Basic Rubber Stamp Techniques
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Simple materials and techniques can be combined in an endless variety of ways. Your cards will be unique and expressive, even if you're a beginning rubber stamper.
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Supplies and Getting Started Simple techniques for making cards and custom papers. To begin learning how to stamp, you'll need a few rubber stamps, a waterproof black dye ink pad, (such as Memories) white or light colored card stock, pre-made card sets or card stock and envelopes, double-stick tape or a glue stick, cotton swabs or a Dove Blender and a coloring medium. (This could be Decorator Chalks, watercolor pencils, markers or multi-color ink palettes) You'll notice other incidental materials in the instructions below - many of these things you will probably already have around the house. So, let's get started.... |
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Lay the stamp on its back and lightly tap the stamp pad on the face. The repeated tapping will keep the texture of the stamp pad from printing on your paper. When you can see that the design is completely inked, you're ready to stamp. |
Turn the stamp over and press it into place where you want the design to be. Don't rock the stamp back and forth - if it's a large stamp, press all over the back of the stamp in a straight-down motion. Lift the stamp straight up - make sure that all areas printed evenly. |
Let the ink dry - some inks will take 10-20 minutes and some will be instantly ready to watercolor without bleeding or blurring. Use one of the applicators or cotton swabs to apply the Decorator Chalks, building up the color to the intensity that you want to have. |
If you don't have a Dove Blender pen, which is a fabulous coloring tool, you can make a blending solution of 1 part alcohol and 2 parts water. Dampen a cotton swab or brush and use it to pick up color from the chalks - this will give you darker colors than brushing on the dry pigments. |
Another use for the dampened cotton swabs - dab them onto your marker tips to pick up color and then apply them to your stamped image. You can continue to build up color as long as you're not too tough on the paper or card stock that you're working on. |
For darker colors with your markers, moisten an area with the damp swabs, then apply color directly to your stamped image wherever you want the color to be darkest. Use the swab to pull the color into nearby areas. You'll get a 3-D effect from the darks & lights. |
Again, the damp cotton swabs or Dove Blender pen - use them to pick up color from your multi-color ink palettes. The colors in multipalettes are made to go well together, so if you use one palette to color your image, the finished product will be harmonious. |
 Or, color your image with watercolor pencils and then use dampened cotton swabs or a brush to spread the colors around. This blends the colors and fixes them into the paper. You can color the dried paper again, for more intense colors. Use a mix of water and alcohol to speed drying time. |
 Try this - hold a Shapelets template over your stamped image and color only within the template - move the template around to "spotlight" different areas on the image. Or stamp the image twice, using the template to cut out several areas - color and layer with foam tape for dimension. |
 When your image is colored to your liking, trim it to a good card front size with scissors or fancy paper shapers. Add any embellishments that you might want - ribbon, glitter, brads, eyelets, etc. - then apply glue or double-stick tape to the back and layer onto a prepared card. |
You might want to add more layers of paper to your stamped image, or combine two layered stamped images onto the same prepared card. You can punch the card stock to allow underlying colors to peek through to the front of the card, too. No rules - it's your card. |
Here is a piece of "clear" vellum with the image stamped on the top and the colors applied with brush markers to the back side of the image. Clear vellum is great for soft images and coloring on the back mutes the colors, helping to make this a low-key, feminine card. |
 Embossing is easy. You can also choose to use pigment ink (Crafter's, for instance) and clear embossing powder to make your image ready to color. Tap the ink pad lightly on the face of the stamp until the image is completely inked, then stamp straight down onto your card stock. |
 Sprinkle the image with fine (detail) clear embossing powder and shake the card slightly so that the powder sticks to all the inked areas. Tap the excess off onto a piece of scrap paper or a Tidy Tray and use a soft brush to whisk away stray granules and dust. |
 Hold a heat embossing tool a few inches from the card - watch as the powder melts. Alternately, you can hold the card over a low-wattage light bulb or the face of a clothes iron to melt the powder. The image will become dark and shiny. |
 Don't heat for too long or the embossing powder will cook flat into the paper. When the paper is cool, your image is ready to color in any way that you choose - the design lines will be raised to contain wet media pretty well. |
 Perfect Medium Tricks - Even though it's nearly colorless, Perfect Medium will stain your paper a bit darker, creating a watermark effect. Heat set with your embossing heat tool or light bulb or let dry overnight. This makes beautiful backgrounds and papers for layering. |
 Another use for Perfect Medium is called "Chalk Pop" - stamp your image with Perfect Medium clear, then pick up color from your Decorator Chalks with a dry cotton ball and pounce it over the stamped area. Misty, watercolor-y look. Heat set to keep the chalks from smearing. |
 Here is the same method used to apply PearlEx, Powdered Pearls or Perfect Pearls powders to the stamped design. Perfect Medium also works very well as an embossing ink with even the large granules of thick embossing enamel. |
Making your own custom prints for paper art projects is easy and fun. You can create papers that are elegant, whimsical, cute or fun - all to suit your specific project. If you're stumped for ideas, feel free to post questions on the PCE bulletin board. And there are probably thousands of stamping tutorials, tip sheets, friendly forums and mailing lists out there on the web - the variety of techniques and materials available is amazing. Have a good time with it! |
All stamps used are from The Angel Company
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