One of the many badges my Junior troop worked on this year was Prints and Graphics.  It recommends the girls make their own stamp by using something like a potato.  I was never a fan of stamping with a carved potato and it only lasts for a few hours before it looks gross.  I came up with an alternative simple method for the girls to make their own stamps that are reusable.  I used scrap wood and cut it into smaller pieces, similar to the sizes used for store bought stamps.  Most were 2 inches x 2 inches x 1 inch or smaller for the letter stamps.  The personalized stamps used pieces closer to 2 x 3 or a little larger so the girls could be creative.  The girls designed their own stamp on the sticker side of the peel and stick craft foam sheets.  Then they cut out the design and stuck it to a small wood block.  To use, we either dipped the simple designs into paint on paper plates or we used a paint brush to paint on to the stamp.  Next, we placed the paint dipped block on the paper or material we were stamping.  We used these stamps for a variety of things including decorating our troop T-shirts, canvas book bags, and homemade cards.

For letters, most were easy to make by just applying a letter to a block.  Some letters like N would turn out in reverse if we just stuck them on with the sticker provided, so they were glued down by hand with hot glue on their face.  Then we removed the stickiness where the paper was by touching the adhesive until it no longer sticks.  It works as well as the other stamps.

Materials needed:

• Wood scraps cut into small blocks ahead of time (I did this myself ahead of time)
• Craft foam adhesive sheets, the kind with a sticky back that the paper pulls off to use
• Scissors
• ball point pen for drawing on the back of the foam
• carton of assorted letters for names and words

 

For less than $10, we made enough stamps so that each girl in the troop had all their own letters for their name, each have their own set of troop numerals, the word “troop,” and two personally designed stamps.