Enhance your Questing with a hand-made book and stamp made of everyday materials.
Text about what they are useful for. Both for putting int eh treasure box of a QUest you create or for recording the quests you go on.
Text about what they are useful for. Both for putting int eh treasure box of a QUest you create or for recording the quests you go on.
You can use a Quest Passport book as a 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.
You can use one of these books as a sign-in book if you are making your own quest. Include the sign-in book in your treasure box along with a stamp, stamp pad, and any other information you would like to share with questers about your quest.
Materials
Instructions
There are many different ways to make your own stamp. You can use a number of materials—foam board, heavyweight card, potatoes, woodblock, and rubber, just to name a few. If you want to have a permanent stamp, a potato is not something you want to carry around forever … but it’s fun to experiment using different mediums to explore what you can achieve with each. Below you’ll find instructions to make a stamp with rubber, our medium of choice.
What You Need
What to Keep in Mind
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.