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Guest post by: Jessica Palmer
Today I'm going to show you how to create an awesome and simple scrapbook layout using rubber stamps. Although I have used a rubber stamp for this particular layout, the idea will work just as well with a clear stamp or whatever you have in your scrapbook supplies stock.
Before we get into it, let's talk about scrapbook stamps a little.
Table Of Contents:
1. Types Of Stamps
2. Materials Needed
3. Step By Step Guide
4. Step 1: Choosing Your Stamp
5. Step 2: Watercolor Paper
6. Step 3: Experiment With Ink
7. Step 4: Cutting The Embellishments
There are many names thrown around to describe stamps, but there are actually only two main types: rubber stamps and clear stamps. You can get these stamps at any scrapbooking tools and supplies store or you can also buy them online and you can even order custom stamps for a specific theme.
Rubber stamps are your traditional red-colored stamps that are often mounted onto a woodblock and ready to use with your ink straight away. Most older stamps are rubber with a wooden backing and come with ink pads.
If you don't own any yourself, you may have seen custom rubber stamps with a logo on it used at places of business, like at the bank when they used to manually stamp your cheque, or what the post office used to stamp on your envelope to show that you had paid for the postage.
Clear stamps are see-through, making it easier to line up on your page. They need to be mounted onto a reusable acrylic block to use, which is also clear. Clear stamps are very popular these days and as they are so cost effective, it is best used in scrapbooking and it's really hard to find fault with them.
Both of these stamps are used by inking your stamp and pushing it onto your paper. Stamps can also be pre-inked but these are rarely used in scrapbooking as they are not cost-effective since they run out of ink quite easily, have less customizability with ink colors, and don't come in as wide a variety as clear or rubber stamps.
Self-inking stamps are more commonly used by businesses or teachers while scrappers and paper crafters use ink pads of different colors and various stamping designs.
Although I regularly use both kinds of stamps, today I am using the traditional rubber stamps. However, you can follow along with any type of stamp. Here is what my final layout looks like.
Scrapbook stamps can spark a lot of creative layout ideas, whether you're experimenting with different combinations of ink colors or trying out different patterns.
They are best used to add depth to your background, you can make your layout more special by making a themed pattern using your stamps! They are also easy to organize and will make your scrapbooking more stress free!
Want to learn more scrapbook stamping techniques? Click here and check out our Layout Ideas Books!
Okay, let's start using your rubber stamps to create an embellishment for your awesome scrapbooking layout. The first thing you will need to do is choose one or two stamps to use. I don't recommend choosing any more than that or the page will begin to look a little cluttered.
I have chosen some vintage looking postcard type stamps as well as a monarch butterfly that matches in with it. Of course, you are free to choose whichever stamp or stamps you think will fit in with the theme of your layout.
Wait! Once You Have Your Rubber Stamps Ready, Then You'll Need To Start Working On Your Scrapbook Page....Let Me Show You...
♥How to START and FINISH a layout to perfection (so no more pushing things around on a page for hours and hours).
♥How to get your creative juices flowing again so you'll NEVER experience scrappers block again!
♥How to always have the perfect scrapbook layout for every occasion!
Next, you will need to grab your watercolor paper and just ''blob'' some really watered down color onto it in random spots. You will see below I have two pieces of watercolor paper side by side.
The one on the right is the one I intend to use for my scrapbooking layout, and the one on the left is for experimenting with my stamps to get it right before I stamp onto the colored paper.
While your watercolor page is drying, you can experiment and try different stamp techniques on your blank sheet of paper with different colored inks and how much ink you load onto your rubber stamp.
You can choose whatever color you want, as for me I experimented with both brown and black ink and decided to go ahead with black in the end.
I set aside my experiment page for another project as I think they will look great with some colored pencil added for another scrapbooking layout.
When you are ready, go ahead and stamp away on your colored page!
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One of the benefits of using watercolor paper for your scrapbook stamps is not that it's thick enough to handle the watercolor, but that it's quite textured so when you push your stamp down onto the paper, the ink doesn't go on as neatly as it does normal paper.
This makes for a really interesting grungy stamp effect and is one of the reasons you should experiment on a scrap piece of paper first and see how the ink reacts to different paper surfaces. Pushing the stamp a little harder into the grooves of the paper can give quite a different result using textured paper.
Although I didn't apply this technique to this layout, you could experiment with two different color ink. By pushing down hard with the first color, and then doing a much lighter stamp directly on top for added interest.
When you are sure that the ink is dry, cut around your stamp embellishments with either scrapbooking scissors or a craft knife.
You will see in the image above that I used my scrapbook stamps to also create a brown butterfly, but I decided not to use this one and just go with the two embellishments in the photograph below.
Of course, I have added the brown butterfly to my ''might use later'' pile of scraps and embellishments.
That's it! You have now used your scrapbook stamps to create an embellishment for your awesome scrapbooking layout.
I won't go into detail about how to piece the scrapbooking layout together as you can see from the photo at the beginning how it all pieces together.
Make sure you spend some time moving things around the page to see how it looks when you stand back from it before gluing everything in place.
The title, "Life is a journey" was sourced from the book, 10,000 Instant Scrapbook Page Titles. I created the title embellishment with a leftover piece of colored watercolor paper, using stickers for the word "LIFE" and handwriting the other words underneath.
Finally, I dabbed my black ink around the edges of the title embellishment so that it would stand out a little more on the scrapbooking page.
There are many ways to use rubber scrapbook stamps in your scrapbooking layouts, and stamping onto colored watercolor paper is just one of them. I hope you have found some inspiration using your scrapbooking stamps and other tools with this quick tutorial and I would really love to see what you come up with using your own stamps.
Don't you just love this romantic couples scrapbook surrounded by our DIY embellishments? I do!
Happy Scrapbooking!
