Stencils and Stamps

I've always liked buying rubber stamps more than I like using rubber stamps. I see the designs in the store ("oh what a cute goldfish!") but when I get them home to my inks, I don't like the outcome ("How the heck am I going to use a goldfish?!") So I have all these stamps. And yes I kind of keep buying them. If you're like me, this technique is for you. Take all those stamps and use them not for the individual image but for the texture the image can make.

Here are a few simple examples of how to use stamps and stencils together. This is a great way to create background textures. There are always rubber stamps on sale in craft stores. You don't even have to like the individual design. Think how it will look as a texture.

1. Stencils don't have to be complicated. If you create stencils to stamp over you just have to make sure they are strong enough to take the pounding. Take a regular sheet of copy paper and cut out random holes. That's all it takes to create a stencil.

2. Lay the new stencil over a painted surface and take any rubber stamp and stamp rapidly over the stencil. Stamp one direction and then rotate the stamp 90 degrees. You want the individual image lost in the pattern. If your stamp says, "Happy Birthday" you want to stamp it in enough directions that your viewer doesn't know the stamp ever said "Happy Birthday."

3. Same as number one only I used the inside of a CD (the round hole in the middle) to draw the same sized circle all over my paper. I cut those circles out with an X-Acto knife. Work on an old phone book. Be careful when working with an X-Acto knife.

 4. I placed my stencil and pushed a small stamp pad over the dots for solid color dots. I then shifted the stencil and pattern stamped. I shifted the stencil several times to make sure I covered the page evenly.

When you're done using your paper stencils they will be works of art themselves. Tear them up or use them whole.