How to make homemade foam stamps from old puzzles

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Everyone loves playing with stamps! And it’s super easy to make homemade foam stamps from old foam puzzles and bottle caps… without paying a cent! A repurposing tutorial by www.cucicucicoo.com

Our family is stamp-addicted.

We have a really insane collection of stamps that we take out from time to time to create crazy scenes with people, speech bubbles, animals, aliens and any and every other thing you could possibly imagine. And I didn’t buy a single one of those stamps.

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We have a bunch of hand-me downs and a bunch more that we made ourselves. So today I’m going to show you how to make homemade foam stamps from two things you just may have already hanging around in your home: a small foam puzzle and bottlecaps!

Everyone loves playing with stamps! And it’s super easy to make homemade foam stamps from old foam puzzles and bottle caps… without paying a cent! A repurposing tutorial by www.cucicucicoo.com

It all started when I saw this post on pane, amore e creatività which said that the foam used for those foam puzzle mats contains toxic substances. I immediately removed our two foam puzzles from toy rotation and decided to take advantage of a suggestion in that post on how to reuse these puzzles in a harmless way: make them into stamps!

Everyone loves playing with stamps! And it’s super easy to make homemade foam stamps from old foam puzzles and bottle caps… without paying a cent! A repurposing tutorial by www.cucicucicoo.com

This idea immediately appealed to me because, like I already said, we love stamps, and I’d already written about how to make do-it-yourself stamps from flip flops and from repurposed material stamp kits. The thing that didn’t totally convince me about the original idea was the use of wooden blocks as stamp backers. So I thought of a way to make this project more eco-friendly: use bottle caps!

Do you have a little foam puzzle hanging around? Then let’s make homemade foam stamps from it!

Making the stamps

Everyone loves playing with stamps! And it’s super easy to make homemade foam stamps from old foam puzzles and bottle caps… without paying a cent! A repurposing tutorial by www.cucicucicoo.com

First, remove the shape from the puzzle background, making sure to remove any little inside bits (like the center of the letter A).

Then just put a bit of glue on the top (right) side and attach it to the cap. I used UHU extra gel, a glue which seems to work on everything. If you use a glue like this on a non-absorbent surface (such as these metal caps) there is a little trick to get it to stick on perfectly. Put the glue on the piece and then rub it on the bottle cap to spread the glue out nicely on both. Take the piece off and let the glue dry a little bit. I found that just the time it takes to do this again with another letter and cap is enough. Then put the letter back on again. If the glue had dried a little, it will stick much better.

Everyone loves playing with stamps! And it’s super easy to make homemade foam stamps from old foam puzzles and bottle caps… without paying a cent! A repurposing tutorial by www.cucicucicoo.com

Don’t forget that the letter or number will be backwards on the cap. If you put it the right side up, you’ll get a finished stamped print that you’ll have to read in the mirror, à la leonardo da vinci.

Everyone loves playing with stamps! And it’s super easy to make homemade foam stamps from old foam puzzles and bottle caps… without paying a cent! A repurposing tutorial by www.cucicucicoo.com

You can also use those spaces inside the letters. For example, the inside of the O is good for a period (or an exclamation point with the I) and the inside of the Q makes a good comma.

Everyone loves playing with stamps! And it’s super easy to make homemade foam stamps from old foam puzzles and bottle caps… without paying a cent! A repurposing tutorial by www.cucicucicoo.com

When the glue is completely dry, have a blast stamping away!

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What about all those other background bits? I certainly couldn’t throw those away, so I turned those into a little bulletin board! Click to find out how!

Make your own foam stamps from broken flip flops! Repurposing at its best at www.cucicucicoo.com

If you love making your own foam stamps, make sure you check out these stamps made from broken flip flops! This is repurposing at its best!

Everyone loves playing with stamps! And it’s super easy to make homemade foam stamps from old foam puzzles and bottle caps… without paying a cent! A repurposing tutorial by www.cucicucicoo.com
**This post was updated on 09/03/2017**

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13 thoughts on “How to make homemade foam stamps from old puzzles”

  1. Ma che splendida idea quella dei timbri, grazie! Neppure io sapevo di sostanze nocive nella plastica dei tappeti-puzzle..io non li ho mai usati, ho figli grandi e allora non si usavano (per farli giocare stendevo a terra un materassino di gommapiuma rivestito di tela lavabile, e prima ancora una vecchia trapunta)mi sa che i miei vecchi metodi sono ancora validi!
    Carmen

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  2. Bellissimi! Beh non c'è da stupirsi che molti oggetti contengano sostanze tossiche, ma la cosa più assurda è che ci siano nei giochi per i piccoli! Mah!
    Comunque delle formine che avanzano potresti creare delle decorazioni, magari per le feste di compleanno, o per le festività, colorandole e aggiungendoci qualche altra decorazione, secondo la tua creatività, che mi sembra non ti manchi! 😉
    Complimenti anche per la scelta di tornare all'acqua con il vuoto a rendere! Ottima soluzione, se non si dispone di buona acqua del rubinetto! ;D

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  3. grazie a tutte per le vostre commenti carini! 🙂

    @carmen: ma certo che i tuoi metodi sono ancora validi! noi abbiamo dei tappetti e copertine da gioco che stanno sempre per terra per far giocare mia figlia. sono molto più naturali e meno attraente al gatto, che non resisteva mai a grattare il tappetto puzzle di gommapiuma!

    @danda: infatti, fa veramente paura quante cose nella vita quotidiana contengono sostanze pericolose. grazie per l'idea! e poi, l'acqua in bottiglie di vetro non solo è più ecologica, ma ha un sapore molto, ma MOLTO migliore dell'acqua che sa di bottiglia di plastica!

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  4. Anch'io avevo letto l'articolo su pane amore e creatività! La tua idea è strabella brava brava!!! P.s. il libro one yard wonder mi è arrivato..che meraviglia!!!!

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  5. Ciao!
    Visito ora per la prima volta il tuo blog! Complimenti per le tue idee davvero originali!!!
    Visita anche tu il mio…adoro il cucito creativo ma ho ancora mooolta strada da percorrere!!!
    A presto e buona pasqua
    tiziana nidodilana

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  6. Bell'idea questa! Anche perché non devi impazzire a ritagliare tutte le letterine, sono già pronte! Vedo di recuperare qualche tappetino dismesso dei miei nipoti e procedo, i timbri mi mancano!
    A presto,
    tania

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