Four years ago when I was planning my daughter’s bowling party, I went into stress mode trying to find a cute bowling stamp/dicut/patterned paper- anything that would make our invitations and party bags cute.  Now this was before printables were big…it’s hard to image such a time, but it’s true.  So out of that desperation, I found a way to make my own custom foam stamps.  The treat bag ended up looking like this:

Now, if you’re a crafter, then there is 95% chance that you have gone through a stamping phase.  You know, where you buy a million of those expensive things and then don’t use them as much as you thought.  You with me?  I went through that phase with the big wood block stamps and then again with the cool acrylic stamps.  It was quite a breakthrough when the clear acrylic block would let me see exactly where I was putting the stamp.

So, I used that clear acrylic block that I had and some sticky backed foam sheets to make my own little bowling stamp.

I free handed and cut some bowling pins, and for the ball, I used 2 sizes of circle punches.

I peeled off the sticky back and put it right onto my acrylic block.  Then I used acrylic paint and a foam brush to quickly stamp on a handful of bags.  Then the foam peeled nicely off my acrylic block and I washed the paint off with soap and water.

Then I stamped the bowling ball onto all of them in a jiffy.  Yes, I just said jiffy and I’m not going back.
I added the red stripes on the pins with a fine-tip marker, and there I had it!

I still have that pile of sticky backed foam sheets that I draw on every once in a while.  And recently, when my kids were dying of end-of-summer-boredom, I thought of this little trick again.

They went to town, stamping their own set of stationary.  We didn’t have any, but craft stores have all sorts of pre-cut foam shapes with a sticky back.  Those would be so fun for them to stamp with.

And when there was only one acrylic block to go around, they got creative, grabbing anything clear to put their stamps on.

They made some thank-you cards.  I was pretty proud of their creativity when they thought of making a tye-dye look by using different color stamp pads.  I think I’m going to start to take lessons from them.

BTW, when you do words, write the letters the right way on the paper side of the foam, then stick them on the block backwards then when you stamp it it will be right again.  We may have learned this the hard way.  :/

This stamping bit entertained them for HOURS!  And somewhere in the middle of it, I suggested they should make a card for their new teachers.

Then I got to thinking that a little stack of stationary would be a great first day of school gift.  They would be smiling ear to ear as they told their teacher that they made them some notecards.

(These were made with half a sheet of 8.5×11 cardstock, folded in half.  The green was a punched out piece of foam, stamped with a stamp pad, for the other colors, we used acrylic paint).

You could even print “a note from your teacher” on the cardstock before you cut it into cards.  Then stamp…   You can tell I have “back to school” on the brain,  but I know your kids could use their homemade stamps for any sort of occasion!

Now I must go organize closets to see if my kids own anything other than swimsuits.  I think I have a little back-to-school shopping to do!

I’m linking up to somewhat simple and the girl creative!