I decided to start things off easy with Crafty Fridays: Printer Ink Cartridge stamps. After seeing how Upcycled Design Lab transformed ordinary printer ink cartridges into stamps, I tried my hand at it. I used the same cartridge types since their shape lends well to stamps. I didn’t have Styrofoam like Upcycled Design Lab, but I was able to find a few sponges that worked well. I outlined each ink cartridge on the cardboard packaging from the superglue to make the base of my stamps. Originally, I envisioned separating the sponges into three or four different equal-sized pieces and making the stamps from that. It was much harder than anticipated, however.

For the next few hours I struggled with cutting straight lines into the sponges. I would start out with a straight cut down, only to realize that one end bent and I had two parts that curved. In the end, I gave up and my stamps are a bit wonky because of it.

Each of the letters were cut carefully and glued to a sponge base that was glued to a piece of cardboard. After shaving off bits of uneven plastic on the cartridges, I glued the cardboard to the base. Voila! Stamps!

But then I realized I forgot to buy an ink pad. I scoured the rest of my ink cartridge cache until I found some that still had ink. This was where things got messy, really messy.

Using the razor that I had, I gouged the soft rubber parts of the ink cartridge and pulled them out, draining the ink into a shallow plastic container. If you are following in my footsteps, be sure to have set up newspaper or a work cloth underneath the drain pan and ink cartridge so that your table doesn’t get stained.

I did not think of that beforehand…my work desk and keyboard are now blue – just don’t tell my boss.