Save your rubber!

Ah, the old days of cutting off the excess rubber to mount your stamps onto the wood block.  They're gone!  Now almost every stamp in our new Catalog is die cut. Most of us say 'Good Riddance' right?  Well, now I want some of those rubber pieces back!  Why, or why didn't I save more of it?  I'll show you why I want/need it back.

You can actually make your own stamps.  Yes, you can. 

If you have a Big Shot & either a Bigs, Original or Bigz XL die you can cut any shape you want from pieces of rubber.  I got the idea from another Demo here.

Here's how:

Find a piece of foam mounted rubber large enough for your die cut & place it rubber side down on your Die.  I am using the Bigz XL Baskets & Blooms die. 

Roll it through your Big Shot & peel off.

I wanted the little inside pieces to form another stamp too, so I peeled off the backing from the little teardrops first & then pressed it onto the wood block.
See the next image:

Here is my new stamp!

And here is the other one.  Two stamps in one die-cut.

I did another one with my new Beautiful Butterflies die.  After it was cut out, I punched holes in it with my Crop-o-dile & the small hole punch.

Since the rubber is smooth & new, it helps if you sand the rubber a little bit with your sanding block to give the rubber some 'tooth' & the ink something to grab onto. 

Here are the stamped images I got from the four stamps I made. 
And if you can believe it, I did not use my Stamp-a-ma-jig to stamp the Summer Sun image around the Tangerine petal one, and on the first try too!

Click on this image once to make it larger.  Can you see the white lines between the stamped pink petals?   I scratched a line in the rubber with my paper piercing tool.  It left a soft definition in the rubber to indicate petals.

So now you've seen my four new Big Shot stamps.  I double mounted these because I did not have many extra wood blocks laying around.

If you wanted to, you could cut out these images in black card stock with your Big Shot & dies & then mount them on a wood block just like SU does.  Cover the die-cut card stock with sticky paper/shelf liner etc to create an image on the wood block. 

Cool huh??

Comments

[Lisa Hoag]

Very cool!!! It's awesome :)

[Lauren Y.]

WOW! The butterfly is too pretty! Thanks for sharing!

[Theresa Forseth]

This is a BRILLIANT idea!!!

[Lorraine Castellon-Rowe]

I love what you've done with your new stamps LeeAnn. Great idea using your crop a dile to add holes to your butterfly!
Lorraine Castellon-Rowe
www.lorrainerowe.blogspot.com

[Marion Dornan]

This goes way beyond cool!

[Michelle Gray]

Oh My Gosh! You are so clever!!!!!! TFS!

[rebecca]

and to think of all the rubber I have thrown out over the years....thanks for sharing this awesome idea..

[Stace]

Super cute

[LeAnne]

You are sooooooo smart--I have hated throwing that stuff away, but other than making a stencil, couldn't think of what to use it on! TFS!
LeAnne

[Candice Jordan]

Here's another way to use rubber scraps for making your own stamps. It's not as easy as Lee Ann's example, but can give you ideas on how to use that scrap--and anyone who wants scrap for just the cost of postage, please contact me, I have bins of it looking for a new home.

http://www.orientalstampart.com/TechniqueClasses/scrapsstamps.html

[Linda]

I've always saved my leftover rubber to use when making shaker boxes or to use as a pop-up. I love your idea!

[Vera]

What a great idea, LeeAnn! I love your new stamps!

[Lisa]

An inspiring post.
So clever
Lisa

[Sue Ring]

You are so clever!!! I love this idea!
sue

[Marie]

That is an AWESOME idea!! I had wondered if they would cut well in the Big Shot and you actually tried it and it worked so well!!! Thanks for sharing!