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Whether you’ve lost your blending stump or you just want to try one for the first time, making your own one is shockingly easy, and it works virtually as well as any store-bought blending stump.
To make your own blending stump at home, you need regular paper, tape, a scissors, and a craft knife/sharp blade. The process takes only 5 minutes and is very easy to do.
Here's How to Make a Homemade Blending Stump
(Note: Adult supervision is needed because of the use of the blade and scissors!)
Materials list:
- A sheet of regular paper (I use an A4 size sheet, but others will be fine)
- Regular tape
- A scissors
- A craft knife/stanley knife/sharp blade
Step 1: Rolling up the paper
The first, and most important step is to roll up the paper as tightly as you can.
Before you start rolling, have a few pieces of tape torn off and stuck to your desk (trust me, they’ll come in handy).
Start out at a corner of the sheet and roll it by tightly pushing your finger over it until it rolls together with virtually no space in between.
Continue rolling, without taking your fingers away or reducing pressure, until you have a roll of paper a little thicker than a pencil.
If you let go by accident, and it loosens, you should start again (don’t worry, it only takes a minute and will save you headaches in the future).
Once it’s the right thickness, pick it up off the desk (making sure not to lose the tightness).
With your other hand, grab a piece of tape from your desk and tape it along its length (see the second image).
Now you can relax, the hard part is over!
Step 2: Find the hard spot
Press down along the roll of paper until you find the hardest spot.
It is usually somewhere in the middle.
Once it’s found, cut at its location with a scissors.
The reason you want to find the hard spot is because this will be the tip of your DIY stump, so it needs to be the hardest, and have the most rolls of paper.
If you cut somewhere that’s not completely hard, you end up with a loose, pointless blending stump that will easily come apart as soon as you use it.
Step 3: Sharpen your stump
Adult supervision is needed for this step.
Using your craft knife, start around half an inch from the top (see image).
You want to push the dull side of the blade with your thumb (see image).
Always make sure your hand is not in the way of the path of the blade (think “If the blade slipped, would it hit my hand?” and always make sure the answer is no!)
Rotate the stump and sharpen the same way.
Repeat this until you have a nice, sharpened blending stump.
Once you’re happy with the shape of the tip, get your scissors and cut the other end to leave yourself with a blending stump about the length of a pencil.
And you're done!
It’s surprising just how well these work with blending!
And the great thing about them is you can make them as thick or as thin as you want.
To sharpen them if they get too dull, you just have to use the same method from the last step.
Making these is such a fun and useful art hack to know!
Have fun!
