DIY Rubber Stamp

I can't believe that I never blogged about this...It's my moose stamp that I made myself months and months and months ago...Last Christmas (2010) I fell in love with this moose paper punch that I can no longer find on the Paper Source website. I hope they didn't discontinue my sweetie...Anyway, two examples of Moosie are down there. I made a lovely lady walking her moose and kraft gift tags for that year.

The only bummer about the moose punch was that it was so tiny...I needed a bigger one.  Paper Source at the time was holding a lovely "make your own rubber stamp" class. I think I was in the middle of IVF treatments and I needed an escape, so onto the class I went.

In order to make your own rubber stamp, this is a great kit. You can get all of the components at Michael's by themselves, but for the DIY Rubber Stamp virgins, this is great. 

Decide what you'd like to make. Remember that whatever image you use, it will be opposite once you stamp with it...so if you're using text (for example) make a mirror image of it in Word or Photoshop. The kit includes tracing paper, trace your design onto it...

Then put the tracing paper onto the rubber and rub the design onto the rubber. The lead from your pencil (oh yeah, you need to use one of those) will rub off.

Use the scrapers to cut away the negative space. There are two different sized scrapers in the kit, a smaller one for more detailed work and a bigger one that acts like a shovel for the larger spots.  

Test out the stamp to see where you need to get rid of more negative space. You can see on here that I had lots to go on this test shot. Oops!

Voila! It's a moose!!!!!

Envelope Lining With Love

I have a thing about envelopes. They are the first impression that someone has of your event, or of you. So why not make them fabulous?  It takes less than three minutes to line an envelope and add a little bit of class to your notes.

Supply List (very similar to yesterday's)

• Envelope Lining Template Kit
• Clearsnap ColorBox Pigment Inkpad
• ColorBox Fluid Chalk Ink Pad 
• Heat embossing tool
• Pen or Pencil
• Pretty paper, I used Stardream Silver text weight
• Self Healing cutting mat
• Exacto Knife or Scissors
• Scotch Pink Advanced Tape Glider
• Rubber Stamps
• Bone Folder

OK, enough about that...Here's another...

Pictorial Tutorial-Envelope Lining

Gather your supplies...Place your liner on the paper that you are going to use and trace it...

Take your stamps and stamp them onto the paper before you cut out the liner. It's so much easier to do it this way...

If you used the ColorBox with the clear top and black bottom (slow drying pigment), you'll need to heat dry it with your heat tool. If you don't, it will NEVER EVER DRY. Seriously, you can leave it for a week and it will still be wet, especially on the Stardream paper, which has a coating on it. If you use a chalk ink or an ink specially formulated for vellum (like a Brilliance Ink Pad) then it should be fine. 

Cut out the liner once the ink is dry and stick it into your envelope.  I always fold over the flap before I tape it down to make sure that I have the correct placement. 

Use your tape gun and make a triangle on the liner and then stick it to the flap.

OMG!  Wasn't that super easy????  So fun!

For this project I used regular paper, but in my other projects I've used Japanese paper, lokta paper, regular wrapping paper and even tissue paper.  The only thing that I've ever found that hasn't worked out so well is card stock or cover weight. It's just too thick to fold nicely. 

Tomorrow I'm going to make cards to go inside the envelopes. I made some other Valentines but I don't like them, so I'm going to switch it up...See you then!