Hi there!
Welcome back to Make At Home with Masham Gallery! I recently tutored a workshop on handmade cards, tags and wrapping ideas up at ArtisOn, and I wanted to share one of the favourite creative projects I discovered. Considerable thanks has to go to Hester Cox printmaker extraordinaire for this who 1st used it in her block printing workshop. This must be the quickest, cheapest and easiest way of giving your pressies and personalised yet professional finish, it’s my new favourite hobby and I’m pretty sure everyone who reads this will love it too…
You will need:
Fun Foam – thin sheets of craft foam, large packs available for about £1 in most shops that have an ‘Craft’ section (the works, WH Smiths, supermarkets etc).
Printing Blocks – These can be any old off-cuts of wood, or you can treat yourself (for a very small fee) to some properly finished ones from York based/online stamp shop Make Your Mark.
Ink Pads – Also available in a variety of colours from Make Your Mark, or most art supply shops
Scissors – these are origami scissors, which are available in most good craft shops. They’re not essential, but are really useful for cutting intricate patterns.
Craft knife/Scalpel – I use scalpels, which are sharper and great of intricate cutting, but they are more expensive, harder to get hold of (Swann Morton make the best, they are available from some art supply shops) and VERY sharp, so not good for children to use. Craft knives are cheaper and easier to use and are available from craft shops.
PVA glue
Tissue paper, lining paper, newsprint…whatever you want to print on!
Cut out a square of foam that matches the size of your printing block, and draw out your design. You will need to turn the foam around once it is cut, so write any letters backwards!
As well as cutting the shapes, pressing into the foam with a ball-point pen will also create indentations which will be picked up by the ink – perfect for adding small details.
Using your craft knife (and a cutting mat or thick surface which you don’t mind cutting into), cut out your design.
Turn your design round. The reason for doing this is as you have drawn and cut onto the foam, you will have pressed the edges down around the shapes you’ve cut, so ink may not pick up the edges of your shapes if you print from that side.
Cover the whole side of your printing block in a thin layer of PVA glue. This will keep the block more water-resistant and make it easier to clean – you may want to cover the whole block in glue once this side is dry.
Arrange your foam pieces on the block and allow to dry completely.
Once dry, you can ink up the block and start stamping! The foam stamps seem to last for ages, but if you get bored of the design and want to re-use the block you can always peel off the foam and start again.
And thats it – beautiful, original wrapping paper that you can make again and again.
I hope you enjoy this Make-At-Home. If you are interested in expanding your creative skills further and would like to attend an ArtisOn workshop, why not visit their website and check out the 2011 program? Hester Cox also expands this technique and others in this workshop.
See you soon!
Rosie
