oh, and one tip for the Begonia maculata design in my free download— don’t worry about replicating the dot pattern too much. As long as you carve out some dots, it doesn’t really matter where you put them, so don’t feel constrained about their placement. You’ll probably drive yourself crazy and we want this to be fun and creative!
One thing you’ll definitely find when you begin stamp carving, is the fact that you will have a TON of rubber shavings and crumbs to clean up. It’s easy enough to grab the bigger shavings and dispose of them, but for the heaps of small crumbs and dust-like particles, I’ve found a desk vacuum to be a lifesaver.
What is a desk vacuum you ask?
Mine is pictured above with the brand name Tihoo, which I purchased from Amazon. It’s literally a miniature vacuum as big as my fist, and is powered by two AA batteries. It’s small and super cute and I think it’s a must-have for writers and creatives. It sucks up little particles and then you can open up the bottom and dump the debris away. And being a crazy Botanical Chick with lots of plants on my desk, I’ve found that it’s quite helpful cleaning up small soil spills.
I hope this post will help you start creating your own rubber stamps, whether they’re plant-themed or not. Not only are you making something completely unique that fits your own interests and style, you can use them for years in your journals, planners, sketchbooks and scrapbooks. In the future, I may even test these stamps on fabric and tissue paper, and if I do, I will make sure to post and show you all. When you carve your own stamps, the sky is truly the limit!
Always Keep Creating,
Heather (a.k.a. The Botanical Chick)
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