Making your own shadow stamps

I've seen mention before about making your own stamps from Fun Foam, and you can get this stuff really cheap. I know I've seen it in The Works, and I've also got it from our local Poundland. I think there's about 10 sheets to a pack, and they're usually A4 size.
 I cut myself some circles, and scalloped circles, using Framelits dies through the Cuttlebug.
I lay the dies onto the A plate, C plate stack, then the foam, then my B plate.
I also did some Hexagons, and some Large Labels, both Nestabilities dies.

Then I had a thought. What if I ran them through an embossing folder? So I did.
This is the Tim Holtz Woodgrain folder. I recall reading that you could heat it with a heat gun and stamp into it, to get a reverse image stamp, so I heated it for a few seconds first. I also tried it without heating, and I don't really think it made a huge amount of difference to the impression either way.
Next I tried cutting out some circles from the embossed sheet.

You also get a choice of embossed or debossed stamp, as it comes out double sided!


Now I was curious to see how it would stamp.

I stuck it to an acrylic block- I meant to use repositionable tape, I picked up the wrong one- but it cleaned up ok. Its better to put the tape on the block, it doesn't go onto the foam very well.











I inked it with DI, Salty Ocean all over, then Chipped Sapphire around the edge.


Typically with DI, it gave a grungy, faded print.
Then,I made a useful discovery. I cleaned the stamp up with a baby wipe, and it was still damp when I re-inked it. This made the ink go onto the stamp better. Just out of interest, I stamped one print after another. I got a total of 11 prints, each slightly more faded than the last, out of one inking.

Now I went into full embossing mode, lol. This is a Darice folder, Brick Wall, and I think I will cut this one into squares & oblongs.

This is a Tim Holtz folder, brickwork. I also discovered that if you aren't happy with how its embossed, if you heat it, or re-heat it, you can take the design out, then re-emboss.



I did that with these Hexagons I embossed in a Honeycomb folder.
When I started this, I embossed the sheets first, then cut them out. I wasn't sure if embossing them after cutting the shapes would cause them to distort. I found that depending on the die you are using, you may get a light outline around your shape. This happened with the Honeycomb folder I cut up with Hexagons. So I reheated them, then re-embossed the cut out shape.

 Good news is that the shapes don't distort when embossed.











 Using Fun Foam in embossing folders through a Cuttlebug requires some trial & error.
Mine would not take the normal sandwich for an embossing folder with card, plus some Darice & Tim folders are thicker anyway, and already require a bit of re-jigging. And some foam is thicker than others!
The sandwich that worked for me is:
A plate
C plate,
 Embossing folder with foam
 2 or 3 sheets of cardstock shim

So I gave the stamping a go- I wiped the stamp first with a baby wipe, to moisten it, then added the ink. DI Mustard Seed & Spiced Marmalade again.

I think I was a bit heavy handed with the Spiced Marmalade, so tried it again adding it with a sponge this time.

Another experiment with how many prints I could get. This time I got 10 from a single inking.

 A quick try out with a different combo- Adirondack Raspberry & DI Dusty Concord. Sponged on the edge colour again trying to avoid any hard lines, and this seems to work best.

5 nice prints, and I would have got 2 or 3 more paler ones.
 I've been thinking that if I coated the foam stamp in Clear Embossing ink, or Versamark first, then added colour, I would be able to heat emboss it. And I think that if I heated the foam up, then let it cool before inking, I'd get a smoother surface.
Something to try out next.

Supplies:
 Darice embossing folder, Honeycomb
Darice embossing Folder, Brick Wall
Tim Holtx texture fades folders, Woodgrain & Bricked, which comes as a two-pack. (I could find it on Amazon, at a silly price, but there have to be other stores that have it)
Fun Foam/Funky Foam
Dye inks.