Hello my dear crafty friends and welcome to my monthly post!
Irit is here and this time I am going to show you how to turn your no-longer-loved rubber stamps into wonderfully new and unique background stamps.
Stampers frequently buy red rubber unmounted stamps as a part of our frugal trend (so we can buy more stamps). We mount them on cling mounting foam and cut them around by hand; and we all get tons of red cling rubber leftovers that usually go to the trash. So why not try to recycle those bits and pieces and to make our own mosaic background stamps?
[Tweet “recycle red rubber to make your own mosaic background stamps #crafts #stamping”]
Supply list:
Stamp: Rubber Dance
Red rubber: Rubber Dance
Inks: Clearsnap, Ranger
Embossing powders: Clearsnap
Cardstock: Recollections
Mist: Ranger
Color blender: Clearsnap
Instructions:
1. Find a piece of clear acrylic plate that is over 6″ x 6” size. It can be a thin piece like a page of acrylic album; but as you understand it will be a permanent base for your new background stamp, so find a piece you don’t need for your future craft adventures.
2. Cut the bigger leftovers in more or less rectangle or triangle shapes and begin to arrange them in this 6″ x 6” pattern. It takes time, but then it stays over the clear surface forever and can be used again and again. Lucky me designs for Rubber Dance stamp company and I always have lots of those leftovers.
3. Now put your new stamp aside and stamp your image over the cardstock. As a heat embossing addict I always try to make the heat embossed image for the sharp look and good resist to colors later. So I used Crafter’s Night ink
and then Clearsnap Clear embossing powder with this collage and here is how it looks after this step.
4. Make your mask by stamping the very same image over a piece of a cardstock with permanent ink; the permanent ink just reduces the dry or wait time. You can hand cut the image and adhere it over the first, heat embossed one, with re-positionable glue.
5. Ink the red side of your self-made stamp with any clear embossing ink. Stamp over the masked image; you can see the backside of your stamp right now with this grey cling surface. Heat emboss your stamped background with white embossing powder.
6. Peel the mask and ink the embossed surface around with
Crafter’s Aquamarine ink using the color blender and then ink over the image with
Sunshine Crafter’s ink. Wipe the embossed surface with a baby wipe and let it dry. Add a few small drops of the same color mist and arrange the trimmed piece over the background cardstock. I actually used the cardstock that was under my stamped piece during the inking stage; it’s ‘frugal me’ again , which is a direct result of living very far away from the major craft shops.
And here is the finished piece:
As you can see this background stamping is not perfect: but who cares? It’s our own background and it can be imperfect and different each time we use this stamp.
Products used in this project:
Irit, what a great idea! Thank you for sharing this with us. The best part is that we can do this with several techniques. Great!!! A big hug!!!
What a great idea to repurpose those old stamps! I need to try this!
Great project, Irit!
Thank you for the great project!
Great project Irit! Thanks so much for sharing!!!
WOW Irit! What a fabulous idea! I will start saving my red rubber stamp leftovers from now on!
xxDaniella
Greetings,
I love making a “tool” out of throw away stuff………saves me money, I have different stuff than other artists and I can create unique art with my custom stamp. GREAT idea.
Love and light,
Michele
What a fabulous idea – I have so many old stamps that I was going to get rid of, but now I have another plan for them!
Thank you all for your lovely comments