Rubber Stamping and Scrapbooking

Rubber Stamping and Scrapbooking=Scramping

I had never heard the term “scramping” before I started working on this article, but I think it’s a great, fun, shorthand way of explaining how these two crafts combine into a wonderful new think.

Scramping combines the techniques of rubber stamping and scrapbooking to make beautiful, decorative pages. Stamps can be used as embellishments, frames, to add text to a page or to provide the main decoration for the page.

The Wide World of Stamps

There’s almost no end to the great designs in rubber stamps these days. I’m constantly amazed when I go down the rubber stamp aisle at my local craft superstore (one whole side of the aisle is filled with stamps, pads and tools). I always see something new, something I think I can’t live without.

And if your craft shopping takes you to the Internet as mine so often does, you’ll find a treasure trove of stamps as well as projects to get your imagination going. Here are some of my favorite sites for rubber stamps:

• Addicted to Rubber Stamps has a dizzying selection of more than 250,000 stamps and stamping accessories. It claims to have the world’s largest selection of stamps and offers the biggest range of stamp companies you’ll ever see, from the big boys we’ve all heard of to boutique designers. Search by company, look for new products or browse the ideas section for tons of inspiration.

• Impress Rubber Stamps has a much smaller selection of stamps but I absolutely love this site. It is such a beautiful and elegant website, leaving the perfect impression that their products will allow you to make something as nice. Stamps are arranged by theme, and there are many wonderful ideas (though mostly for cards, not scrapbooking).

• Rubber Stamp Store has a well-organized selection of stamps for all occasions. you can also find stencils, stickers and other fun things that might be helpful on your scrapbooking pages. There are many card ideas that might give you ideas for scrapbooking.

A Note About Rubber Stamping and Scrapbooking

Remember that you want your scrapbook to last, so don’t use inks, papers, or anything else that isn’t acid free and of archival quality.

The good news is, it’s pretty easy to find these products at your local craft store or online. Just make sure it says somewhere on the package that the item is acid free or of archival quality. You don’t want you beautiful page to fade because you didn’t use the right ink, do you?

Using Rubber Stamping in Scrapbooking

As I mentioned earlier, there are many different ways you can use rubber stamps in your scrapbooking projects. If you took the time to look at any of the above-mentioned websites you’ve probably come up with some ways to use them as well. Here’s a quick list of ways you could use a rubber stamp to liven up a boring old scrapbook page.

• Use a large rubber stamp to stamp an image in the background of your page, such as flowers, stars, or something else large and graphic.
• Use a small rubber stamp to make a border around the edge of the page.
• Find an appropriate text rubber stamp (there are tons of these, some of which are phrases, some quotes, some just words like “friendship”) and stamp it on your page.
• Use a large block stamp (you can find round, square, rectangle and other shapes) to stamp a light block of color on your page. Allow to dry and write your journaling inside the stamped area.
• Use a frame stamp to make a picture frame on your page. you can either stamp directly on the page around the photo or stamp the frame on a piece of card stock and cut it out. This will allow you to cover the edges of the picture and give the page a little more depth.
• Don’t forget embossing! This great technique using special ink, embossing powder and a heat gun makes any stamped image slightly raised. Using different colors of inks and powders can give you a whole range of different looks.
• Use alphabet stamps to stamp your title or any other words you want to stand out on the page.

These are just a few basic ideas for combining rubber stamping and scrapbooking. As you work with these two crafts you are sure to find a multitude of ways to combine them.