Make Your Own Acrylic Stamps

Ever since seeing these materials available, I've always been curious about them.  I wondered how and if it would work. The information I had read was I could use acrylic sheets, cut shapes or words with my cricut and make my own stamps!  I'm not into stamping in a big way, but thought it was cool that I could make my own designs.  

I recently found the supplies made by ProvoCraft at my local Joann Fabrics and thought I'd give it a try.  I bought the package that contains 2 - 6 x 6 sheets of acrylic material.  The other kit had only one sheet plus acrylic blocks for stamping.  Since I have a good supply of clear blocks, I bought the package with the 2 sheets.  It was also less expensive.

The only instructions or should I say guidelines, that were included on the packaging was to use a very sticky mat.  I bought out a brand new cutting mat, loaded a brand new blade and was ready to cut.  But, then I had to come up with a design.  I went to one of my favorite cartridges, Storybook.  I love their corners and borders and chose one of the shapes to make my own border using Design Studio.  Now came the moment of truth!  I loaded the mat into the Cricut, checking and double checking that the acrylic was stuck down to the mat.  I clicked the cut button and it started to cut.  About half way through, the acrylic pulled away from the mat and I had to cancel the cut.  I tried again....and the same thing happened.  ARRGGGGG.  Apparently, the mat was not sticky enough.  Even though it was an unused mat, It was an older one (I knew by the color of it.  The newer ones are white with the green around the edge).  So, I got out a different mat, checked the stickyness, and put the rest of the acrylic I had.  It seemed to be REALLY stuck on the mat.  This time, I did adjust the blade depth to 4 (I had it on 6) I tried my cut again.  I watched as it cut out the design and  it was complete.  It didn't pull up from the mat and cut well.  I did have to pull at the scraps a bit (I think I'll have the blade depth at 5 next time) but the edges were clean and sharp.

Here is a picture of the acrylic on a clear block.  Looks pretty good, eh?  

I inked the stamp and tried it out on paper.  Except for me not putting enough pressure on it (one of the reasons I'm not a BIG fan of stamping) but I was very happy with the results.  I can't wait to use this on acrylic books, using Staz-On ink.  If you look in the lower right hand corner of the below picture, you can see another stamping of KAYLA (upside down).  I cut one out for my granddaughter, as she loves to stamp.  I thought she would get a kick out of having her name on a stamp. 

Thanks for looking.  I  hope this helped you decide if this kit is for you.

Koala-t hugs,

Cathy