Monday, June 25, 2012

101 Ways to use rubber stamps

     Believe it or not, rubber stamps are what led me into jewelry design.  A friend introduced me to them just after college and I very soon began obsessively collecting them.  I still remember my first visit to a real rubber stamp store (not to be confused with the meager stamp selection at the big box craft stores) and the feeling of overwhelmed awe, desire, and agonizing choices.  If you have ever been a beader in a bead store, a seamstress in a fabric store, or a knitter in a yarn shop, I'm sure you get the idea.  My first craft activity with rubber stamps was the old favorite, the greeting card.  Long afternoons I would spend (before children!) experimenting with watercolors, inks, embossing powders, and an ever growing collection of stamps.  Of course, I couldn't just make cards forever, so I started to learn about different ways to use them, which led to my experiments making rubber stamped pendents with polymer clay, which then had to be made into jewelry!  Over the years (16 years since I bought my first rubber stamp!) I have continues to discover new uses for them.  They can be used in scrapbooks, home decor, and stamped on fabric.  I have soldered rubber stamp images in glass for jewelry, and made shrinky dink (or as grown-ups who play with this medium like to call it "shrink art") charm bracelets.  Recently I read about a technique called metal etching using...rubber stamps!  Ok, this I had to try!  Armed with etchant solution, latex gloves, goggles, and my good old rubber stamp collection, I gave in whirl.  The results were pure magic, and I can't wait to make some more!  Perhaps I need a few new rubber stamps as well as I am sure I will find 101 more ways to use them!