RUBBER STAMPING
Find what you need to get started making your own greeting cards and other projects with rubber stamping
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Where To Look
In addition to our usual craft sources like Michael's or Craft Warehouse, we found the following online sites which might interest you:
- Addicted To Rubber Stamps.com lists itself as the world's largest rubber stamp store. More than 1-Million items in stock in over 100 categories from more than 200 companies.
- Rubber Stamp Store claims the lowest prices on the internet for artistic rubber stamps. Thousands of rubber stamps for card making, scrapbooking, and just having fun.
- Got-a-Stamp offers a wide selection of rubber stamps and rubber stamp accessories for the beginner and expert rubber stamper. Has an "idea" page as well as ordering stamps and accessories.
- Impression-Obsession.com offers over 1500 rubber stamps. Nice website, includes a listing of dealers who carry their products. Can order online, too.
Supplies You May Need
Card stock and envelopes
Rubber stamps
Ink pads, pigment or dye based
Colored pens or pencils
Embosser
Embossing powder
More on Supplies
If you're going to make greeting or gift cards, one of your first purchases should be card stock or greeting card stock. You can use plain card stock that comes in white, off-white or other colors, or you can purchase special greeting card kits all ready for you to begin. If you use the card stock, you'll also need a paper cutter and invitation sized envelopes (4 3/8 x 5 3/4 inches). The envelopes can be purchased at an office supply store, craft store or other retailer who carries papers & envelopes. If you're going to make custom gift paper or gift bags, you'll find plain paper & bags from your local craft or variety store. With paper in hand, you can begin looking at stamps. If you're just starting out and not sure if you'll like doing this, pick a theme to begin with, such as birthday or Christmas, and buy a few stamps to fit the theme. You may want to purchase both picture and greeting stamps, but you can also print a greeting, or inside, using your computer and printer. You'll also need to buy ink pads. You can color in the image with colored pencils or pens for visual affect as well. As you get more experience, you can fancy up your cards with special effects like embossing, ribbons and other features. More ideas can be found online or in rubber stamping books, available at your local craft store or library.
Plain or Fancy: More Ideas For Your Projects
Your cards can be pretty simple, a stamped picture on the front which can be left plain or colored in with pens or colored pencils, or you can fancy them up a bit as you get more skilled. One way to make them fancier is to emboss them. Embossing is a technicque which creates a raised edge image on your card. It can be done with special embossing powder applied to the wet ink, then heated with an embossing tool, hot plate or 100-watt bulb. The second method is called dry-embossing, and uses a stencil and stylus to create the raised edge by laying paper over the stencil, then using the stylus to press the shape into the cardstock. Both methods create a nice effect on your finished product.
There are a variety of layered cards that can be made, and you can add many different trims such as ribbons, beads, popups, etc. You can find many great ideas for greeting cards at Bridget's Rubber Stamping home page. She offers nothing for sale here (although she does link to online sources), but has shared at least 3 pages worth of her projects so you can get ideas for making your own.
Enjoy!