Express yourself and relax with FREE rubber stamping art techniques and ideas for making handmade cards and decorating scrapbooking designs that you can enhance with clear hobby rubber stamps. Boost your creativity with dozens of unique FREE online stamping project ideas - each featuring detailed instructions.

Scrapbooking is an enjoyable hobby that lets you take a break from the daily demands of life as you treasure and preserve precious memories. On this page you will discover a gallery of scrapbook layout ideas as well as scrapbook theme ideas to assist you in the building of your cherished scrapbooking projects.

• Sometimes stamping on hard surfaces can cause a loss of detail - particularly in the center of a larger stamp.  You can easily avoid this by stamping on a SOFT SURFACE such as a magazine, or my preference, a sheet of craft foam.  This will ADD spring to your clear stamp and images will come out clear and crisp.
• It is always best to prime your rubber stamps before using them - particularly if you are using a clear rubber stamp with a solid image. Priming your stamp ensures that the ink is evenly distributed.  To do this simply ink your stamp then stamp the image on a scrap piece of paper until it comes out as desired. With clear rubber stamps, this step is very simple as you can see the ink coverage before you even stamp the image.
• If your clear  acrylic stamp is starting to lose some of its stickiness and is not sticking to the stamping block as well as you would like, simply wash it with soapy water and let it dry.  Remember a wet clear acrylic stamp WON'T stick to either a clear stamping block or a storage sheet so it must be allowed to dry before using.
• Clear acrylic stamps are proned to staining but remember, even if your clear stamp discolors, as long as you clearn it properly after use, staining will not show up in your future stamping images.

USING CLEAR STAMPS
Clear Stamps are used with our clear acrylic handles for easy inking and positioning. Each clear stamp set comes on a clear plastic carrier sheet with a printed index and a cover sheet to protect from dust, glitter, etc. Peel the clear stamp design from the carrier and place on the clear acrylic handle. The clear acrylic stamp will cling by itself with no other adhesives. Ink and stamp as you would your wood mounted rubber stamps. Use more than one image on a handle if desired. Clean and replace your clear stamps onto the carrier and store in the provided pouch.

INKS
Any inks that you use for your wood mounted rubber stamps can be used with Clear Stamps. However, some inks will stain your clear stamps more than others. Clear embossing inks will not stain. Dye-based inks are the easiest to clean off. Pigment inks will stain slightly. Permanent inks and chalk-based inks will stain.  To reduce staining you may try conditioning new clear stamps by stamping with a light colored ink before stamping with darker colors. 

PAPER
Papers come in many colors, textures, sizes, and decorative shapes. Some papers are acid free and safe to use with photos for archival quality albums. Stamping on smooth glossy papers will show off the brightest marker color impressions. Stamping on matte papers that are soft or textured give a quaint look that is enhanced by colored pencils or watercolor. Embossing metallic colors on dark papers is elegant.

CLEAN-UP
Clean your clear stamps as you would your wood mounted rubber stamps. Use any of the following: stamp cleaners, baby wipes, soap and water, rubbing alcohol, or for tough stains Spoto stain remover. Avoid acetone, bleach and oil-based cleaners. Use rubbing alcohol to clean acrylic handles.

COPYRIGHT
Stampendous clear stamp designs are drawn by Fran Seiford and copyright of Stampendous, Inc. Will ‘n Way clear stamp designs are drawn by Dianne J. Hook and copyright of Will ‘n Way.  Use of these designs is limited to hand stamping. Mechanical reproduction of any designs is strictly prohibited without written permission. Hand stamped originals may be sold.