Make a Homemade Stamp Out of Everyday Craft Supplies!

Learn how to make a homemade stamp that would be great for Valentine’s for class, party favors, or just for rainy day fun!

Valentine’s Day is coming!! Are you thinking about some easy and cheap DIY valentines for kids? I have an easy one for you and this is a fun one for your child to help with.

I am a fan of non-candy valentines and actually giving them something that they hopefully will use. In talking with my 6-year-old, he decided on stamps or bookmarks so of course, we made both! (Click here to check out our DIY Valentine bookmarks!)

So here is an easy way to make a DIY homemade stamp from items you probably have at home and a free printable to use as a tag. These would also be great to make for party favors or just for fun for your kiddos!

Supplies for Homemade Stamp:

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wine corks – we collect wine corks and have friends that give us some since they are so fun to make stuff with. If you are not a wine drinker, I’m sure you could ask your FB friends to save theirs and you’ll have plenty in a week!
paint – either spray paint (I used this one) or chalk paint. These were just ones I had on hand, you can use whatever color you want.
foam sheets and/or foam stickers – I had a pack of foam sheets from The Dollar Tree
punch stamps (optional)
glue gun and glue
free printable tags – click here to download these “You’ve left a stamp on my heart” tags
round wood circles – can find at a craft store

Ok, there are many ways to make a DIY stamp. Starting off with the corks – I painted mine but you don’t have to. I thought it made them cuter and hid what they actually were!

I painted them two different ways just to see which I liked better. I spray painted the first batch.

This worked fine but they took a long time to dry! It was probably over 24 hours before they stopped feeling sticky.

So I also painted a batch with chalk paint which would be a fun thing for a little one to help with! (Mine was not wanting to do anything…sigh…)

The stamps can be made in a variety of ways also. Foam works the best for a homemade stamp so if the foam has a paper or hard surface on the front side it won’t absorb the ink as well.

For some, we used different punches I had. They will punch the thin foam easily. I punched out 2-3 of each and glued them together with a glue stick so there was more thickness to them.

This helps to prevent ink from getting all over whatever it’s backed on.

I had an owl embossing stamp and I figured out that it is hard for the embossing to show through on the foam. I punched out two in foam and then one out of cardstock and glued all those together.

The stamp worked and most of the parts could be seen!

We had some foam heart stickers (you can find anywhere) that we used also. I again stacked two of the same sticker on top of each other and just peeled the paper off the top one and stuck them together.

Now onto attaching them to the corks! For the small stickers, you can glue them (or just peel off the backing of the stickers) straight on to the cork and they work great.

For the ones that are a little bigger, it’s best to have a hard surface under the whole foam stamp. This guarantees that there will be even pressure around the whole stamp when you press it down on paper with ink.

That’s where the small round wood circles come in. You can apply the stickers directly to them or to make them look a little more colorful.

I had round foam circles that I glued down first and then put the stamp on top of that. Or you could paint the wood circles! Whatever suits you and your kiddo!

Then simply add some hot glue to the cork and attach it to the wood circles.

Ta – da! That’s it! Make enough for the class, grab your printable tag (by clicking here), cut them out, punch a hole and tie it to the stamp with ribbon or jute twine (I had red twine left over from Christmas!)

Pretty cute and easy for just using a few dollars worth of materials! I always love getting handmade Valentines and I think the kids that give them love saying “I made those!”