Paper by K&Company and StazOn® Ink

It is so exciting that we are now selling rubber stamps and decorative paper at FusionBeads.com as there are so many incredibly creative ways to use these products to make jewelry. Today I have included as many of my experiments with the new rubber stamps and paper products as I can. I hope that this blog post serves as a good resource for you when you launch yourself into the world of rubber stamping and jewelry. You might think this is intimidating, but it’s not, and I hope these tips will take a lot of the guesswork out of it. Below I will show you some photographs of the pieces I experimented with – some worked, while others did not – with a description of each.

Pendant 1: I made this piece by rubber stamping an image onto paper, sealing the paper three times with Nunn Design Sealant (letting each layer dry for 20 minutes), and then pouring ICE Resin into the pendant. I allowed the piece to cure for three days. I think it turned out pretty cute, don’t you?

Pendant 2: I wanted to make this piece with the stamped images “floating” above the paper. I began by sealing the paper as before. Then I poured a layer of ICE Resin and filled the bezel only halfway. After letting the resin cure, I stamped the little bird directly onto the resin and let that dry for five minutes. Once the ink was dry, I poured a thin layer of ICE Resin over it and let the resin cure. Then I added another stamped layer, the twig, and let that layer dry. Sadly, this one did not turn out as I had hoped – the bird image doesn’t look nearly as sharp as on the first pendant, and I don’t like the way the twig turned out.

Pendant 3: I made this piece by rubber stamping a graphic image onto paper with orange StazOn® Ink, sealing the paper three times with Nunn Design Sealant (letting each layer dry for 20 minutes), and then pouring ICE Resin into the pendant. I allowed the piece to cure for three days. I then used the same process here as I did with pendant 2, but I added a final layer of resin after the twig stamp. You can see here that the twig disappeared almost completely. It seems the resin made the green ink disappear. I have since discovered that if you seal the ink with Nunn Sealant, it will not disappear and will remain as sharp as if you had stamped onto paper.

Pendants 4 and 5: Here are some more experiments similar to pendants 1, 2 and 3. As you can see, I did not seal the ink before I poured a second layer of resin, so the black text is a little faded and not very sharp.

Pendants 6 and 7: I experimented with Diamond Glaze with these two pendants. You can see the ink worked well with the glaze – it did not blur or fade as it did with the ICE Resin. But the Diamond Glaze layers were too thick, so they dried with a milky finish. I don’t think it looks too bad, but I was a little disappointed.

Pendants 8 and 9: I’m so pleased with how these turned out! All I did was rubber stamp directly onto the Nunn raised tag pendants – so easy! (I sealed the bird cage piece with Nunn Design Sealant but did nothing to the spiral piece. I suspect the bird cage will hold up better after lots of wear, but only time will tell.) I have noticed that rubber stamps with fine lines rather than a lot of solid areas tend to work better on non-porous surfaces. I think it may be because the ink bleeds on porous surfaces and therefore covers up any inconsistencies, while non-porous surfaces are not as forgiving.

Pendant 10: After the success of pendants 8 and 9, I decided to take it one step further. I stamped directly onto the tag pendant with a cute floral design and mint opaque StazOn® Ink, and then I stamped a little bird with black StazOn® Ink. Adorable! I sealed the pendant with Nunn Design Sealant, let that dry for 20 minutes, and applied a thin layer of ICE Resin. I fell completely in love with this pendant and made it into something flirty and pretty. Take a look!

Till next time – Sam