Heat-Activated Foam Block Printing | Creating Prints from Found Objects
- Making To Make Happy
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Have you ever come across the miniature art supply randomness that is - the moldable heat stamp?
No? Well, let me tell you all about it, because it's a heat-activated foamy intrigue…
I bought this from handprinted.co.uk and it is yet another product that has been around a while but somehow passed me by…until now!
It was only £1.50 to buy, so I took a punt as the promise of creating a mini printing block from found things was too tempting to pass up. Here’s how it works:
A summary of heat activated foam cleverness
The basic process is:
Heat the foam stamp up with a heat gun, to make the surface malleable.
While it’s warm, press it onto some found objects.
On lifting up the stamp, there should be an indent of the found objects.
Once fully cooled, ink up the indented surface and press the stamp onto paper.
Ta-dahhh, a print is born!
After printing is complete, clean the stamp and then - more-magic time - reheat the stamp to erase the design!
Let’s go into this in a bit more detail though, eh?
Before you begin the heating bit…
First thing’s first - decide on what you’re going to try and get an indent from. It’s important to look for things which are solid, such as stuff made from metal - think paper clips, keys, buttons… bits and bobs that won’t get stuck to a hot foam stamp, or disintegrate under it’s faintly-fiery pressure.
Once you have a few things to try, consider how you might arrange them under your stamp. Of course, the first few times, when you’re in random-test-mode, this doesn’t really matter - you can just plonk them underneath and see what happens - but later on you’ll start finding fun in planning the design more.
✨👉 Pssst - If you want to see my process in action, check out my Youtube video 👇
💡 I found that my cutting mat was handy to arrange my objects on, because I could line them up to fit across a certain area of the grid - therefore helping me to know how my stamp would fit over it all.
💡 I also grabbed my silicone mat, so that I had a heat-proof surface I could place my stamp on while I was blasting it with the heat gun.
Turning up the heat…
I started my heat gun on it’s lowest setting but soon discovered this did nothing whatever. So, I put the focussing-nozzle-thingy onto it, and turned up the setting, and this worked great.
You can see a very slight deepening of the stamp’s colour as it gets hot - try to make sure you are moving your heat gun around so you get heat spread across it’s surface evenly.
Pressing…
Once you deem it hot enough - and this knowledge only comes once you’ve tried it at least once and perhaps got it wrong, so keep experimenting to get a sense of it! - carefully pick up the stamp, flip it so the hot side faces down and press it onto your found objects. Push down as firmly as you can.
Lift the stamp up and see how the indents have come out. Even if they look shallow, it’s worth doing a couple of test prints with it - I thought my indents weren’t going to do much but they actually came out really well in a print!
Printing…
I used a Versacraft ink pad in a Forest Green colour which can be used on fabric, paper and all sorts - I saw it as recommended to use with these heat stamps, and it was also available on Handprinted, so I grabbed it. You could also use any printing ink with a roller too.
Ink up the indented surface of the stamp.
Pressss!…
Grab some paper and press your stamp, inky side down, onto it. However if, like me, you find this doesn’t necessarily provide the best result print-wise, try it the other way around…
Try placing your inked stamp facing upwards, then place your paper on top of it. Then gently but firmly press with your hands and fingers. I found this enabled me to press closer around the indented areas and I ended up with much better prints.
Clean…
As my ink-pad was waterbased I used water and a cloth to clean off my stamp block. If you’ve used an oil-based printing ink, you could probably use an oil (like sunflower) to remove it.
Reheat…
Once the stamp is clean and dry, you can reheat it to erase the design. Simply go back to the start, and use your heat gun to encourage the stamp back to its original form.
Now it’s ready to become something new! 🤩
Of course, you don’t have to erase your design immediately. The foam stamp will hold onto your design for however long you want, so if you simply want to clean it, but then return to experiment with other colour prints etc on another day, you can do so!
These are the prints I made during my experimenting session - I added to them with pen once dry, and I really like them!
If you try printing with a heat stamp, let me know how you get on!
Thanks for reading,
Keep making happy,
Gemma 💛
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