Quick & Easy Stamps

Hi all - Carmen here :) I must apologize straight away for my photos on this post - I'm fighting with sun glare or a dark, dark house at the moment :)

I use loads and loads of scented candles and have lots of these little glass jars from candles I buy from the pound shops - you get them in all the cheapy pound, 99p type places.

I hated to throw the jars away because, even though I've yet to work out how to get the dregs of wax out, I still liked the shape of the jars and lets face it... us crafters, we're born hoarders aren't we?
 
The other day I had a brainwave and decided to try and turn the lids into stamps. I drew around the bottom of the lids onto mount board - any thickish card stock would do - and attached to the bottom of the lid to give me a flat surface.

Then I got out the tub of foam shapes that we bought in Hobbycraft years ago - it's always in use and has lasted ages, am pretty sure it was quite cheap too. Knowing me it must have been!

 

I found 3 butterflies of the same size and layered them one on top of the other just to make sure there was a bit of space between the card and image. The shapes are self adhesive which was a big bonus making this a really quick little project. Stamp number one done.

For stamp two I found a grunge board skull in my stash. I layered that on to a larger foam flower with some double sided tape and cut around it to give that a bit of height from the card too. Any foam would do - I just liked that these bits of foam are self adhesive, I'm always hacking into them and changing their shapes for various projects :)

I'm quite pleased - I've now got two new stamps that I'm more than happy for my girls to mess around with and I love the images too. The knobbly handles make it easy for my youngest to hold and they have a nice rocking motion on them. I've got some dragonfly foam shapes left in the tub and I may cut some circle shapes out of the bigger bits of foam to make some button stamps too :)
 

Time to go buy more candles methinks ;) Thanks for stopping by everyone.

Carmen x

Comments

[Lynne V.]

Great idea, I have a pot of those foam shapes somewhere.
I particularly like the skull stamp.

[Debbie Roberts]

Brilliant idea Carmen, I know my mum is a fan of foam shapes, she uses them for her grandchildren, will have to go and raid her stash lol.

[Eleanor]

Born hoarders? You're not wrong, but if it means you come up with a fab idea like this, well, keep on hoarding I say. Oh, and go here to find out how to get the last wax out
http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Wax-out-of-a-Jar-Candle

E
xx

[Gail R]

Woah that's really inventive!

Not that I'll get round to doing any of it- faaaarrr too much on my list already lol

*hugs*

G xx

[Happy Days]

Wow what a great idea. I've sheets of that foam stuff and keep looking at it thinking I should bin it! Not now though!

As for the glass jars, I have a little row of them in my bathroom taking up precious toiletry space, so guess what I'm going to be doing this week?? Thanks for sharing. xx

[Helen Lindfield]

What a great idea, and I love the skull...

[Jenny]

Loving the skull hun, fabbi idea! As for the wax, boiling water! Works every time.

[Linda Elbourne]

What a fab idea ... is there no end to your talents X

[nicky]

Great idea Carmen. I'm thinking I might use my new stencils on the foam rubber too. Thanks for the motivation/idea. x

[Sandra Hall]

Ingenious - thats what you are Mrs! x x

[Sam]

Great idea Carmen, we have a tub of those shapes in the cupboard so I might give this a go!

[jayne]

I missed these before soz xxxx
Great idea x

[Paige]

FAB idea Carmen I can ruby running about the house with them, hopefully not stamping anything that stays still long enough :) If you put the almost empty candle jars in the freezer over night the wax will come out real easy.