DIY Friday: How do you make a custom rubber stamp?

A custom rubber stamp I created

Using my stamp on a disk of wood for a holiday tag

I'm not talking about carving one yourself here. That's great if you want to and here is a nice tutorial for that from one of my favorite artists.

I'm talking about how to send custom artwork to a rubber stamp company. It's a great idea for personalizing many aspects of your wedding or event. You can do a special return address for your envelopes, custom artwork from clipart you've found to integrate into your wedding, a monogram or just a fun design that you created to add spark to your favors, tags, host cards etc.

It's really quite easy to do. You need black and white "artwork" (this can be anything from a drawing to a monogram). Make sure your art does not have any gray or screens of color in it. Only solid black and white lines or areas will work, and take care to watch out for very thin lines (which might not "hold" when the stamp is created) or lines which are close together because they might clog up with ink and make for a muddled look.

I'll take you through one of my most recent projects with a custom stamp.

First, I drew my design on white paper with a black ink pen. After looking at it, I adjusted the lines to be thicker. Then I scanned it into my computer with the Black and White/Bitmap setting. I suggest keeping the resolution at 300 dpi for the finest quality in detail. You can also create the design in your computer (using your fonts etc. in the design). I just checked how to do it in my Word program and it looks like your would do this: File--> Save As--> .pdf format. Other programs allow you to "export" the image into the correct formats. Save the file as a .jpg, .tif, or .eps format with the black and white settings. Attach it to an email and send it to the rubber stamp company.

Pricing ends up being about $30 and it takes about 7 to 10 days to produce and ship to you. There are many companies that offer this customized product but here are some to get you started. Many offer this service but it's not obvious on their website. Just give them a call and talk it over with a rep.

Custom Rubber Stamp Resources:
http://www.rubberstampchamp.com/
http://www.rubberstamps.net/
http://www.thestampmaker.com/

Clipart Resources:
http://www.clipart.com/en/
http://www.clipartconnection.com/en/
http://www.openclipart.org/

Font Resources:
http://www.dafont.com/
http://www.fontspace.com/
http://www.urbanfonts.com/

Here are some ideas using custom rubber stamps to get the ideas brewing for your event. Feel free to send me any questions you may have on how to do this and if you have examples, I'm sure my readers would love to see them!