Enhance your Questing with a hand-made book and stamp made of everyday materials.
Make a Quest “Passport” or Sign-In Book
Make your own small book to use as:
- Your own Quest “passport” or journal to keep track of your questing. Fill it with field notes, drawings—and the stamp imprints of all your completed quests! Complete 20 quests and send us a copy of your stamps and you will earn a beautiful patch and certificate! Complete 50 quests and we will reward you with a Valley Quest hat.
- A sign-in book for the Treasure Box for a Quest, to be signed or stamped by people who complete that Quest.
Materials
- 1 piece of boxboard (old cereal box)
- 5 sheets of copy paper
- 1 sheet of colored construction paper
- 1 piece of cloth (11.5″ x 8″)
- Glue stick
- Scissors
- Stapler
Instructions
- Fold five sheets of white copy paper in half. Cut on fold.
- Stack halves together and fold in half again. Set aside. These are your pages.
- Cut an old cereal box (or other piece of boxboard) into a rectangle 9.5″ x 6.5″.
- Fold cardboard in half. Cut in half, following along the crease.
- Cut cloth into a rectangle 11.5″ x 8″.
- Coat one side of both pieces of cardboard completely with gluestick. Press “glue sides” down on cloth, centered, with a half-inch space between the two pieces. Be sure there is at least a half-inch of cloth beyond the edges of the cardboard in each direction.
- Fold in four corners of cloth (triangles); secure with glue.
- Fold down four sides of excess cloth (long rectangles); secure with glue.
- Cut construction paper into a 6″ x 9″ rectangle. Cover one side of construction paper completely with gluestick.
- Press construction paper gluestick-side-down onto the cardboard to cover and secure excess cloth. Fold in half. Your cover is now complete.
- Nest your pages inside the cover, center, and secure with stapler. (You can also bind with needle and thread.) Your book is finished!
- You now have 20 pages to collect 20 stamps.
Make a Stamp
Materials
- A piece of rubber (this can be an eraser—Magic Rub works well—or a block of rubber, found in good art shops)
- A linoleum block carving tool
- A stamp pad
- A pencil
- A few pieces of paper
- A ballpoint pen
- A bit of an imagination or good source book
What to Keep in Mind
- Remember, tools are sharp! Please exercise care and supervise children.
- If you are working with younger children, you may wish to use a WASHABLE ink pad. These can be easily found at hobby stores.
- When considering your design, remember that you will be working with a MIRROR IMAGE if you are drawing directly onto the rubber. Lettering has to be carefully drawn out in reverse.
- Firm rubber is easier to work with than soft rubber. Softer rubber can tear, leaving a jagged edge.
- A sharp knife gives a cleaner edge than a dull blade.
Instructions
1. Sit down somewhere comfortable with a pencil or pen and piece of paper and come up with a few ideas. Play around with a theme—and if this is your first attempt, try to keep it simple. If you start with something very complicated you might get frustrated when it does not come out perfectly.
2. Once you are happy with your drawing, trace the image onto the piece of rubber. An alternative is to moisten your rubber and transfer the pencil drawing by pressing the rubber onto the drawing. This also reverses the image for you! Make sure the letters are in reverse and when the stamp is held in front of a mirror, the letters are read correctly. If the image comes out very lightly on the stamp, use a ballpoint pen to darken the tracing.
3. Cut the small, detailed pieces out first and then work on the big pieces. The big pieces support the rubber while you cut it, so save those until last!
When cutting a curve or circle, it’s easier and makes a nicer shape if you keep the blade in one place and move the rubber. When cutting out the big pieces, you might want to leave some rubber in place. This gives the look of a woodcut and breaks up any large white area, usually making it look more interesting. Remember, once the rubber is cut, it cannot be put back.
4. You now have a piece of rubber onto which you have cut a nice pattern, scene, or shape. It is time to test the stamp. Brush the loose bits of rubber off the stamp and blow on it to remove all unwanted pieces. Take your piece of rubber and put it on the stamp pad, making sure the stamp gets a full and even coat of ink. As this is the first impression you’ll be making, you will notice any areas that are left void of ink. If necessary, put the stamp back on the pad for another coating.
Remember: When looking at the stamp, it is a MIRROR IMAGE of the picture you are now working from. Make the changes and make another impression of your stamp. Are you happy with it? If not, what would you need to change to make it better? Make those changes on the stamp you have created, or start over if necessary.
If you like your stamp, great. You have a stamp that you can either use as your “signature” when you go out questing or for a box you plan to put out. Or for anything else you want to stamp for that matter! You might want to write TOP on the back of the stamp so you know when making an impression that the stamp is the right way up.