WOYWW 51: A stamping tutorial

What's on Your Work desk today? Well, it's Wednesday, so most of my visitors will be stampers. It's no secret I'm not a rubber stamper. I'm not good at it (you have to practice, for one thing), and I don't like wasting money on images you can only use one way. Although several companies now allow digital reproductions of their rubber, some still won't permit any manipulation at all, even though you have paid your hard earned money for their rubber. So, in an attempt to extend the number of my stamps without trying to carve a reverse image, or buy a mirror image stamp, I decided to see if I could do it myself without violating any copyright infringements.

Now I realize, if I want an image reversed, I could stamp on transparencies, but sometimes you don't want a transparency. I'm also pretty sure I am not the first person to come up with this technique, but since I've not seen it before on my limited circle of blogs, I am going to take credit for coming up with it.

Here is what I call "Reverse Stamping."

Supplies from lower left, clockwise:
Card stock or your favorite substrate
Clear blocks used for unmounted rubber
Mouse pad (I got mine last Wednesday at the thrift store)
Rubber stamps, various
Ink, various dye based (Staz-on is probably not a good choice, since it dries so quickly)
Wacky Tac or other repositionable glue of your choice
Rubber gasket material (found at any big box home improvement store)

This package contains two sheets of 6" X 6" X 1/16" (15.24 cm X 15.24 cm X 0.16 cm) red rubber gasket material.

Cover one side of the gasket material using your repositionable glue. Allow to dry overnight.


Affix to the best size clear acrylic block you have for the rubber. Alternately, you may cut your rubber to fit your block size.

Ink your stamp as you normally would. I used lime green vintage ink. I used what I had available, because I wasn't sure this would work, anyway.

I practiced stamping the image using my practice sheet of card stock. This step is optional.

Ink your stamp again.

Stamp onto your rubber gasket that is stuck to your acrylic block.

Remove stamp. Check your image.

Turn your new "rubber stamp" over and stamp onto the card stock.

OOPS. I have a problem here. I didn't get good coverage, but I partly blame that on the fact that I stopped to take photos in between each step and I believe the ink had dried.

Not to be deterred, I tried again. Closer, but no cigar.

Would a stamp that was not as dense work better? Well, I had also forgotten the new mouse pad I wanted to use underneath the card stock. Would that help?

Didn't seem to improve it that much.

I was getting ready to give up when I accidentally stuck the rubber to the plastic container the mouse pad had come in.

So, I stamped the bird again, this time replacing the hard acrylic block with nothing but the plastic sheet to back the rubber.

Although it isn't perfect, I see it can be done. I feel I am getting closer to the result I'm looking for. I might also try using paint instead of dye ink, which will provide better coverage to the stamp and the gasket rubber. I believe if I add the other piece of rubber gasket material that came in the package to the first one, I will get a better impression. Of course, that means adding repositionable glue to the other rubber gasket and waiting for it to dry. If you try this and get this technique to work, please let me know. I'm not disappointed with the results because the reversal technique works as I hoped it would. I just wish I could get a brighter, clearer stamped reverse image.

That's all the experimenting I have time for today. I'm off to visit Julia, who has the links to the other WOYWW participants.

Today's blog is known to many WOYWW participants, but I met Nicks when I taught my beginning altered book class (in which I started my Hands AB). She is so talented, she could have taught the class herself. Her art is fantastic and she doesn't stick to any one medium. She makes me want to get out my paint, inks, gesso, and polymer clay and play. I know you will love her blog, aptly named Nicks Arty Stuff, too. For those of you who are in Tea Tuesday, check out her tea cup she made. Like she said, it may not be functional, but it is gorgeous.