DIY stamps!

Lately I love making my own stamps. It is so easy, you don't need a lot of materials en the effect is so much nicer than a regular drawing. It's a surprise every time you try a just carved stamp for the first time.

What do you need?

A simple eraser (I buy them at Action or Wibra, 2 for 99 euro cents!)

Little knifes or 'gutsen' (don't know the English word, see picture)

Ink

I usually draw my illustration on a piece of paper first. When I am happy with the design, I turn around the paper and lay it on the eraser. I scratch on the back of the paper with a pencil. The illustration will apear on the eraser. Just carve everything that you want to keep white and done! Your DIY stamp is ready.

I made my blog header with stamps too.

This is one of my favorites at the moment (sorry for the bad picture quality):

Washi tape

You'll find it everywhere lately: washi tape (or masking tape). It is transparant Japanese tape available in all colors, patterns and sizes. You can do a lot with it, so I definitely wanted to have it..

In the Netherlands there are a lot of (web)shops where you can buy the tapes, but it's so hard to choose when there are so many sorts available! Above that, washi tape is not very cheap (about €3,- per role). On Etsy.com I founded a seller (Le box boutique), recommended by another blogger, where you can buy 16 feet tape (1 foot = about 30 centimeters) for only €6,-. The best thing is you can choose a maximum of 8 different tapes (so that is 2 feet per tape)!

I ordered of course 8 different tapes and delivery to the Netherlands only took 4 days! This are the ones I chose:

I already saw something very cool in a magazine to do with the washi tape. It will take a little time to finish it, so I will show the results later. Here some washi inspiration.