Upcycled Life: Eraser stamps

You know when you are cleaning out the drawer of school or office supplies and you find several old eraser nubs? Or petrified erasers on the end of perfectly good pencils?

Using pink eraser bits for art is a slightly more sophisticated version of what I did in elementary school at my desk.

Start by drawing a simple design on your eraser with a pencil.

Using an X-Acto knife or linoleum cutter, remove the areas around your design.

Test the carving by stamping the eraser on an ink pad. Clean up edges or areas you don’t want. Now you have a custom stamp.

Alternatively, use bits of old erasers in the ink. An old pencil eraser gives you a perfect dot, and used eraser nubbins offer great texture. Experiment with repetition and design.

My second-grade self would expertly advise to use markers directly on the eraser instead of ink to get different colors and more detail.

Katie Patterson Larson is the director and founder of Art Salvage. Art Salvage keeps usable materials out of the waste stream and makes them accessible and affordable. For more information, visit artsalvagespokane.com.