Customised wooden rubber stamps in the UK

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Oh, the frustration. I see so many exciting projects featuring design-your-own personalised art-mounted stamp — where you can upload your own image to a supplier's website and receive a lovely wooden rubber stamp with which to replicate your designs forever and ever — but I was surprised that this isn't a common (or at least easily findable) service in the UK.

Of course, many Etsy stores sell these things, but, as we're into designing our own stamps, it seems financially savvy to cut out the middle man and go direct to the supplier.

For my first stamp, I gave up and opted to go with a US-based stamp supplier, Rubberstamp.net, who supplied the stamp featured here. I recommend them, but bear in mind you'll be charged customs tax when you receive it in the UK.

It seems crazy that no-one is offering this customised service within the arts and crafts field (as opposed the awful-looking business stamp option). I have since found a UK personal stamp maker, but I haven't tried them out yet.

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Benefits of customised rubber wooden stamps

My first reason for treading the stamp route was to save time in calligraphing return addresses on wedding invitations. I also decided to get the image we've used for our invitation suite (two cute little kids taken from a photograph of a graffiti stencil) turned into a stamp so we could also stamp it on the envelopes, and anywhere else we see fit in the lead up to the big day.

Other rubber stamp projects include a fully lettered invitation or save the date converted to stamp (I saw this first in Modern Calligraphy by Molly Suber Thorpe).

Have you created or used rubber stamps for a design project? Do you have any tips for artists just starting out? Share with us in the comments, or check out whether you might like to submit your project.