In order to take a rubber stamp off of a wooden block, I use a very sturdy metal spatula and put it between the foam and the block. Pressing straight down, I remove the stamp. If it won’t come off, I have heard you can microwave them, but have never tried it.
If you can also remove the image from the front of the stamp, it’s nice to apply the sticker to your storage so you know exactly what your stamp looks like.
To create storage for your rubber stamps you will need:
3″ 3 ring binder
cereal boxes
8 1/2 x 11″ paper, whatever color you like
crop a dile or poky tool or 3 hole punch if you can get it through the materials you need to punch or very sturdy one hole punch
glue or hot glue
pencil
clear contact paper
good scissors, I recommend Tim Holtz short blade ones for cutting the cardboard
a piece of notebook paper with 3 holes or an existing rubber stamp storage sheet to line up your holes, you can use your three ring binder as a guide as well but I’ve never been very successful using this for the depth of the holes.
a brayer or rolling pin
Cut your cereal box to 8 1/2″ x 11″ using both sides of the box
then glue the colored paper to both sides.
Put your existing rubber stamp storage sheet, or notebook paper onto your colored paper lining up all edges. Take your pencil and make circles inside the circles where the holes will be.
Use whatever punch tool you have and punch through all layers on the circles you created.
On a large flat surface, unroll your contact paper and place your new storage sheet centered top and bottom on the contact paper about 4″ from the right edge. Wrap the 4″ around the side of the storage sheet and press firmly in place making sure there are no big creases or bubbles. Carefully, unroll more contact paper and roll your storage sheet onto it holding the contact paper tightly so you don’t get creases. Use the brayer on the back and front. You can now cut the contact paper on the edge or wrap around the back so you have a thicker surface. An additional layer of contact paper doesn’t hurt. Now using your scissors or poky tool, poke through the contact paper on your holes. Place in the binder.
To use stamps on this surface if they do not adhere.
Use Alene’s Tack it Over and Over in small dots on the back.
Place your stamp close to the top and corner of your page to conserve space and put the sticker of the image as close to it as possible. I overlap part of the sticker with my stamp so I can only see the stamp image and not the outline of the sticker.
If any of your stamps won’t stick to your acrylic blocks you can:
l. use Aleene’s Tack it Over and Over in small dots on back
2. Run tape runner over back but don’t overdo it.
3.. Use a glue stick on the back.
To clean your acrylic block, either use a baby wipe or alcohol to remove residue.
I hope this helps, it’s easy and saves a lot of money considering the storage sheets are about $1 each on sale.
To use a rubber stamp without the foam backing, get Aleene’s Tack it Over and Over and put small dots on the back and adhere to your storage sheets. Then use a rock a block or Misti to ensure a good image on a padded surface. I don’t buy stamps with foam backing any more as I’ve never had problems stamping without. If it is a larger image, put the stamp on the surface and ink it and then rub your paper over the image making sure it doesn’t shift while you rub it. Make sure to rub the entire image.
If you have stamps that aren’t trimmed, make sure you trim them as close to the edge of the image as possible to make sure you don’t get lines showing from the edge of the stamp.
