How to Make Star and Moon Rubber Stamps out of Recycled Meat Trays

To make basic shaped rubber stamps, save a few of the meat trays from the supermarket. They can easily be recycled into a basic stamp, cut in any outline shape like a star, a moon, a heart, square, triangle, animal or any other simple recognizable shape. They can even be an abstract shape. Once made, the meat tray rubber stamps can be used for art work or stamping T-shirts, canvas bags or even the wall to decorate a room. These are inexpensive to make and a good craft project for kids or adults.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Meat trays (from butcher packed packages of meat)
• Pencil
• Scissors
• White craft glue
• Old thread spool, piece of doweling or an egg cup (cut from an egg carton)

1. Save and wash a couple meat trays after the meat is gone. Wash them thoroughly with hot soapy water. There should be no meat or grease residue left. Dry them before you start cutting.

2. Draw a simple star design on the meat tray with a pencil. Cut the star out. Then draw a crescent moon shape and cut it out. Do any other shapes you like and cut them out as well.

3. Pick a base for the star or moon piece. A 1 ½-inch to 3-inch piece of doweling at least ½-inch diameter will work. An empty thread spool makes a good rubber stamp base too. If there are cardboard or Styrofoam egg cartons available, those also work and are the cheapest option. Quite a few can be made from one egg carton. To use the egg carton option, just cut out one whole egg cup for each star or moon rubber stamp.

4. Put white craft glue on the back of the cut out star. Make sure there is enough to hold the pieces together. Attach it to the flat end of the dowel or empty thread spool, or to the closed bottom side of the egg carton cup. Let glue dry completely. Repeat the same process with the cut out crescent moon shape.

5. Use the stamps. Pour some acrylic craft paint into another washed and cleaned meat tray. Dip the rubber stamp into the paint and apply the design wherever it is going to be used, on a card, a picture, a canvas bag, a T-shirt or even as a wall stamp when decorating a room.

Tips & Warnings

• Try testing the dipped star or moon on a piece of paper first to experiment and see how much paint you need to make a nice impression. It may take a few tries to get it right.