let's make something

My tutorial is inspired by all the cool letterpress on Etsy. I wanted to imitate that pressed look by using rubber stamps and paint.

Here's what I used:

paint in various shades. it needs to be a nice thick paint. I like Claudine Hellmuth and Folkart.
smooth paper. I used a cold press watercolor paper that's rich and smooth. Any paper will work as long as it's not too textured. Handmade paper would work well too.

I purchased a frame from Micheals as well as a pre-cut piece of mat board. The frame measures 8x11 and the mat is made for a 5x7 image.

Ruberstamps. I used the Carter and Noah set from Studio Calico.

I cut my cardstock about 1/2" larger than my mat so that I could center the image when framing.

I didn't go through the trouble of measuring, I pretty much eyeballed the whole thing which lends to the handmade look.

Figure out what quote you would like to use. I've always been fond of this one and it fit perfectly within my 5x7 mat board.

When applying the paint to your rubberstamp, you want to sort of pounce the foam brush instead of stroking it across. You'll see streaks in your stamped image if you simply brush the paint on. Pouncing will make a smoother stamped image. See below at the difference.

I also like to stamp the letter on a separate sheet of paper to see if I like the color and to make sure the image stamps well. You also want to be careful when stamping your image using paint as it is slick and will slide if you press down too hard.

I keep a damp paper towel to clean off the paint. It's easier to clean after immediately after stamping. It's a bit of a job to clean if you let the paint dry on your stamp.

I wanted something a little colorful so I switched paint colors with each word. I ended using the Walnut stain ink from Tim Holtz because the typewriter image has wonderful little detail that would get lost with paint.
let the image dry a bit before framing.

now it's ready to be framed! just center it within the mat and add a little tape to keep it in place.
Set in a spot to be admired.
This was a fun project that didn't take very long at all. Now I have an original piece of artwork in my scrap room that is sure to spark up creativity.
I hope that you will give this a try. We would all love to see your creations. Just add it to the Studio Calico gallery.
Thanks for hanging with me this week!

Tina