Amazing Casting Products: #Cre8time Greetings... DIY Natural Stamped Cards by Tracy Alden

Monday, November 28

#Cre8time Greetings... DIY Natural Stamped Cards by Tracy Alden

Hello! Tracy here with another Amazing Casting Products tutorial! Large stamps can end up costing an artist a lot of money. Since relief print plates, otherwise known as a stamps, are basically plates with protruding details and images that are inked, leaving the recessed areas ink free, I thought why not make my own with fallen leaves? With the help of Amazing Mold Rubber I was able to create my own print plate, with leaves, to create handmade holiday cards.

Supplies:

Amazing Mold Rubber
Original Sculpey Polymer Clay or Non-Hardening Modeling Clay
Freshly Fallen Leaves
2 Ceramic Tiles
Stylus
StazOn Ink
Beacon Gem-Tac Adhesive
Pasta Machine
Ruler
Blank greeting cards measuring 4 1/4" x 5 1/2
Craft scissors

Using a pasta machine (devoted to craft use only) set on the thickest setting I conditioned some polymer clay. I placed my now smooth clay on a ceramic tile, trimming the uneven edges. I used a ruler as a cutting guide, making sure that the clay just under 4 1/4" x 5 1/2".

The uncured clay acted as a base to place the freshly collected fallen leaves, I was sure to pick leaves still pliable and with raised veins. I pushed them into the clay, careful to press them flat as possible.

*Any plant material can be used for this, just make sure to pick ones that can lay flat enough to get a good impression.

The leaves being still fresh meant they were inclined to raise up a bit so I placed another ceramic tile on top of the tile with the clay and leaves. I put a large jug of water on top of the second tile and let the bottle act as a leaf press for 6 hours (you might have to press the leaves longer if you live in a high humidity area).

I conditioned more polymer clay and created a clay wall around the edges of the uncured clay and leaf piece. To make sure I was creating a tight seal with the clay edges I pressed the clay in place with a metal stylus. I noticed some of the pressed leaves lifting and glued them down with Beacon Gem-Tac Adhesive.

*At no point in the process of this project did I cure the clay in the oven. I wanted to keep it in a raw and soft state to create a temporary mold box that would not be affected by the Amazing Mold Rubber.

Carefully following the instructions, I mixed up Amazing Mold Rubber and slowly poured it into my mold box {CLICK HERE to view mixing/preparation}. Once the Mold Rubber was cured I carefully removed the soft clay and leaves. Since there was a bit of seepage of Amazing Mold Rubber, I carefully trimmed the excess with sharp craft scissors.

After trimming the now finished print plate I scrubbed it clean to remove any bits of leaves still stuck in the Mold Rubber. I just loved the amount of detail the Amazing Mold Rubber was able to capture from the leaves!

I inked my print plate to do a test print on some copy paper to see how it would work. I found that depending on how heavily I applied the ink and on what portions of the plate I could create many different styled inked impressions.

The print plate being made from Amazing Mold Rubber would shift slightly if pressed unevenly, so when I would place the inked plate on a blank greeting card I was careful to press firmly and evenly to get a good ink transfer.

The nature of making prints from a reprintable block is that while the image on the block is permanent, the inking process is different for each print, making them unique. With the additions of paper crafting embellishments and sentiment every card inked is a one of a kind piece of mini artwork!