Rubber Stamping as a Hobby
Rubber stamps have been around for years in different forms and used for different purposes. Today, rubber stamping is becoming an increasingly popular hobby. The scrap booking trend is on the rise, and rubber stamps attribute to a lot of the decorating techniques used in this hobby. Rubber stamps can come in many sizes and shapes. Just about any impression can be found on a rubber stamp at this point. This factor allows a person to customize and personalize virtually about anything they want. Rubber stamps are not only used in scrap booking, creating stationary and greeting cards, but also decorating the home. Now people are using rubber stamps to decorate furniture and walls, too. The possibilities are endless, depending on the individual's imagination.
There are several different styles of rubber stamps that can be purchased:
- There is the self inking rubber stamp, which is the most commonly used. This rubber stamp has the ink pad built right in the stamp. One motion and the stamp will flip into the ink and back down to the surface with an impression! This type of rubber stamp can be easily re-inked too, so it is the most convenient and the least expensive to purchase.
- There is the pre-inked rubber stamp available to buy. This type of rubber stamp has the die embedded right directly into the stamp itself. This process is done with extreme high temperatures. The problem with this type is that it is more expensive to re-ink due to the fact that it cannot be reheated and it has to go through another process. The quality of the ink is never the same after it is re-inked.
- A flash stamp is similar to a pre-inked stamp. The only difference is that it has a thin membrane on the stamp that can be easily re-inked. However, it takes special equipment so there again it will cost more.
- The traditional hand stamp is the other most widely used rubber stamp. This rubber stamp and ink pad come separately. The biggest advantage to this is that the stamp can come in about any size.
Colors of ink can vary from company, but the most common colors are black, red blue, green and violet. You can choose from a rubber or wood handle. Also, now the rubber stamp also can be made from foam, too. There are several great websites out there online to order your rubber stamps from. There are also magazines on rubber stamping and chat sessions to subscribe to if you want to become a rubber stamping enthusiast!
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