Clean and Clear Images 

with Rubber Stamps on Fabric

I've seen several pretty adorable projects that include some pretty messy rubber stamping of words.  I think it can really down-grade the quality of an otherwise beautifully stitched project.

Therefore, I feel compelled to provide a tutorial to hopefully help the less experienced fabric rubber stampers to retain the quality of their sewing skills by enhancing a project with clean and clear rubber stamping.  Whether it be with lettering or just an image or both.

It's really a very simple process.

So, get out your stamps and pads.

Be sure to stamp on a firm surface.  I use a cutting mat.  Also stamp the project before layering and quilting.

"Messy" is easy to accomplish.....look familiar?

Ok, my 'messy' is a bit over kill. It's harder to 'messy' on purpose than by accident.

'Messy' is caused by pressing your stamp into the ink pad too far or at an angle which gets ink on the rubber edges.

'Messy' is also caused by then pressing the stamp onto the fabric with too much pressure or at an angle or by rocking the stamp, transferring the ink on the rubber edges onto the fabric.

The secret cure is too carefully ink only the raised rubber image evenly.  While inking the stamp, should ink get on the edges, have a small rag handy and just wipe off the edge before stamping the fabric. 

When pressing the stamp to the fabric, don't use an over amount of pressure, and be sure to distribute the pressure over the entire image to be sure to imprint the entire image.

that's it!

Simple!

TIP: 

Store ink pads positioned upside down.  This keeps the ink at the top of the pad where you want it and it's much easier to ink a stamp.

Happy clean stamping!

Annie

...and this Scrappy Swirl was mailed to Carol of Just Let Me Quilt

Rubber Stamping on Fabric

This tutorial was created for Madame Samm's Sew We Quilt blog and I know of no other way to get this tutorial on my own blog other than re-posting it here.  So, please excuse my duplication of this post if you've already seen it.

 
 A Ghastlie Tea Party! 

Oh please, do come in...

The tea cups are paper pieced.  I fussy cut the images and fused them to the background fabric using Wonder Under. 

The images are not appliqued after the paper piecing is done...they were fused to the cup background fabric prior to the paper piecing process.  Positioning them to line up as I wanted them to was rather tricky and my seam ripper was a little busier than I liked.  But, where there's a will there's a way!...not to mention a sheer determination on my part to have my way!  My paper piecing tutorial and that fun stripe border tutorial are listed over there on the right under "Tutorials"

What I'd like to show you today is the rubber stamping on fabric.  This too was sheer determination on my part to come up with a permanent, washable solution for my desire to incorporate my rubber stamping with my sewing/quilting.

These are your supplies needed

Fabric or project you wish to stamp on

Ruler and air soluble pen (optional)

Small ruler that is thicker than standard

StazOn Ink Pad

StazOn Cleaner

Rubber Stamps

If you just plan to stamp an image, you won't need rulers.  The rulers are for stamping words in a straight line.

Draw your lines with a standard ruler and air soluble pen.

Place the small thicker ruler along your drawn line and be sure to hold it in place until your letters for that line are all stamped.  When stamping the letters, keep the wood against the ruler. 

Unless you have an absolutely perfectly spaced set of letter/number stamps, they will most likely look a bit wonky - which is exactly what I like about this process.  Although spacing of the letters takes practice and most likely will be wonkily spaced, at least they will all be lined up along the bottom edge.  

I normally wait until the purple lines disappear before I work with the stamped area with an iron.  Depending on your fabric, the heat from the iron can set your disappearing ink into the fabric which makes it harder to remove but not impossible...yes, I know this from experience.  But, if you're in a hurry to get to working with it, just dip a small paintbrush in water and hurry the disappearing along quickly.  Remember, the StazOn ink is permanent, it dries quickly and is washable so the water will not disturb your stamping...yes, I know this from experience as well.

This particular alphabet set of rubber stamps I found at Michael's in their $1 bins. What a bargain! I like the mix of upper and lower case letters.

There's no limit to what and where you can stamp on your projects.  It's a wonderful alternative to the times you are limited to where an image or words are placed on your project when you have to use an ink jet printer.

I'll be watching for your projects using this technique. 

Happy stamping everyone!