Before you begin cutting your stamp you must understand what it is you are cutting. If you cut away the drawn design, you will end up with a negative stamp of the design, that is, when you stamp the design area will be empty and the background around the design will be printed. Conversly, if you cut away everything except the design you will get a positive stamp of the design.







For most stamp designs I begin with the #1 blade. It has a fine "V" shape and is great to cut away the outline and inline of a design. It is great to start intricate designs with. It can be used later for fine tuning too. On the stamp shown above, I cut the entire thing using the #4 blade. It has a flat bottomed "U" shape. Whatever blade you are using, never dig the blade into the speedy cut any deeper than the blade is tall. To do so will give you a jagged, rough edge.







Experiment with the blades. Use the #2 to start wide, less intricate designs. Use the #6, knife blade to remove large areas of background. Use the #1 blade to add fine texture to large designs such as leaves or flower petals.