Stamp Craft :

I really love that there is a booming cottage industry in the UK for homemade personalised crafts, but I also think sometimes it takes the piddle at the prices and I really like a project. after spying a few things using letter stamps, I did a cheap eBay order from China for a box of stamps (£5.69) and I was set!

I cruised my DIY board on pintrest to find a PVA and cornflour dough recipe (1:2) and set off.

My first lot was a pile of shite! I misread the recipie and made it 1:1 PVA and cornflour, I think it might have eventually set but it certainly wasn't what I wanted. So I scooped it up and added more cornflour by eye until I was ok to give it another try!

Second go was success! I let it set for about 25 minutes before using my stamp. Like a twat, I had forgotten to buy ink so I used a bingo pen (Adapt and overcome!) and stamped on my words. I learned 3 lessons here.

1. Check your stamp is the right way up. I didn't, and upside down B is no good for anyone!

2. Check if your word will fit before you stamp, it's pretty impossible to undo.

3. Keep your stamps in order. I didn't and ended up really fumbling! I think next time I might even take mine out and arrange them in advance. 

I also hope that I will generally have more of a plan next time. It's nice to go with the flow but I think I could have missed opportunities? I've used a bird stamp, a heart with LOVE stamped on and a hole to hang it, I've also made a square with a hole and our address with the plan to put it on our key hook. 

One idea for the long run would be to get a large house shape cutter and stamp in family names and maybe address? I think I will be interesting to explore different inks aswell. I have also seen on pintrest people doing an impression using lace which might be nice on a heart? 

I will follow this up with my next (better!) crack at this, at some point! Have you been crafting anything nice?