Why didn't I think of that?

Did you ever come across some idea that was so mind blowing, yet so simple?  One of those fantabulous ideas that is sheer genius?

Well, this may not be new to all of you, but it sure was new to me and when I heard about it, I just had one of those 'Duh!' moments and said Why didn't I think of that?

I do sometimes get stamps which are unmounted, just the plain rubber and so I use EZ Mount, that super sticky glued foam pad that sticks so well to your mounting blocks.

Well.....here is my tutorial for mounting these types of rubber stamps.

What you need

 EZ Mount foam
Clear block
double sided tape
StazOn ink
StazOn ink cleaner
unmounted rubber stamps
Pen

 Trim the excess rubber away from the raised image and tack it to your clear block with a strip of double sided tape.

Next peel the thick white backing off the NON GLUED side of your EZ Mount foam.  Lay your foam sheet down on your bench with the non sticky gray side facing up.

 Ink up your stamp with StazOn ink and press it firmly onto the foam.  It's quite soft and sticky so you need to hold the foam when you lift the stamp and block away.  Careful not to smudge your image when doing this.

 Next I trim the stamped image from the sheet, remove the stamp from the block and lay it back over the top of the image, I check the edges to see how well I've lined it all up.

Then using a pen, draw around the edge of the rubber.  Cut along this line, this will help you stick the rubber down in the right spot.

  Peel the printed paper from the EZ Mount and carefully stick your rubber to the sticky side of the foam.  This glue is super strong, so you need to be careful when doing this.

I then trim the excess rubber and foam from around the image so the edges don't pick up ink.  

Be careful when doing this, don't try cutting around curves, make lots of small straight cuts to do your curves.  

Hold your scissors straight so your blades cut vertically and not on an angle.  This will keep the foam edges straight and mean even pressure when you stamp.



Here is the finished stamp, now I can see more easily what the image is and where it is on my block.

I wonder how many of you are now doing the same thing I did, saying.....Gosh, Why didn't I think of that?

Unfortunately I have no idea who came up with this idea.  I'm just glad that crafters share these moments of brilliance!

Until next time.

Cheers,
Kasey ~ in Oz