Archive for the ‘Rubber Stamping’ Category

Homemade 4th of July Luminaries

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
4th of July Luminaries

4th of July Luminaries

Happy 4th of July to you!

Here’s a fast and easy 4th of July craft project.  It literally took me minutes to make these cute 4th of July luminaries.  They are great if you are having a party or BBQ and want some fun and easy decorations.  They are so easy that they make a great kids craft, too.  In fact, it’s something the kids could do during the day on the 4th of July for a craft project to keep them busy and entertained.  Then  they can help you add candles (or LED lights) to light up the luminaries when it gets dark.  But the luminaries are still  fun and festive decorations during the daytime too!

If you’re a scrapbooker, rubber stamper or paper crafter, you probably already have everything you need already. (more…)

Handmade Halloween Greeting Card

Sunday, October 19th, 2008

Handmade Halloween Card
It’s an easy handmade halloween card to make!

 

This is an easy card to make – even for those of you who haven’t made a handmade card before.  In just 10 easy steps, your card is complete!

 Supplies:

White or Black Cardstock or Blank Greeting Card

Black Paper (if use white cardstock)

Orange Paper

Black Ink Pad

Halloween Image

“Paper Shapers” Decorative Scissors – Deckle Edge

Adhesive (double-stick tape, glue or glue stick)

Optional: Dimensional Adhesive Foam Squares  

Optional: Halloween rubber stamp (called “Fred-a-Scare”)

 

Instructions:

  1. Get a white or black pre-made blank greeting card at a craft store or make your own by folding a piece of cardstock in half and cutting off the excess paper to make it the size of a greeting card.
  2. If your card is white, adhere black paper to the front of the card and trim away the excess black paper.  Double stick tape is the fastest, easiest method to use for attaching the paper to the front of the card, but glue or glue sticks also work well.
  3. With a piece of orange paper, tear out (rather than cut) a piece that will fit inside the boundaries of the greeting card so the card will frame the orange paper (see picture).
  4. Crumple the piece of orange paper and then unfold it again, but don’t flatten it completely.
  5. Take a black ink pad a gently rub it over the ridges created by crumpling the paper, as well as the torn edges.  Only the raised ridges will have ink on them (see picture). 
  6. Adhere this “distressed” looking piece of paper to the front of your card.  I sparingly used dimensional adhesive so that the paper would be partially raised from the black surface of the card to give it dimension and interest (see picture, although it is kind of difficult to see it).  If you are using regular tape, you can create your own dimensional adhesive by wadding up a small ball of tape to create dimension.  Use this “ball” of tape to apply the orange paper.  Ultimately, you can apply the orange paper in any way that works for you.
  7. Find a Halloween image you want to place in the center of the card.  You could use a free clip art image, a rubber stamp, or a scrapbooking embellishment, for example.  For this card, I used a rubber stamp to create the skeleton on the white cardstock.
  8. Trim the Halloween image using decorative-edged scissor called “Paper Shapers.”
  9. Rub the black ink pad along the edges of the Halloween image to blacken the edges (see picture).  You can also randomly rub the very edge of the black ink pad across the Halloween image itself to also give it a “distressed” look.
  10. Apply the Halloween image in the same way you applied the orange paper.

THAT’S IT!  You’re done! 

Happy Halloween crafting everyone. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rubber Stamps – For More Than Just Paper Crafts

Thursday, May 25th, 2006

I love rubber stamps! One of the things I love most about them is that you can use them in so many different types of crafts. So, in addition to all the cool things you can do with them on paper – embossing, layering images, powder pigments, resist ink techniques, and so on – you can incorporate them into other crafts as well.Maybe you never thought rubber stamps were for you…and maybe you spoke to soon. :-)

Here’s a list of some of the other types of crafts you can use rubber stamps with:

 

 

  • Soap Making – Place an unmounted rubber stamp face up in your soap mold to create an indented image of the rubber stamp on the soap. Once the soap has cooled, you simply peel off the stamp. It’s so easy! (FYI – you can easily unmount any wood-mounted rubber stamp. Contact me for details.)
  • Candle Making / Decorating – Heat the side of a pre-made candle with a heat gun and while the wax is soft, press the rubber stamp into the candle. Once the wax has cooled, you can highlight the image by rubbing ink or paint across the surface of the candle to highlight the image. The ink makes the raised part stand out from the depressed areas created by the rubber stamp.
  • Woodburning – Rubber stamp the wood and then go over the image with a wood burning tool. It is like having a free woodburing pattern!
  • Wood – You don’t even need to woodburn the rubber stamped image if you don’t want to…just stamp it with ink and you’re done!
  • Glass – Use permenant inks to rubber stamp directly onto glass. I customized a wall mirror this way.
  • Etched Glass - Did you know you can emboss a rubber stamp image on etched glass with embossing powders? It is really cool!
  • Clay – Whether you are using Polymer Clay, Paper Clay or Air Dry Clay (like DELIGHT Air Dry Clay), you can use your rubber stamps to create some amazing effects and cool projects.
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  • Gourds - You can rubber stamp directly onto a gourd. I’ve even seen embossed rubber stamp images with embossing powder done on gourds. (FYI – it did need to be sealed so the embossing powder didn’t chip off.)
  • Fabric / Leather – I’ve see some really cool things done with rubber stamps on fabrics and leather. It’s also a fun kids craft. I’ve rubber stamped on t-shirts with kids and it was a big hit!
  • Metal (like Copper Metal Quilting Sheet) – If you don’t know what a Copper Metal Quilting Sheet is, just think of a sheet of copper rolled out thin like a sheet of heavy cardstock. Super thin, super flexible – you can easily cut through it with scissors. Permenant inks and rubber stamps work great on metal!
  • Friendly Plastic – Simply heat up your Friendly Plastic and press an inked stamp into it for a cool effect.
  • Shrink Plastic – You can make so many things with shrink plastic and to be able to rubber stamp on it makes it even better.
  • Cookies – It’s not a typo! Yes, you can even rubber stamp in food coloring on a nice, flat sugar cookie. (Contact me for details because you want to make sure everything is sanitary.)

Do you see why I LOVE rubber stamps so much?!?! There is so much versatility with stamps. Rubber stamping on paper is great, but I enjoy being able to branch out and try different things whenever inspiration comes. So, whether you didn’t know how versatile those rubber stamps of yours were, or whether you knew but had temporarily forgotten, I hope this inspires you to do something creative.

Happy crafting,

Artfully AJ

PS – I’d love to here what you’ve used rubber stamps on…just comment on this post!