Day 337: Cleaning Badly Stained Stamps with StazOn Stamp Cleaner and Remounting with Jim Stephan's Stamp Cushion

I attended a first Sunday flea market today and found a lady who was clearing out some of her unwanted stamps.  Several of them were like new, but one was a "K" initial, and even though it was badly stained, I decided to buy it. When I got home, I realized that not only was it badly stained, but there was no cushion underneath it.  I decided I would take the image off the wood block to clean it and then add new cushion. I saturated the rubber with StazOn stamp cleaner, let it sit for a few minutes, and then used an alcohol wipe to clean the ink off.  I did that three or four times before the image was clean.

(You can buy alcohol wipes in a convenient container at most local pharmacies; I love them for cleaning ink off my hands or the acrylic stamping square that goes with my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig. You really should not use alcohol to clean your stamps, but this one was so badly stained, a little alcohol wasn't going to ruin it.  I was mainly using the wipe to help remove the StazOn cleaner and the old ink.)

After that I used some cushion from Jim Stephan's Rubber Art Ink Stamps Store (ebay) to remount the stamp. If you are looking for cushion to mount stamps, I highly recommend Jim's.  He makes his own, it is black, with adhesive on both sides, it is a nice thickness, and I have used it for years.

To keep your stamps from becoming badly stained, clean them after each use.  If you are trying to clean a badly stained stamp, I highly recommend saturating your stamp with StazOn Stamp Cleaner (available on the internet, at box craft stores like Hobby Lobby and Michael's, and most independent stamp stores), waiting a few minutes, and then cleaning it off.  This has worked for me 99% of the time if I purchase a stamp that is badly stained.  And remember, just because a stamp is badly stained, often the stamped image looks fine, so if there is a stamp you love, and the price is right, take a chance and buy it.  Or use the stained condition as a way to bargain with the seller and get the price reduced; at least if it doesn't clean up, you won't feel like you totally wasted your money.

Day 294: Jesus is the Reason Card

I needed to make a quick card to enclose with an early Christmas present for my parents.  I chose to use this stamp from Paper Inspirations as the main sentiment.  I stamped it on craft card stock (Recollections by Michael's) in red StazOn ink, added some paper with the names of Jesus on it (Hobby Lobby), and added a burgundy ribbon from my stash.  A quick but meaningful card.

Day 265: Give Me Faith Day 1

Today in my Breaking Free (Beth Moore) Bible Study Class, the leader of the class played the song "Give Me Faith" by Elevation Worship as a way to prepare our hearts, minds, and souls for the video we would be watching. It really spoke to me in that it reminded me of how I felt when I went to Walk to Emmaus.  I thought I would make a page of some of the lyrics.  I used puzzle pieces from K and Co., stickers by Heidi Grace, and Staz On Ink from Tsukineko and a stamp set from Stampin' Up! to add words to the puzzle pieces.  I am letting everything dry overnight and will finish this page tomorrow.

Day 199: Touchdown Scrapbook Page, Continued

Today I continued working on the "Touchdown" football page of my son.  My chipboard letters were dry, so I added some silver dots to the letter "D"( it was manufactured by Deja Views) to match the "MVP" letters made by Little Yellow Bicycle. I used StazOn ink from Tsukineko and silver (heat) embossing powder from Stampin' Up to alter the color of some star clips purchased from Oriental Trading Company.  These added a little bit of pizzazz to the dark letters, and, also covered up a flaw in the letter V.  Sometimes having to fix mistakes or flaws ends up adding a little extra "something-something" to your work!  I also ended up trimming my son's 8" x 10" photo to 4.25" x 10" so that more of the football would show.  Don't be afraid to crop your photos...all I lost was some blue background , but I gained a much more interesting scrapbook page because I used an unusually shaped photo.

Day 105: Indexing Unmounted Rubber Stamps on Wood Mounts How To

I have several unmounted rubber stamp images that I need to mount on wood blocks, so I decided to work on that project today.  I began mounting images when I was on the design team for Repeat Impressions.  Wendy would send us unmounted stamps to use in our designs because she could send us several images for a low rate of postage.  I do not like using acrylic blocks, however, so I found someone on ebay who sold wood mounts and bought a box of assorted sizes.  By using a dot runner adhesive on the back side of the unmounted rubber stamp image, I can attach the unmounted rubber onto a wood mount, ink up the image with StazOn ink, and then stamp on top of another wood mount, thus making an index on the front side of the stamp. I got all of my index images stamped today and will attach the cushion and rubber to the wood mounts tomorrow.

Day 53: Stamped Light Switch Covers

I have a library that is decorated in lots of birds and butterflies.  I wanted some light switch covers that added to the decor of the room, but I have not been able to find any that I liked.  So, I went to my local ceramics shop and bought two ceramic light switch plates.  I used Timber Brown StazOn ink by Tsukineko to stamp my images onto the switch plates.  All the stamps I used were from Stampin' Up! I used chalks and a blender pen from Stampin' Up! to color the images.  I sealed the switch plates with a matte sealer I purchased at Hobby Lobby. Now I have two custom switch plates for my library.