Fun Foam shapes for Big Kids: make stamps with your Cuttlebug!

You know that gorgeous Queen & Co felt trim? This gorgeous felt trim? I've seen people cut the flowers from it and use them separately ( I looked for a particular post to show you for an hour and gave up...) SOooo... I love the look, but I don't have any of that gorgeous felt trim. So I made a fun foam version.

I do still want to get some of the felty goodness, but I think fun foam is great for this, because it is a little more shapable and sturdier than felt. And you can do something else nifty with fun foam... since the shapes can stay lifted up like this...


...I thought I'd better have something to go under it. Then I wondered 'Why not turn them into stamps?' And it works! You can layer stamping and die-cuts in the exact same shape and size!?! All Matchy-poo even. (I think I set off the stampdorkiness meter) ;-D.

I'm sure this has been done before, but it floated my boat so much that I had to share. It's so easy too! Basically, you just die cut it and stick it on a block, but here are some how-to details that might come in handy if you try it.

DIY Fun Foam Stamps:

A) Die-cut fun foam & mount it B) Stamp a background

A) Die-cut fun foam & mount it: You can make your own stamps in any shape you can die cut! Fun foam cuts like butter in a cuttlebug with dies. You can cut it just like you would paper. I double mounted 2 different shapes on this wooden block (1 on each side.)

After making the shape, mounting it on a wooden block is easy. I used Crystal Effects. It holds well, but will peel off easily if you want to reuse the block (you can just scrape the adhesive off the block to reuse it.) You could use a Xyron or temporary adhesive & stick 'em to an acrylic block.

B) Stamp a background: I wanted a pattern on the paper flower, so I added the circles from Boho Backgrounds:

You could use a stampamajig for perfection when placing your background
& adding your shape or just stamp it a few times.

A) Curve stamp B) Stamp & Cut out C) Pierce stitches

A) Curve stamp: Acrylic stamps are great curved. You can arange them any way you like on the acrylic block & use it to cut wavy pieces of cardstock. This stamp is from A-Muse's Fancy Borders set.

B) Stamp & Cut out: The stitches were stamped in Pixie Pink & I cut along the curve. I like to leave extra length on the cardstock so there's some choice when it comes to deciding on the final of the cardstock placement when I'm sticking it on the card.

C) Pierce stitches: These stitches are super handy guide for paper piercing. I used four pieces of fun foam as a mat & two pins to hold it in place. Inexpensive (and handy in case you're shifty like me!) ;0)

A) Trace the curve B) Cut to create a second curve

A) Trace the curve: I used the curved piece of cardstock (cut along the stamp) as a kind of template to trace & make other parts of the card:

• For the bright pink flowered designer paper (retired SU Loves me valentine paper with silver pen & white gel pen details added to it)
• For the stitches along that paper (just trace curves in pencil & free-hand paper pierce)
• For a mask when stamping the silver flowers (trace it onto thin paper so the mask doesn't interfere with the stamping too much) Flowers are also from Boho Backgrounds.

The sentiment...

...was made with three stamps sets. The large "delight" (from Paint Prints) is stamped in black classic ink. I outlined it in a silver pen from Creative Memories. The large 'd' is from Jumbo Outline alphabet. It's stamped it in Pixie Pink & dotted it with a Sakura white glaze pen (my new fave of faves.) The Pixie Pink delight definition is from Define your life.

Do you forget what sentiments each set has? I need to make a book of just sentiments, so I can use them more. I don't add enough sentiments (or enough alphabets) so it was fun to try something new with the three together.

Other ideas for fun-foam stamps:

• Stamp on designer paper
• Stamp shape in stazon and watercolour inside the lines
• Stamp solid shape and emboss
• Use them to create emboss resist
  
• Create a background
• Make them for your kids to play with (if they get wrecked they cost pennies to replace)
  

The quality of the image with fun-foam stamps is softer than with rubber stamps (less defined edges.) With inking it, I found it was important to look at the inked fun-foam stamp to make sure there was full ink coverage. Even pressure and letting sit on the page for a second helps the ink soak into the paper. I liked the coverage I got with Craft (pigment) inks.

The best way to clean them seems to be stamping off the excess and pressing hard into a wet paper towel then a dry one.

Well, I'm off to Cuttlebug fun-foam until my head explodes from crafty happiness. Ynuk ynuk!
Hope you're feelin' craft-happy too! :0)



P.S. Can you guess from the first photo--way up there--what the next post will entail? (I'm such a stampgeek!) ;0)

P.P.S. WAY cool new Stampin Up product line here: Definitely Decorative

P.P.P.S. Don't forget blog candy here