Hello! Hello! Hello! We’re in the middle of this crazy thing called summer, but it’s a beautiful day here on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Today I have a card using the Serene Silhouettes Stamp Set from Stampin’ Up.
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Scrapbooking, Card Making, Cricut Projects, and Crafts
Hello! Hello! Hello! We’re in the middle of this crazy thing called summer, but it’s a beautiful day here on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Today I have a card using the Serene Silhouettes Stamp Set from Stampin’ Up.
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Most of my projects lately have been more advanced, but today I’m going to share an Easy Butterfly Note Card. This project takes only a few supplies and is perfect if you are Learning to Make Handmade Cards.
And you’re done! That’s all! You can use this basic card pattern to create cards for all occasions.
Making note cards is even easier when you buy matching blank cards and envelopes.
If you’re just getting started with making cards, I hope you will give this card layout a try. Also visit Learning To Make Handmade Cards for more information.
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This sponging and Masking Technique makes gorgeous backgrounds for handmade cards. You can try different color combinations to get different types of scenes like water, fields, and sunsets. This handmade card has a sunshine background with a silhouette stamped in black. The contrast of the black against the bright orange and yellow is very striking!
Craft rubber stamps for card making come in every shape and for every occasion you can imagine. The most common use of craft rubberstamps is for making handmade cards, but they are also used for other paper crafting projects and can be used for texturing polymer clay or stamping on nonporous surfaces like metal, glass, and plastic.
Rubber stamps can add a decorative touch or provide words or sentiments to a project. For every holiday, season, celebration, and occasion there are rubber stamps for making a fun craft.
I have been rubber stamping for over ten years. I have quite a collection of shaped rubber stamps and also sentiment rubber stamps that I love to use. I make cards, party favors, scrapbook pages, and other paper crafts.
One of my favorite places to go to learn about Rubber stamping techniques is Lindsay the Frugal Crafter on YouTube. Her videos are so informative. She gives wonderful tips!
The first thing you need to understand about how to use rubber stamps is all of the different names for them. Rubber stamps is a generic for any type of stamp that you use for crafting. Just like all tissues are called Kleenex, all types of stamps are called rubber stamps even though they may be wood mounted, clear acrylic, foam, or digital.
Wood mounted stamps are the original rubber stamps. They are made from rubber and mounted onto a block of wood so that you can hold them. There is usually a layer of foam between the rubber and the wood so that you can get a nice crisp image.
Polymer stamps stick to acrylic blocks without the use of adhesive. This type of stamp is very popular, because you can see through them and see where you are stamping. They are great for sentiments and two part stamps that require precise placement.
There are two types of foam stamps. You can buy inexpensive foam stamps for crafting projects. They are usually pretty thick, and the images are large simple shapes. They are wonderful for using with craft paints. The large chunky shapes are great for kids to work with. You can stamp shapes on T-Shirts, Tote Bags, flower pots, wood, and much more. The other type of foam stamps are smaller and are for card making a paper crafting. They are more detailed and cling to clear acrylic blocks. They can either be shapes or sentiments.
Digital stamps or digis are very popular with tech savvy crafters. You purchase them online from the designer and download them to your computer just like you would a photo or other file. With the growth of technology, websites and blogs now offer a huge variety of these stamps. You send payment by credit card or Paypal, and download the images you purchase are emailed to you or you download them. The advantage is that they are inexpensive, take up no storage space, and they can be resized to fit your project. The designers often have a design team to showcase projects using their digis to help inspire you. Many websites offer free digis.
Rubber Stamps have been around for years, but with the boom in the scrapbooking and papercrafting industry in the 1990’s, stamps have become very popular for card making. There are stamping conventions in major cities and craft stores have a good selection. They can be purchased from tons of online stores, Amazon, and Ebay.
Amazon and Ebay have a huge selection of stamping supplies for card making, with very competitive prices. Ebay also sells used rubberstamps, which are wonderful for beginners or adding to your collection.
Craft stores is another outlet for purchasing craft rubber stamps. I do not recommend buying inexpensive products that are often offered in big box stores. The rubber is not deeply etched, and you end up with a lot of ink around your impression. Oftentimes, they don’t leave a good imprint.
Home party businesses like Stampin’ Up and Close To My Heart are a great way to purchase products and to learn about rubber stamping. Consultants have lots of ideas and can help you select the correct supplies for your projects.
Ink Pads can be purchased wherever craft rubber stamps are sold. For good results, purchase good quality stamp pads. There are tons of different types of inks. To get started, choose a water base or dye ink. It is the most popular and generally comes in the most colors. If you are using a stamp that needs to be colored, like the angel in this card, use black ink. I like Tuxedo from Momento for a good quality black ink.
There are many ways to color stamps. I used brush tip markers to color the image of this pretty garden angel. Water color pencils and blending pens is another way to color images. For soft colors, you can use chalks or ink and a water brush.
For beginners, I recommend a set of brush markers in a wide variety of colors. They are wonderful for coloring images, but you can also color directly to the stamp instead of using an ink pad. If the stamp is large or if you are coloring it more than one color, you will need to “huff” on it before stamping. Huffing is putting it to your mouth and breathing on it. It helps to rewet the ink, so that you get a nice image. Many marker sets come with a brush tip on one end and a thin tip on the other end that you can use for coloring small areas or for writing.
Home party businesses like Stampin’ Up and Close To My Heart are an excellent way to learn about stamping supplies. Consultants hold workshops to teach you how to use supplies and can help you select the correct materials.
First let me say…..I have been stamping for over 10 years, and I still don’t always get a good impression on the first try! Be patient. You may be a natural, or it may take you some time to get the hang of it.
When learning how to use rubber stamps, it is important to learn how to properly clean them so they will last a long time and produce good results.
If you are using dye ink, rubber stamps are very easy to clean. You can purchase spray stamp cleaner and a cleaning pad or stamp scrubber. It has a velour type texture which helps get into the grooves of the stamp. You spray the cleaner on one side, rub your stamp across it until the ink comes off, then rub it on the other side to dry the stamp.
Some people use baby wipes to clean their stamps. This works well especially with light colors of ink or as a temporary cleaning until you can clean them properly. Do not use the type of baby wipes that have lotion in them though, and do not use Clorox wipes.
You can purchase a large cellulose sponge to keep on your work table. Rubbing a stamp across it makes for quick clean up.
Some manufacturers make roll on or spray stamp cleaners that work well too. Whichever you choose, you want to make sure you get the ink out of the crevices. Most craft rubber stamps will eventually become stained if they are used often. This is only cosmetic and does not effect the quality of the image.
I hope these tips help you get started. I can’t wait to hear about your rubberstamped projects! Sign up for my newsletter for lots of crafty information!
I love how this Stampin’ Up Butterfly and Washi Tape Card came together.
I have a confession to make. Can you believe that this is the first time I’ve used Washi Tape? Yeah….I know you’re shocked!
The challenge this week at Loves Rubberstamps is to use Washi Tape, so I figured this was the perfect time to give it a try! I saw a sketch on Paper Smooches that uses it, and it gave me a jump start with an idea.
First thing I had to do was find some washi tape. I only have a few rolls, and it was all Christmas. Fortunately, my Mom is a Stampin’ Up rep, and she had Stampin’ Up Washi Tape. Of course, she had cardstock to match, so I was set!
The base for this card is light blue, but you can’t tell in the picture. I added a rectangle of Calypso Coral and punched the bottom edge with a Martha Stewart Border Punch. Then I added the washi tape, and stamped the sentiment in Soft Suede.
I stamped the houndstooth butterfly on off white paper and punched it with a Stampin’ Up Butterfly punch. I attached it used one glue dot in the center of the body so that I could fold the wings up slightly. I added copper colored adhesive pearls to the butterfly’s body for a little extra pizazz.
I can see that washi tape could be totally addictive! I might have to get some more.
Do you have any crafting supplies or techniques that you haven’t tried yet that you want to try?
I’ve seen so many projects using the Hexagon Hives Thinlit Die from Stampin’ Up, so I just had to try it out! I thought it would make a cool background for this cute Valentine Hedgehog by Penny Black.
My mom is a Stampin’ Up demonstrator and had the thinlit die. It’s so nice having friends and family with lots of supplies who are willing to share. I love how this background turned out!
Penny Black rubberstamps are one of my all time favorites! There are so many sweet critters, including lots of cute hedgehogs.
I used the Thinlet Die and the Cuttlebug to cut the floral paper. Then I cut a solid rectangle the same size out of the striped paper so that you can see both patterns. I stamped the image and colored it with Copic Markers. To finish the card, I added a seam binding ribbon and bow and Stickles glitter glue to the heart balloons. I love seam binding from Stampin’ Up. It is so easy to work with. You can easily tie bows, knows, or gather it for borders and trim.
If you would like to see more Valentine’s Day projects, visit Handmade Valentine’s Cards Ideas.
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