Hi Ellen,
If you want actual stamps, use rubber or foam. Rubber and foam want to transfer the ink, and you can use dye or pigment stamp pads. Wood does not really want to transfer the ink, and will not work well with a stamp pad.
For woodblocks, I print face up. this means the inked blocks are face up on my table, and I lay the paper on top and rub the back with a wooden spoon until the ink has transferred. The ink I use is made for this; it’s somewhat sticky, and transfers to the paper with pressure. (Good choices: speedball permanent fabric block printing ink ($), or Cranfield Safe Wash relief ink ($$$)).
For stamps, this stuff is great:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017IHVSLM
you can cut and engrave it and then stick it to this stuff to make it into a cling stamp (you should be able to find the EZ Mount cheaper somewhere, but on Amazon you have to get 10 sheets of it):
https://www.amazon.com/Crafters-Companion-EZMOUNT02-10Mount-Mounting-10-Count/dp/B0070GIDA6/
For the orange rubber:
Engrave Speed: 310 | Power: 93 | LPI:450 | One Pass
Cut Speed 130 | Power Full
Here’s a great blog post about it: Mastering Rubber Stamps on the Glowforge - Danielle Wethington
I think the EZ Mount is not laserable material. I looked into it once, and I don’t remember what evil substance was in there, but I do remember I decided to snip it out with my scissors.
Definitely make stamps. It’s SO much fun.
I also made some chunky foam stamps to use with acrylic paint. Here’s my post about it. Also SO much fun.
Not that the wood ones are not fun, you understand, but they are not stamps per say.