I ADORE rubber stamps and have collected them for more years than I can count... They are such fun to use in so many mixed media applications. I am NOT, however, a huge fan of the cling mount stamps that attach to the acrylic bars. I know there is the advantage of being able to see where you are placing the stamp... So if that works for you... that is great. I am just a die-hard lover of wood-mounted stamps. They are much more expensive to purchase and do take up lot of storage space... Many of my favorite stamp creators have sheets of unmounted images that are not available in wood mounted... so I have found a great compromise solution that works very well for me.
The credit to this idea goes to the fabulous Michelle Ward. You can go to her blog, scroll down a bit, and get all the details for how she mounts her stamps on foam kneeling pads found in the garden center. Now is the perfect time to pick these up... maybe even on sale as summer is soon coming to a close. I have found the kneeling pads vary quite a bit in thickness, but they all work well for me. I have some little storage drawers that hold all my foam-mounted stamps. I can just pop open the drawers and see exactly what I have to choose from. Here is a pad I picked up at my local hardware store yesterday.
I love the way this one works with some new stamps I have recently ordered. Christy Tomlinson has some darling stamps... loved this one for texture.
I glued the image to the cut foam with Fabric Tac... a favorite adhesive of mine. I used Liquid Nails on some of the ones I have previously mounted and both adhesives work great! I cut out the printed image and glue it to the other side of the stamp so I can keep everything organized well.
Michelle uses a gel contact cement. I have used that and it works very well... but a bit smelly. Trial and error helped me find my best solution.
Roben-Marie Smith has so many darling stamps... I have drawers filled with her images, and I use them so often. I love to buy her rubber sheet sets, and this method has worked so well for those pieces.
My latest new "art toy" is the divine Gelli Arts gel printing plate. This delightful new tool is the best way to do fabulous mono prints to serve as backdrops for stamped images.
It's yet another rainy day here... so it really feels like the perfect day to play with the gelli plate and some stamps... ahhh... art bliss...
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