Christmas Scrapbook Themes and Ideas

With Christmas quickly appearing on the horizon, it is time to start planning Christmas crafts, make Christmas cards, and plan for spectacular Christmas scrapbook pages. This is all possible and easy with a quick visit to the Christmas Scrapbook Themes page which not only provides ideas for cards and scrapbooks, but also give ideas for photos to take at and around Christmas time, Christmas scrapbook page titles and even a cute Christmas ornament that looks great but is easy to make with clear hobby rubber stamps. Don’t let Christmas catch you unprepared, plan your crafty ideas today.

Dinner Menu

Recently I decided that it was time to put together a weekly menu and thereby take away the stress of deciding each day what to cook. When I saw a planner at a friends house I immediately set out to make one. Naturally, I found a way to enhance it with rubber stamps.

WHAT’S FOR DINNER

Supplies Needed:

• Certificate size photo frame (8 1/2″ x 11″)
• Coordinating scrapbook papers at least 3 colors.
• Border clear Stamps
• Stamping Inks
• Embossing powder if desired
• Dry erase marker
• Glue
• Chalks
• Print out of the Days of the Week

Begin by laying out papers in your choice of colors and patterns. It is recommended that you place a striped paper at the bottom. Once you have decided how you want your papers arranged, cut them so that they fit in your frame. Now personalize your striped paper with your border clear stamps. Add stitching – either stamped or authentic – as desired.

Cut out the days of the week to measure approximately 4″ x 8″. Ink the edges if desired and mat in a solid color.

Using the provided templates, or by drawing your own, make a bag of flour, mixing bowl and oven mitt.

Chalk the edges of the flour sack, write the word ‘Flour’ on it and then draw in dotted lines around the edge. Glue onto a light background, ink the edges of the background square and mat in the same solid color as the days of the week.  Finished frame will measure approximately 2 1/2″ x 3 1/2″

Create a rolling pin with a rectangle of light colored paper and two pieces of brown for the handles. Chalk as desired and place across the bottom of the flour sack.

For the mixing bowl, trace the bowl in the mat color and emboss a gold band across as indicated by the template. Use a heart rubber stamp to emboss a red heart onto the band. For the contents of the bowl, simply cut from a light colored paper a bumpy mound. Chalk the edges and in the middle to give shape and definition. Cut a narrow piece of brown cardstock for a spoon handle. Cut a strip into the mound and insert the spoon handle. Glue all the pieces together and mat with a coordinating color.

For the oven mitt, trace the template onto pattern paper. Cut out and stamp  the cuff with a border stamp. Embellish with embossing or as desired.  Mount on light colored paper and mat with solid color. The finished frame will measure about 2 1/2″ x 2 3/4″

Secure all the pieces together and place in the picture frame. You can now write on the glass with a dry erase marker the menu for each night of the week.

My Twist on Rubber Stamps and Tea Bag Folding

A couple of weeks ago I was looking through some crafty sites and found a technique called tea bag folding that I thought would be fun to try. Here is a photo of the finished result.

To use this technique:

Cit eight squares measuring 2″ x 2″. You can make them all the same color or use a variation of colors like I did.

Fold each square diagonally from corner to corner. This will locate the center of the square for rubber stamping and accurately placing the design.

Using the Mini corners clear stamps, stamp 4 corner designs into the center of the square. I used the second longer corner design to stamp on the outside corners so that the square was covered in rubber stamping patterns.

Once you are finished rubber stamping on your paper follow the remaining folding instructions . Step 2 – Fold the Square from side to side in both directions. Step 3 – press the folded edge up in between the two sides to give you an angled fold as pictured in (4). Do both sides and you will end up with a folded shape like (5). You will have two decorated triangles back to back. Be sure that your rubber stamping design is showing on the outside and is not folded up inside the triangle.

Follow this prodecure for each of the 8 pieces. Assemble the flower by placing the next triangle in between the two folded together. Your flower will look the same on both sides of the project. Use glue to adhere the pieces together.

Embellish the finished design as desired and you have a very unique and eye catching rubber stamped, hand made greeting card. You might also have fun stamping any other symetrical design on the squares for varying looks as you explore your own creativity.

Happy stamping!

Rubber Stamping on Easter Eggs

Rubber stamping on Easter Eggs has endless creative possibilities for Easter decorations and fun. I got this idea from a craft book that pictured a basic rubber stamped egg but it didn’t give any real instructions. I decided it would be fun to try it and share my results with everyone for Easter. First here is a picture of my colorful Easter eggs that I stamped on.

I didn’t use the traditional store bought Easter Egg coloring kits. I used food coloring, vinegar and water. (I didn’t measure but I think it was equal parts of vinegar and water). I put in lots of food coloring.  When the eggs came out they were beautiful solid shades but as they dried they became mottled. I don’t know why but I liked the look.

Clear stamps are ideal for stamping on Easter eggs because you are not stamping on a flat surface and you can actually see which parts of the clear stamp has left its impression on the egg. This is very important to be able to make great designs.

Once you have colored your eggs be sure that they egg are completely dry and at room temperature before try rubber stamping on them. My eggs had been refrigerated and as they warmed up they had moisture condensing in places. As a result I had dye all over my fingers and it affected the crispness of the image in a few places as well.  Hopefully having your eggs at room temperature will keep colors from running and messing up your designs. If you chose to use hollow eggs you should not have any problems at all.

Some of the rubber stamping techniques you can try include stamping in embossing ink and heat embossing the design. I found that I really had to heat it up a fair bit before the embossing powder melted, but I love the effect it left. I stamped black butterfly images around for more variety though keeping to my chosen butterfly theme.

Rubber stamping with pigment inks was my favorite rubber stamping technique for Easter eggs!! You do have to be careful because if the ink is not completely dry and you touch it, it will smear. However, this was the easiest and funnest way to add lines, borders and detailed images to my eggs.

Once I was done stamping, I finished off each egg with a few craft gems glued on with craft glue for a little extra glitter and glitz. All in all the project was only moderately difficult and a lot of fun. I have never had so much fun decorating Easter Eggs!

Scrapbooking with Rubber Stamps

For Christmas this past year I decided to do a Mini scrapbook that contained all the personal information of my family members including neices and nephew and all the rest. My goal was to have a small, handy complete and up to date address book that would be fun to look at and use.  This is what I came up with.

The first page you see when you open up the book is the title page containing a full family picture and the heading “____ Family Address Book”. It is simply printed on white cardstock cut to fit in the sleeve of the photo album and I used my clear rubber stamps with first and second generation stamping techiniques to give the impression of patterned paper.

Inside the address book each family has two pages. One page is designed to hold birthday and anniversary information. It is embellished with full color pictures of family members and decorated with rubber stamped images. The other page is for information that changes such as mailing addresses, email addresses, phone numbers and cell phone numbers. The following photo’s illustrate this well. You will noticed that all faces and personal information has been blurred to maintain privacy.The last page of the book includes a descendancy tree for a completed project which now contains personal family information needed to keep in touch and celebrate birthdays and anniversaries. I stamped a tree on this page in keeping with the family tree theme.

I was surprised how quickly this project went. I had to make eight of them and they were done within a week as time permitted. Some of the pages already need a few alterations but it is a fun and personal gift that was easy to make and ideal to give.

Hand Stamped Bulletin Boards

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to please do the bulletin board at  church. It would need a section for activities, birthdays and announcements. I was given some hand made tissue paper to use to cover the background and told I could do whatever I wanted with it from there.

It didn’t take long to get my creative juices flowing, and with the fun clear rubber stamps that I have and love using, I began to see the finished project in my mind. That was all it took. I went straight to my stamping desk and began stamping.

First I made three tags – one for each of the three sections of the bulletin board. I used some of my favorite letter stamps “Awesome ABC’s” and another stamp that gave me the words ‘Happy’ and ‘To You’ from the Happy Day Topper Clear Stamp Set.

This is one of the tags after it was on the bulletin board. Each tag was outlined using the border stamp from the Friendship Chain Clear Stamp Set. I loved that the stamp was clear so I could see exactly where to place it to line up the corners. I used a scrap piece of paper to cover any area that I didn’t want the line to extend into, that way the border doesn’t extend beyond where I wanted it. I embellished each tag with blue flower shaped gems and punched a hole for ribbon in the end. That finished the tags.

The next step was to put it all together. I layered the hand made tissue paper onto the bulletin board. I had some cream colored paper twist ribbon which I untwisted and placed on the bulletin board as a horizontal element. Once in place I used my ‘Tiny Inkers ABC’s‘ to stamp the words “Faith Hope Charity” randomly on the ribbon and thus establish a theme for the project.

You can see some of the stamped words on the ribbon in the above photo.

The next step was to divide the bulletin board into the required sections. To do this I cut white card stock into 1-1/2″ strips and made two rectangular frames with the sides going under the horizontal paper twist ribbon. Now I was ready to stamp again. I used the Friendship Chain Stamp set to create a matching element with the tags. It is a little tricky stamping images onto a bulletin board. I had to be sure to have a chair so I could be directly over where I was placing the stamp.

This photo shows one corner of a rectangular section and kind of gives you an idea of what I did. With the borders in place I was ready for the next step. I made 3 paper twist bows, (I could have stamped on these as well but didn’t) one for each section of the board and attached them with staples. I added a tag to each ribbon as you can see in the above photo and secured it in place with staples. The birthdays are written on little flower pots that sit on the paper twist horizontal ribbon.

The last thing I did before I called it done was to stamp the theme onto an 8-1/2 x 11″ piece of card stock using the ‘Awesome ABC’s‘ Alphabet stamps. I placed a matching border around the edge of the theme as well using the Friendship Chain Stamp. I finished it with a ribbon placed through slits in the border. Then I attached a ‘Double Whirl’ ribbon clip onto the ribbon. To embellish it even further I tied more ribbon onto the ribbon clip as shown in the following photo.

It was a fun project, though it took a fair bit of time. I found it an enjoyable challenge to use my stamps for an application other than the usual scrapbooking and card making crafts (though I love those too)! I am looking forward to my next creative challenge.

Full Color Stamping on Candles!

Last year I discovered that you can stamp on candles with rubber stamps.  Since I am always looking for fun new ideas that I can use my rubber stamps on I decided to give it a try. The technique required that I heat the wax and then press the stamp into it before it cooled.  It was a little tricky because the wax either cooled too quickly, or the stamp wanted to slide on the warm wax. Because it was a little tricky, I haven’t tried the technique too often since then. Despite the difficulty though, I was still impressed with the results of stamping on candles and the technique has been in the back of my mind ever since then. This is a picture of this stamping technique:

A few weeks back I discovered a new way to stamp on candles that gives results in full color! That’s right, I couldn’t wait to try it. The technique required the usual rubber stamping supplies plus, a candle, tissue paper and a heat embossing gun. I loved it! It took almost no time at all to adorn my previously plain candle. This is a photo of this technique:

Step by Step Process:

1. Choose your clear stamp. I chose the rose from the Rose Sympathy Clear Rubber Stamp set.

2. I inked my stamp using markers coloring in the red rose first then stamping it on the tissue paper. (Before you stamp you will want to put a scrap piece of paper under the tissue paper as the ink penetrates through the tissue paper.) After washing the stamp I inked the leaves with a dark green marker, lined up the clear stamp with the red rose and stamped the leaves in place.

3. I decided I wanted to go for as much color as possible so I colored in the leaves with a lighter green marker and the rose with a light pink marker.

4. Next I cut out the stamped image fairly close to the edges. I would recommend leaving 1/4″ of white tissue paper showing around the edges of your images after you have cut it out.

5. This is the fun part. Place your cut out image on the candle where you want it. Turn on your heat gun and blow the hot air directly onto the stamped image. The image melts right into the wax. Be sure to seal all the edges. You do have to be careful not to overheat the wax or it will run in an unattractive way.

That is it! 5 easy steps and the project is complete. You can’t even tell that there is any tissue paper melted to the candle – it completely disappears. I am going to have to try this technique with colored candles and colored tissue paper…

How to Achieve Full Color Rubber Stamping Designs

Rubber stamping is a hobby that allows you to become an artist, even if you never considered yourself one before. With the huge variety of decorative rubber stamps and clear acrylic art stamps that are available, you can always find designs that will suit your project. Rubber stamping on scrapbook art pages and card making crafts can take the tension out of your day. But, what if you want more than a stamped outline? What if you truly want your stamping images to be in full color? This article will teach you how to achieve different styles of full color rubber stamped designs.

Go from blah to exciting…

Adding color, whether vibrant or subtle, can draw the eye where you want it in seconds. Coloring the details on the rubber stamp itself is one of the first steps you will take to achieving a full color image in your hobby stamping projects. Try any of the following techniques to add color to your creative ideas.

STAMPING AN IMAGE IN COLOR

1. Use a multicolor ink pad. Often you will find these available in colored stripes ranging from a rainbow of different colors to complementary colors in different shades. You may even find pie shaped multicolor ink pads that will give you even more colors in your stamping art. Regardless of the ink pad, number of colors, or shape, you will end up with a multicolored stamped image that will add great interest and appeal to your scrapbooks and card making crafts. Clear rubber stamps are ideal for this technique as you can see the ink coverage and the blend color before you even stamp the image.
2. Another way you can add color before you stamp, is to use water based colored markers. You can do this easily by simply coloring the stamp details in your choice of color. Depending on the size of the image you are stamping, you may choose to stamp between colors. Clean the stamp and then stamp the next color separately so that the ink doesn’t dry on the stamp before you get it on paper. This is very easy to do with your clear rubber stamps as you can see where to place the stamp keeping your images precisely lined up.
3. The third way to add color to a stamped image is simply to choose a color of ink other than black or brown. Then you can ink the entire image and stamp it on your paper craft ideas. With that done, you are ready to begin filling in the spaces with fun coloring techniques.

Once you have finished stamping your image with the technique of your choice, you may choose to add even more dazzling color or you may wish to use it as it is. If you choose to add more color, keep reading for more great ideas.

COLORING IN STAMPED IMAGES

1. You may use chalks or pastels to color in an image. Chalks are available in a wide range of colors and shades. They are ideal for adding delicate color to rubber stamping crafts. You can apply chalks with a stiff paint brush, Q-tip, eye make up applicator, or simply use them like a crayon and then brushed away the excess powder. The best idea is to experiment with the different application tools to find your preference. You may find that one brand of pastels is harder than others. The softer they are the easier you will find it is to use a brush to apply color to your stamping crafts.
2. Coloring with pencil crayons can give bold vivid color to your rubber stamping crafts or subtle pastel shades on your card making or scrapbooking ideas. Choose good quality crayons and colors that suit your craft. With colored pencils your can simply add shadow, fine detail or a background aura. The trick to coloring rubber stamped images with pencil crayons is the amount of pressure you put on the crayon as you color. Always color in the same direction. For pastel shades or to blend colors together apply only light pressure. Likewise, for vibrant color, you should press harder as you color. Smooth papers will color differently than textured paper. Experiment with this technique if you are unsure of the effect you will achieve.
3. Stamping additional color is a fun option. Many rubber stamp sets offer a solid background stamp which, you can ink then stamp to fill in objects such as flowers or leaves. Watch for these types of rubber stamps as you create your stamping ideas. They are fun to use and work with. When using these shadow stamps, be sure you choose a color lighter than the outline color so that your details still show up after you stamp the solid image.
4. Add vibrant color with the use of markers. You can use water base colored markers to easily color in details on your rubber stamped designs. Try to use this technique on smaller areas as the ink sometimes leaves overlap lines from coloring over dry ink.
5. Pigment inks are a quick and easy way for you to add color to your rubber stamped images. You can always be sure that the colors you use will match all your stamped elements with this technique. Ink can be applied a couple of ways. Trial and error will help you choose your favorite method. Ink a make-up applicator, and then mist it lightly with water and color in as if you were using a paint brush. You may also use the corner of a make up sponge, and color in the rubber stamped image using it dry or moist for different results.

Now you can fully enjoy full color rubber stamped designs. Use them on your hobby scrapbook art and card making crafts to ease tension and tap into your creative self. By exploring the world of color in your rubber stamping hobby, you will more fully realize your creative potential as you design satisfying works of art.

Stamping Clever Valentines

Stamping clever Valentines for kids and sweethearts is easy with clear hobby rubber stamps. Design handmade Valentines cards that will always carry the appropriate saying for the recipient. From the idea list make clever Valentines that will bring a chuckle with ordinary rubber stamps.

To make a funny Valentine stamp a Hippo with the words “Hip, Hippo-ray for my Valentine!” or stamp a cheerleader and include the caption “Three Cheers for the Best Valentine!” Use any of the funny  ideas to design and create ideal Valentine card making crafts, or to begin decorating unique scrapbook art pages.

You can spend as much or as little time on Valentine crafts as you like. The more layers, backgrounds and embellishments you use the sharper the project will look. For kids Valentines you may prefer to limit the card craft to simple stamping techniques. For a sweetheart you may wish to embellish the card with a little extra time and effort to convey your feelings. No matter who the recipient is, these clever cards will be enjoyed by all.

Stamping Yummy Treats!

It’s hard to believe but rubber stamping with clear acrylic stamps can create fabulous sweets for a special someone.

STAMPING ON CHOCOLATE
Give a romantic treat to your Valentine this Valentines Day with extra special chocolates. You will need some cooking oil, store bought chocolates, little paper liners for individual chocolates to sit in and small clear acrylic stamps. Experiment with different chocolate brands. It may be easiest to begin on solid chocolates.
1. Place vegetable oil on a paper towel and allow it to absorb. Take your choice of new acrylic stamps and dab it in the oil. It is important that you use new stamps for this as the finished product will be consumed and you don’t want any ink coming off the stamps onto the chocolate.

2. Heat the surface of the chocolate with a heat embossing tool.

3. Place the oiled stamp (without a stamping block) into the melted chocolate. Refrigerate the chocolate with the stamp in still in the chocolate. Complete your set of chocolates using different stamp images.

4. Once the chocolate has solidified, bring it out of the fridge and gently peel the clear acrylic stamp from the surface of the chocolate.

5. Package your personalized, unique chocolates in a box. Add a little colored tissue paper if you like. Be sure to clean your stamps with soapy water as you don’t want any traces of chocolate or oil left especially if you plan on converting your clear stamps over for use on paper crafts.

6. Make a coordinating Valentines day card to go along with your gift of heart.

That is it! It is easy and it is yummy! Rubber stamping with clear stamps on food is a completely unique way to say Happy Valentines Day!

OTHER YUMMY STAMPED TREAT IDEAS

• Stamp a favorite image in a plain sugar cookie before baking.
• Stamp a flower into fondant, cut it out and decorate cakes or other goodies with it.
• Write a special message in a chocolate bar with this technique for an unexpected surprise.

Use your imagination in the kitchen, stamp on anything that will hold an image. Remember, if it doesn’t work – you might have to eat it! No matter how unbelievable, enjoy stamping fabulous sweet treats this Valentines Day!