Making Rubber Stamps from Gloria Page's book

Yesterday a friend and I set decided we would make rubber stamps. I had some soft cutting printing blocks I had ordered many years ago from Dick Blick. They do come with a powdery residue on them. We washed them before we did any cutting. I got out my set of exacto knives and two self healing matts.

I also got out the Speedball Cutter with the very sharp blades. With the book open , we began with the easy part, cutting the block. Using a colored pencil, I measured a square. I cut a square. Wow, I felt success. I continued reading and then kinda frayed the edge of the square with the exacto knife. It took a little while to understand what I was doing, but the results were great. I made my first soft block rubber stamp, a whisper outline stamp. The second stamp was a tag stamp. The circle was a little whonky, but it was a learning experience. The third stamp took a bit longer, but I was determined. I made a faux postage stamp. This time, I used the speedball cutter and a small U shaped gouge blade. The hardest part was cutting out the rectangle in the middle. I am not good at making straight lines. The fourth stamp was the cutout from the faux postage stamp. In the book, Gloria Page shares templates for personal use. I looked at one and thought, a straight line and some U shape gouges. Then, I whispered the edges.

Here are some of the stamped images. The blue is the fourth stamp. The red is the whisper stamp. I was using some old stamp pads for the red. I found if I inked the stamp and laid the paper on top of the stamp, I got a better image.
Gloria Page's book is a fantastic resource for making rubber stamps. It is easy to follow, a great book to read, and filled with art stamps.