Making A Custom Stamp With The Silhouette Mint

Wow, I had so much fun making this project. I love instant gratification and the Silhouette Mint delivered.

This is a powerhouse at 2.25 in. x 4.75 in. x 3.25 in!!

In fact, this machine was included in the goodie bag from the Cameo 4 launch party, and that bag started me on this creative journey. 

Silhouette 101 offers a fantastic video on how to use the machine here.

What I do is offer you project ideas and help by doing it first and solving the problems that might give you trouble. And I had an itsy bitsy bit of trouble on my first stamp...OR so I thought, but no, it all turned out more than perfect. 💖

Onward...remember from a prior Maker's Make where I created these great door hangers for authors to give their readers...or for anyone to customize for their business and hand out?  

And I promised to next create a stamp to use on the back, or a bag, card or bookmark?

Here it is. 

Forgive the smear, I was a bit shaky as I pressed down on the label

This is the "signature" I use on my blog and website. It has my tagline and my call-to-action, join my mailing list. I can use this all the time!!  

Okay, now for the nitty-gritty. Again I highly suggest you watch the video that Silhouette has produced for the Mint. It's pretty straight forward.

Basic Screen for the Mint Studio

I recommend that you go to Silhouette America > Software > Mint Studio > current version 1.3.044 for Windows/Mac and download/install before you do anything else.

When you plug in the Mint to your computer and turn it on, you'll receive 50 free designs. I have two computers I use for design and was able to do this for both. 

Here's a tip for you. Save and print off the stamp size sheet I made here, and use it to help determine the size you need.











Since I already had this design made in Photoshop to use on my blog and website, I just opened it and adjusted it to fill my stamp blank of 60x30. 

If you decide to design your own stamp right on the chosen stamp blank, you can use any of the fonts you have on your computer, create shapes to add an icon like a heart or star. Then you can color in those items to see how it will look before inking.  As brought in my own Jpg I couldn't color it to test. 

But I did know I wanted a two-color stamp. 

The trick is not to place the items you want to be different colors too close to each other. I wanted my name and tagline one bright color and the call-to-action in black. 

Now I'm ready to make the stamp. 

I was a bit nervous as the image looked so jagged...but it printed exactly like the screen image. I didn't add any filter but standard (it will ask you to check) Although I must admit that playing with the filters was very interesting. 

I went back and forth about printing wondering about the very jagged edges. Nothing I did in the program changed them. So I finally decided to go ahead and print, after all, I was learning.  (BTW, I used a brush font so there are brush strokes)

The program automatically flips the design so it will stamp correctly.  

I grabbed this image off the Mint Studio page and it was not connected to my computer. But once you're connected, and feed in the blank stamp, the machine does the rest. It's quiet and pretty darn fast. I was impressed. 

BTW, they stress this on the video, do not remove the clear plastic sheet before you run your stamp through the machine. Once done, you can remove it. 

I broke it off the cardboard and removed the plastic. WOW.

Okay, now for the inking.  I attached my stamp to the mount it comes with. When you buy a kit, it also has the base.  So I got one full kit for each size and then extra stamp sheets which are less expensive than the full kit.

I used magenta ink on my name and my tagline. Then carefully added black ink to the call-to-action. Here is where I ran into a bit of trouble, but now I know how to keep my bleed from happening. Read on.

You let the ink set on the stamp 7 minutes to absorb into the stamp. I kept looking at it and it seemed like it was resisting on the raised areas, so I added more and more ink. WELL, I didn't need to do that. But only found that out later.  

Once the 7 minutes have passed you "stamp off the ink" onto a blank piece of cardstock. 

Stamping off sheet

Uh oh. If you look closely as I stamp off that the black in has smeared into the tag line. Well, I kept stamping off until the image was clean, and it took about 14 stamps which is normal. Then figuring I had nothing to lose, I added magenta ink to my tag line to cover the black, let it sit the 7 minutes and stamped it off. Voila, it worked (see right column). 

The reason it smeared with I first started stamping off is that I had WAY too much ink on the stamp. Lesson learned. 

I stamped my newly minted 💗 stamp on the back of the door hangers I made and it worked absolutely perfectly.

Silhouette says you can get about 50 stamp impressions from one inking. I've done about 29 so far and it's still bright and sharp.

You can get the Mint directly from Silhouette as well as the inks and refill stamp sheets. 

There are periodic sales at Silhouette (sign up so you'll get emails) AND SEE MY AMAZON LINK BELOW, CURRENTLY, IT'S A GREAT!!!! PRICE.

I can think of a lot of uses for this machine. I mean a lot. 

Once you see that Silhouette video, you'll have so many ideas, it's wonderful. I also watched k.becca's tutorial which I also recommend highly. 

What do you think you can make?  

Have fun, and show me what you've done with the Mint by Silhouette.

xoxo

L.A.