Custom Handwriting Stamps

I was looking for a way to make my cards just a little more personal…and with handwritten sentiments being so big, I thought I’d try to make my own handwriting stamps.  Now, I am in no way deluding myself into thinking that my lettering can compare to some of the beautiful designs I’ve seen lately…but it’s mine, and quite recognizable among my own friends and family, so I think they’ll like it.  And if you hate your own handwriting, you can always use one of the gorgeous script fonts in the Online Store to make custom sentiments instead.

• Start by writing out your sentiment on some white paper.  I just used a pencil on plain printer paper for mine.
• Go over your penciled writing with a black marker to thicken up your lines (this will make it easier to trace and cut later).
• Use a brush-tipped marker if you want to try to get scripty.  I just used a fat Sharpie and worked with my letters until I was happy with their form.

• Scan your image into the Studio software using the Scan command in the File Menu.

• Select your device from the Source pull-down box in the Scanning Window and press “Start Scan”.
• Your scanned image will automatically appear in your workspace.

• Open the Trace Window and click “Select Trace Area”.  Drag your selection box around just your sentiment.
• Adjust the Trace Settings so that all of your black lettering is traced.  I unchecked the High Pass Filter box and then increased the Threshold to ~75% to properly trace my image.
• Click “Trace”.

• Now you can clean up your own handwriting using the Point Editing function.  Either click the “Point Editing” command or double-click on your traced design to open this window.
• First, click “Simplify”.  This will remove some excessive points from your design and make for a smoother cut.
• Then, adjust individual points as needed.  I used the “Smooth” and “Make Curve” functions to make my handwriting a little prettier.

• Cut your stamp out of the Silhouette Stamp Material.
• Use the grid lines on the acrylic blocks from the Stamping Kit to line up your sentiment perfectly.

• I saved the stamping on my card for last…so to start, I took a piece of white cardstock and used my CAMEO to sketch a floral design using the sketch pens and cut the word “birthday” out using a font from the Online Store.
• Once I had colored the lines of my design in Studio to see how my final project would look, it was super easy to sketch and cut my card in just a few clicks by using the Cut by Line Color Function.

• After my CAMEO had sketched my flower and cut half of my sentiment, I stamped the other half using my new custom stamp and Memento Luxe ink.
• Then, I covered my ink with embossing powder and heat-set it for a little extra dimension.
• To finish my card off, I added a few tiny opalescent sequins, popped my panel up on top of some black cardstock using foam tape, and adhered all of this to a white cardbase.

You can see in my first photo that I made a few different stamped panels as I was playing around with my new stamp.  For one, I heat embossed my sentiment onto watercolor paper using Versamark ink and white embossing powder and then painted over it with some Distress Inks and a waterbrush.  For the other, I stamped and heat-embossed my sentiment in the same way on some heavy cardstock and sponged Distress inks over it with a blending tool.  I’ll keep these panels in my stash to turn into happy something-or-other cards whenever I need them.

Shapes Used:

• Flower Bouquet Sketch

Fonts Used:

• MK Thick Type Font