While using your heirloom rubber stamp is far from difficult, we have a few tips and tricks to help you make the perfect impression without smudges, stains and frustration.
When it comes to rubber stamping, the most valuable lesson we've learned in the studio over the years is to resist the urge to be forceful! Less truly is more when it comes to rubber stamping.
Step One
Open your ink pad, place it on a flat surface and dab your rubber stamp lightly over the ink. For every day stamping we like to use the highly pigmented Versacolor ink pads.
Tip: The reason you're dabbing lightly is so that only the raised part of the stamp is covered in ink. This is the only part of the rubber that needs to have a layer of ink - if the deeper parts of the rubber are covered, the impression on the page might have smudges that aren't part of the intended design.
Step Two
Have a peek at the rubber part of your stamp to see if the design is fully covered in ink. If not, keep dabbing lightly.
Tip: Don't panic if you think you've overdone it with the ink. Just use lighter pressure when you're stamping your surface, or dab off any excess on a scrap piece of paper before using it on your intended surface.
Step Three
Once you're inked up, do a test impression on scrap paper first as the first impression is often dry. Once you are happy with your test impressions, re-ink and press the stamp down as evenly as you can. Apply light pressure.
Tip: You can hold the stamp at either side of the wooden mount rather than the handle if you feel like this will give you more control.
Step Four
Hold the paper with one hand and remove the stamp with the other in a quick upwards motion to avoid smudging.
Step Five
Admire your beautiful impression!
Our deeply engraved rubber stamps are the perfect way to create delicately detailed and beautifully unique impressions. They are super versatile, use them to uniquely personalise wedding stationery, menus, wedding favours, napkins and more.
You can find more tips and tricks on how to get the most out of your heirloom stamps here. If there's anything in particular that you'd like us to cover in our next tutorial, please feel free to get in touch. We love hearing from you!
