Make Your Mark: Digitally Design & Laser Cut a Rubber Stamp

By Claire Dorsett

Table of Contents

Overview

Create a custom, reusable stamp you can use to personalize your future creations!

Learn the basics of the xTool Creative Space (XCS) software to create a digital stamp design. Then laser engrave it onto rubber and add a simple wooden handle.

Keep in mind that stamps use only a single ink color, meaning you should focus primarily on composition during the design process.

Context

From McDonalds’ golden arches to Nike’s signature swoosh, many of us can recognize hundreds of logos at a glance. This is far from accidental; these symbols were designed to be iconic.

Marketing leverages the science of psychology to influence our emotions and behaviors by combining carefully selected color schemes, fonts, and other graphics to convey a message. Logos must also work in monochrome–black and white or a single color–for contexts like screen printing and stamping.

A well-crafted logo can do more than look pretty! It can tell a story about a brand’s identity, values, and mission.

Activity Steps

1. Research

  • What eye-catching logos can you think of? Make a list.
  • What makes the logos on your list memorable? What do they signify to you?

  • What design elements can you identify? How do these combine to achieve impact?

    • Shape
    • Typography
    • Contrast
    • Composition

2. Ideate

  • Consider what makes you unique. What qualities or values do you hope to convey?

  • It can help to generate a list of words or phrases that describe you or your brand. What design elements might help you achieve this?

3. Analog Design: Sketching!

  • Start by sketching a simple design. This might be a variation of your name, signature, or star sign. It might be an emoji, or a logo for your personal brand. Look for inspiration in things that matter to you, like songs, books, or nature. Less is more here; you don’t need delicate detail.

4. Test & Iterate (optional)

  • Share your draft or design ideas with a friend.

    • What emotions or concepts does your logo evoke for others? Is your messaging coming across clearly?
    • How might you incorporate this feedback to enhance your design?

  • Taking constructive feedback into account, redesign a final draft of your logo.

5. Create Digital Design in XCS

5.1 Open laser cutter software:

  • xTool’s free Creative Space (XCS software) is downloadable here.

5.2 Select material

  • Materials appearing in the drop-down menu will automatically populate xTool’s recommended settings for score/engrave/cut processes. However, if you’re using laser-safe stamp rubber, you will likely need to select “user-defined material.” That’s all for now! We will measure the distance during a later step when we prepare the machine itself.

5.3 Draw image

  • Use a combination of text, shapes, and vectors to translate your idea into the digital world. Don’t worry about size yet; just focus on composition.

  • Useful tools:

    • Outline: Select your desired offset in millimeters. A positive number will give an outline larger than the original object. A negative number will give an outline smaller than the original object.
    • Array: Create a gridded or circular pattern of an object.
    • Group: Combine multiple objects or design elements to easily move or resize them all at once.
    • Align: Control the positions of objects relative to one another. Useful for centering things.
    • Combine: Unite or subtract objects to create a visually layered effect.
    • Reflect: Flip an object horizontally or vertically.

5.4 Resize object

  • Once you’re happy with your composition, group all objects together so you can manipulate them as a single unit. (Select all objects > right click > group).

  • Resize by selecting the design and entering a value in millimeters into the “size” box. You can adjust the width (W) or height (H). By default, the width-to-height ratio will be locked to prevent distortions; click the padlock icon to unlock this if needed.

5.5 Add a bounding box

  • To avoid wasting material, we want to make the outer margin as small as possible. There are a few ways to do this.

    • Option 1: Use a simple geometric shape from the shape library.

    • Option 2: Use the outline tool. Click “outline” and enter your desired offset. If your design has text or a lot of small details, make sure this margin is large enough to keep them all connected.

    • Option 3: Draw your own outline using vector lines.

5.6 Format for engraving

  • Select both the object and bounding box.
  • Select combine > subtract at overlap. The design and bounding box will now be joined as a single unit. -With the design selected, choose “engrave” as your processing type in the object setting menu.

  • Enter manual settings:

    • Power: 80
    • Speed: 80
    • Pass: 2
    • Lines per cm: 100-120
  • You may want to run some tests to dial this in for your machine and use case, but we’ve found these work well for stamps roughly three - five centimeters in size.

5.7 Add cut outline

  • We don’t just want to engrave our stamp designs - we also want to cut them out! To do this, we’ll need to add another outline, this time slightly smaller than the design’s outer perimeter.

    1. Select the object.
    2. Uncheck “add inner line for bitmap.”
    3. Input a NEGATIVE offset distance: -0.1mm
    4. Move this new outline to a new layer.
    5. With the outline selected (which it should be if you haven’t clicked elsewhere yet), click “move to” in the layers menu and choose a new color.

5.8 Format for cutting

  • Choose your outline layer from the layers menu.

  • Under processing type, choose “cut.” Enter manual settings:

    • Power: 100
    • Speed: 20
    • Pass: 3

5.9 Reflect image

  • This is arguably your most important step! Stamps create mirrored images of the designs on their faces. That means you need to engrave your original design backwards onto the rubber.
  1. Select all elements of your design (object and cut outline).
  2. Choose “reflect” > “reflect horizontally” from the top menu.
  • All done! You’re ready to cut! Don’t forget to save your file for future use.

6. Laser Cut Stamp Face

6.1 Connect laser cutter

  • Turn on the laser cutter and connect it to the computer via USB.
  • Click “connect device” and select the appropriate machine.
  • Load stock material:
    1. Open laser cutter lid and place stock onto honeycomb.
    2. Manually drag laser head over center of stock.
    3. Close lid.

6.2 Auto-focus

  1. Click auto-focus button (this looks like a crosshair symbol next to the distance box).
  2. Wait for machine to focus.
  3. Open lid.
  4. Manually drag laser head to desired position on stock. The red cross will act as a reference point, also appearing in the XCS software.

6.3 Check framing

  • In XCS software, position your design files as desired relative to the red cross.
  • Select “framing.” When instructed, press the button on the machine. (This can be done with the machine lid open - there is no laser running during framing.) The laser head will move to map the outer perimeter of the design’s processing area. If this does not fit on the stock or overlaps a previous cut, manually adjust the stock or digitally adjust the design’s position.

6.4 Run the job

  • Click “process” in XCS, followed by the button on the machine when instructed to do so. Important: Never leave the machine unattended while it is running!

6.5 Remove finished pieces

  1. Gently check to make sure all pieces cut through. If they haven’t quite released, you can close the lid and run another cut pass. (Toggle the layer with the engraved design to “ignore” first.)
  2. Remove workpieces and scrap stock from machine bed.
  3. Close lid.
  • Post-process rubber pieces
  • Use a damp cloth, sponge, or toothbrush to gently rub away soot.

7. Design Wooden Handle

7.1 Configure material settings

  • The simplest handles are simple engravings on flat stock. 3mm plywood works nicely. Choose your material from the drop-down menu.

7.2 Turn off your original cut outline

  • Toggle its layer to “ignore” under object settings.

7.3 Create a new border around your original design

  • Geometric shapes are easy and elegant, but you can also apply an outline slightly larger than the original design if you prefer.
  • Move this new outline to a new layer.

7.4 Apply cut settings to border

  • With the border layer selected, toggle processing type to “cut.” If you’ve chosen your stock material from the drop-down menu, the appropriate power and speed settings should automatically populate.

7.5 Format design treatment

  • Select the original design and toggle processing type to either “engrave” or “score.” This is a matter of personal preference. (Scoring takes much less machine time, if this is a factor.)

7.6 Reflect (again)

  • This time, you want to make sure your design is facing the correct way. Since we reflected it previously, you’ll now want to reflect it again to reverse that.

7.7 Run job

  • Place handle stock onto machine bed.
  • Auto-focus.
  • Frame as needed.
  • Process.
  • Remove finished piece and scrap stock from bed.

8. Assemble

Center your rubber stamp on the bottom of the block and glue in place. Ensure that “up” is the same direction on both the face and handle. Wait for the glue to dry, and you’re ready to go!

9. Test and Evaluate

Get to stamping! Try several different colors of ink. How does the ink color affect how your logo is perceived by others? Reflect & Extend How might you use this logo and your brand identity to develop brand recognition? What kinds of marketing might you do? Consider ethical questions relevant to branding and logo design, such as cultural appropriation, and misrepresentation. How does corporate branding influence people’s societal values?