Tag Archives: how-to

Changing the rubber imprint die on a self inking stamp

If you have moved to a new address, changed your email or phone number, or require a new stamp for another reason, you can reduce costs and cut down on the amount of waste that goes into the landfill by purchasing a new rubber die and ink pad for your self inking stamp.

Steps:

  1. Remove the ink pad from the stamp. Details can be found on the page titled Self Inking Stamp Pad Replacement
  2. Make multiple impressions to remove the ink from the rubber imprint die
  3. Compress the stamp and set the locking pins
  4. Remove the old rubber die using a small screwdriver, knife, or similar tool. Make sure the plate is clean and free of any tape residue.
  5. Remove the paper backing from the new rubber die
  6. Hold the self inking stamp with the manufactures name facing you. Hold the rubber imprint die with the top up
  7. Place the sticky backed rubber die onto the stamp plate. Make sure it is centered and straight so you do not have a crooked stamp impression
  8. Squeeze the stamp to release the locking pins
  9. Replace the ink pad
  10. Make an impression on a new index card and place it on your stamp

We have created a short (1:36) video to describe the above steps.

How to make a great impression with your rubber stamp

Here are some tips for getting a clear impression from your rubber stamp.

Clean your stamp

The small areas on your stamp (such as the center of the o’s) will collect fiber from the paper it is stamped on. These fibers will build up over time making your stamp not as clear as it was when it was new.

Use an old soft toothbrush to clean your stamp. Do not wet the brush. A few gentle flicks with the brush will remove the dirt and your stamp will be as good as new.

Check your ink pad

Does your pad have a flat top? If you have been using a small stamp on your ink pad, then purchase a new larger stamp, you may find that the larger stamp doesn’t ink properly resulting in an uneven impression.

The illustration on the right shows why this happens – the stamp doesn’t touch the ink pad in the indentation made by the smaller stamp. We recommend using seperate ink pads for your different size stamps.

Another option is to move the stamp around as it is picking up ink from the pad (see the video below). If the indentation isn’t too large, you may be able to get an even coating of ink on your stamp by avoiding the idented area.

Is it time to add ink?

When the image starts to fade, resist the temptation to use force by slamming the stamp onto the pad in an attempt to get a darker impression.

Add a few drops of ink and let the pad sit for an hour or so to allow the ink to evenly distribute throughout the pad. It’s easier to add ink to your pad than it is to remove it, so don’t add too much ink when re-inking your pad.

Make an impression

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. – that’s the proper technique for inking your stamp. Multiple, gentle taps will ensure an even layer of ink on your stamp. Pressing too hard on the pad may cause the stamp to pick up too much ink, resulting in a fuzzy image or ink in unwanted areas.

This video shows the tap, tap, tap technique. Also take note that the stamp is moved around on the pad, and not repeatedly tapped onto the same spot.

Questions?

If you have any questions about stamps, please send us a message.

2010 Christmas Cards

I received a number of emails asking about the Vancouver Island Rubber Stamp 2010 Christmas card, so here is a brief tutorial on the creation of these cards.

Materials – three colours of paper, three custom rubber stamps, stamp pad, double sided tape, 3D tape squares, coloured pencils, tortillion, mineral spirits. The three stamps consist of one for the inside greeting, and two for the front of the card – the “ribbon” text and the reindeer. A tortillion is a tightly wound stick of paper which was used with the mineral spirits to blend the wax based coloured pencils.

After making the stamps, I headed to Scrapbook Parade where they kindly (and patiently) directed me through the bewildering variety of papers so I could select the perfect colours for the card. I couldn’t decide which I liked best, so ended up making two versions – brown background and red background. The red paper is silver (light grey) on the back, so when folded, provides a nice light background for the inside greeting.

The 12″ x 12″ beige card stock was cut to 4″ wide so it could be folded into a 4″ x 6″ card. The inside greeting was stamped using black regular stamp pad ink.


To ensure a perfectly straight image, I placed a border on the stamp that was used on the red “ribbon”. After stamping, the border was trimming off and the paper was affixed to the card using double sided tape.

The 3″ x 3″ green paper was applied using three 3D dots. This gave the card a dimensional look and produced a shadow under the green square.

After stamping the image of the reindeer with his garland of stamps, I was ready to get crafty. Four coloured pencils were used – red, green, brown and grey.

The grey was blended with brown on the antlers to give them a different shade than the body of the reindeer. A tortillion dipped in mineral spirits makes it easy to blend the single colours to create light and dark shading. As shown in this photo, after making an outline with the coloured pencil, the tortillion was used to pull the colour into the center of the image, creating a gentle fade and giving the appearance of highlight and shadows.

Making your own cards is easy to do and a ton of fun! The most time consuming part of the process was deciding what text and images I wanted on the card, and then designing the custom stamps. If you require rubber stamps to create unique cards, please contact me with your ideas.