MOUNTING RUBBER STAMPS

It's easy to mount and index your own stamps using mounting supplies from
Viva Las Vegastamps!

METHOD ONE:
PERMANENT MOUNTING ON WOOD BLOCKS

Materials needed:

• VLVS!Unmounted rubber die (Check out our great Big Whopper Pound O' Rubber deal!)
• Mounting Cushion (double sticky)
• Stampo's Miracle Rubber Cutting Scissors
• Wood
  (Check out our great offer on the Big Whopper Two-Pounder O'Wood
  or select specific sizes from the chart & price list provided under Wood Mounts)
• Black Fabric Ink or Staz-On or the like
• Felt InkPad
• OR Indexing Sheets

1. Peel the paper off one side of mounting cushion (as large an area as needed to lay down your rubber dies).
2. Cut between each die so you have them separated.
3. Using your Stampo Miracle Rubber Cutting Scissors, cut die and cushion at the same time... cut up as close to the die as you can without cutting it but don't undercut! Hold your scissors at an angle so that you are cutting away from the rubber\ and not under the rubber/... it's easiest to hold the scissors in one place and move the die around as it needs to be cut.
4. Ink up your Felt InkPad with Black Fabric Ink.
   We recommend a LARGE ink pad so that you can index any size stamp. Press your die onto the InkPad and then lay it on its back on a flat surface and press your pre-selected piece of wood down onto the die in roughly the position you plan to put the die. Let the indexing dry.
5. When wood is dry, peel the paper backing off the other side of the die and stick it to the underside of the wood.
6. This method of indexing will stain your rubber but won't hurt it. If you wish, clean off the fabric ink as best you can with Solvent Stamp Cleaner... or use a mixture of 50% Window Cleaner and 50% water or Baby Wipes containing no lanolin or alcohol. If you prefer, you can mount your stamp and then stamp on our Indexing Sheets (or photocopy onto the sheets after you stamp all your images in black on a piece of paper... or even scan in the images and print on the indexing sheet), cut out your images and stick them to the wood (any type of permanent pad... Brilliance or Memories, for example... will work) or you can use pigment ink on the wood and then emboss it. You can even stamp white label sheets with any type of pad (solid or rainbow) and cut out the image an stick it to the wood. There's more than one way to skin a cat and there's more than one way to index a stamp!
   For many, life's too short to buy unmounted and they'd rather spend their time stamping, but for others, it's an economical way to build a larger collection of rubber stamps with limited funds.
7. If you have any questions about mounting stamps after reading this, please feel free to e-mail them to stampo@stampo.com and we'll try to answer them.

METHOD TWO:
TEMPORARY MOUNTING ON ACRYLIC BLOCKS

Because of storage and cost concerns, many stampers prefer to mount their dies temporarily as they need to use them and then store them in a photo album or some other storage book when not in use... if you get one of the albums that has the sticky pages with the fold-over plastic, you can easily organize and find your dies when you need them.

Materials needed:

• VLVS! Unmounted rubber die
  (Check out our great Big Whopper Pound O' Rubber deal!)
• EZ-Mounting Cushion OR double-sided sticky cushion and Static Cling Sheets
• Stampo's Miracle Rubber Cutting Scissors
• Acrylic Blocks

1. Peel the paper off one side of mounting cushion (as large an area as needed to lay down your rubber dies).
2. Cut between each die so you have them separated.
3. Using your Stampo Miracle Rubber Cutting Scissors, cut die and cushion at the same time... cut up as close to the die as you can without cutting it but don't undercut! Hold your scissors at an angle so that you are cutting away from the rubber\ and not under the rubber/... it's easiest to hold the scissors in one place and move the die around as it needs to be cut.
4. Note, if you've bought your stamps from us cushioned or are cushioning them yourself with double-sided sticky cushion, you will peel off the blue backing and stick to a Static Cling Sheet, cut around the image and then peel the paper backing off the sheet
5. Adhere the vinyl mounted stamp to an acrylic block closest to the size of your stamp.
6. Stamp as you would any stamp... if you get ink on the acrylic, you can clean it off with rubbing alcohol and a soft cloth.
7. Clean your die with a commercial stamp cleaner or a mixture of 50% Window Cleaner and 50% water... or with my personal favorite -- Baby Wipes containing no lanolin or alcohol.
8. Store your vinyl mounted stamps in a photo album or on our Plastic Storage Sheets so they're easily viewed and ready for use when you need them.

The supplies needed for mounting are all available in our Online Store under "Mounting Supplies".

More Rubber Techniques

Fun With Miracle Tape

Making Your Own Envelopes

Making A Stained Glass Card

Scratch Off!