What to stamp?

Hi,

You can stamp on christmas stockings, stamp some ornaments, sweatshirts, small wallhanging, (you can name anything that you want to stamp on), also you can stamp on a plain paper and then decoupage that paper to the jar, wood slat, tin can (like the butter cookies in the tin can), stamp on a big wood flat picture frame for decorations. This just give you some ideas.

*grin* You answered your own question in your tag line.

Things I've stamped for gift-giving and other purposes:

• Inexpensive silk scarves (use a heat-setting fabric ink)

• T-shirts (fabric ink, big, blocky stamps)

• Altoid tins (spray paint them, stamp them, fill them with trinkets appropriate to the recipient

• Papier mache objects, boxes, etc.

• Polymer clay jewelry

• Shrink plastic jewelry

• Cheap cloth painters' caps (again, fabric ink)

• Plain wooden picture frames

• Those flat tins AoL disks come in - stamp them and enclose a home-burned CD of your favorite music or photos

• Blank tarot-style cards

• Cheap plastic shower-curtain liners (use permanent ink) to match someone's bathroom decor

• Stamp on tissue paper, wrap it around an inexpensive pillar-shaped candle and use your heat gun - carefully - to melt the wax a little; the paper will disappear into the candle's surface, making it look as if the candles themselves were stamped

• Ceramic tiles and plain glass plates (use permanent ink)

• Blank journals - stamp the cover, and maybe a corner of some of the pages

• Cheap paper and envelopes - stamp a matching design to make pretty stationary

• Mouse pads.

• Book plates (use standard office labels, run them through your computer to add "this book belongs to (recipient) and then add a stamped design.

• Shrines and altars: I've used small wooden doll wardrobes (available unfinished from craft stores) to create little personal shrines incorporating stamped images, collage and three-dimensional stuff like beads, doll parts and figurines. These are easier to show than to describe:

especially like stamping any kind of inexpensive box, tin or container - practically anything with a flat, stampable surface - in a theme that matches the recipient's interests, home decor, etc. Fill the container with home-baked treats or M&Ms or paperclips or whatever; the container becomes the gift.

Have fun!

-- Pat Kight snipped-for-privacy@peak.org

Pat (and/or anyone who's done tins), what do you do when you decorate tins so that they'll clase and open without difficulty? I've had fun doing a few, but either they're difficult to open/close because the paint mars the fit, or they look wonky undecorated above the overlap.

So, what do you do? TIA, Alison

I've done porcelain coasters and ornaments this year (I got mine from

this summer, I had no desire to stamp anything but cards, then all ofa sudden I was tired of them! I've long wanted some cool, decorated jeans,but don't like the "dirty" jean look that has been so popular lately, sotook a pair of my own and did this: are several shots of them, thus the "next" link on the page(s)) I had a *blast* making them, and get a big kick out of wearing them!

HTH, Alison

I use spray automotive primer for the base coat, which doesn't seem to cause the stickiness/buildup problems spray enamel does. If I want a glossy finish, I brush on gloss acylic medium after I'm all done stamping and embellishing, taking care not to coat the overlapping bits. It seems to be the glossy media/coatings that cause the tins to stick when they're shut.

Last year I covered a bunch of tins with thin sheets of polymer clay, per the directions here:

used stamps to impress images on the lids, and in a couple of cases to make transfers I added to the finished pieces after baking. It's critical for these pieces to follow the instructions about trimming the clay away from the hinges. (It's not *quite* as simple as she makes it sound, but a little trial and error produced a dozen distinctive and beautiful boxes)

-- Pat Kight snipped-for-privacy@peak.org

I love the candle tip! I looked at Pat's gallery and got inspired by the Naturalist's box -- we go to the beach evey year, and I could work on a "Beach Box" there. I also *loved* the fans. Pat, where did you get the fans' sticks -- a kit, or did you use cane, or what?

Gina

A few I can think of off the top of my head that I do are, Jewelry, walls, picture frames, wall hangings, and fabric . The sky is the limit... if it is there it can be stamped. juliasb

G> In an earlier thread Pat Kight mentioned that she doesn't make many

I used Lumieres, which are an acrylic paint ready for fabric... that is to say, they work on fabrics without altering, but they aren't restricted to fabric.

They aren't at all stiff. They did lose some intensity of color after the first washing (after those pictures were taken), but have held strong since. I like them less intense anyway.

Alison

Coasters and light switch plates: Try stamping on tissue paper, spraying the back with spray adhesive and attaching to a switch plate or tiles (some left over white ones from my bathroom, sitting in the basement all these years) for coasters. I use 3 or 4 coats of spray finish, the heavy kind for the coasters, and they are all beautiful and unchanged over a year later. I used shoe stamps for my closet light switch, wine labels in the kitchen and a neat oriental design for the stairway. I have also used patterned tissue on the coasters, overstamped to make more interesting (enhance a few spots with gel pens for extra pizzaz).

CD case: I made a neat moneyholder case last Christmas, stamping and inserting thin stamped paper inside cover for front image and a long cardstock pocket piece inside for moneyholder. To dress up the plastic front a little more, I melted a glob of hot glue on it and stamped for a pretty embellishment, (let the glue cool and your stamp will come right off) , then rubbed on some metallic rub-ons. Very well received. Make card sets or stationary as gifts and create gift packaging for them

- an easy one that looks nice: Stamp a co-ordinating paper with the same image, run through your crimper (to soften and add texture) wrap around your card set and tie with pretty ribbon. Or make a simple pocket folder from one piece of cardstock (use good glue to hold the pocket in place - I use Wonder tape), put envelopes and cards in opposite pockets and adorn the front with a stamped image or something in UTEE or shrink plastic.

Molded foam (like styrofoam, but dense) picture frames and fruit: paint or glue on paper (mulberry paper is flexible enough for the fruit), stamp and seal - you would never know the base is foam. I have used dimensional glue on the frames and stamped before it dried for texture, then painted or used rubons. Really nice.

Janet

G> In an earlier thread Pat Kight mentioned that she doesn't make many

For the record...

I replied to the original post before reading the other replies. If I commented on something that somebody else does (without realizing it!) then I want to make sure nobody thinks it was directed at anybody on this newsgroup. We all have different preferences for how we do things.

Cecelia