Mirror Stamping.

A number of people have asked me about the articles I wrote over the years ... especially those about stamping techniques. I decided to repeat some here on my blog. The technique/article I want to start with is the one on "mirror' stamping.

Like the name implies, the idea is to create the illusion that the image is “mirrored” or “reflected”. The important part to the technique is to remember that when objects are “mirrored” or “reflected” they appear reversed, upside down and lighter. Although it sounds complicated it’s very do-able with the right tools and all you need is a sheet of rubber available at most home improvement store’s plumbing department. Actually you can also purchase a rubber stamp with no image that is used for this purpose; however, I found the size and the cost prohibitive. I would also recommend using a stamp positioning tool (I use a Stamp-a-ma-jig) unless you feel confident enough with your visual alignment skills.  To demonstrate the technique I chose two simple cards: one with a single mirrored image and a second with two mirrored images. There are, of course, many more ways to use this technique.

Lighthouse Card (single mirrored image)

Step 1: Lay the rubber pad down flat on your work surface and stamp the lighthouse (Inkadinkado) in grey ink aligning the bottom of the stamp with the bottom of the rubber pad.  I used grey to keep the mirrored lighthouse lighter than the direct stamped lighthouse.

Step 2: Lay the background paper over the stamped lighthouse face down (making sure that there is enough room for the rest of the stamping) and rub the back of the paper to transfer the inked lighthouse.  Peal back the paper carefully so as not to smear the ink, set it aside and let the ink dry completely before continuing.

Step 3: While the ink is drying clean the rubber pad with soap and water or with the same product you use to clean your rubber stamps.

Step 4: When the ink is dry, turn the paper around so that the stamped lighthouse is upside down and using a position tool direct stamp the lighthouse in black ink slightly overlapping the bottom edges and again set aside and let the ink dry.

Step 5: When the ink has dried, color the design.

To finish the lighthouse card, I trimmed the stamped panel so that the water line is centered on the card; I then edged the stamped panel with light blue ink and mounted the finished panel on a dark blue paper; which I trimmed 1/8” larger than the stamped panel and mounted them on a white card.  The text I used is a sticker, but obviously a stamped text can be used as well. 

Deer at Rest Card (double mirrored image)

Step 1: Lay the rubber pad down flat on your work surface and stamp the deer (Stampin’ Up!) with brown ink on the rubber pad aligning the bottom of the stamp with the bottom of the rubber pad.

Step 2: Lay the background paper over the stamped deer face down (making sure that there is enough room for the rest of the stamping) and rub the back of the paper to transfer the inked lighthouse.  Peal back the paper carefully so as not to smear the ink, set it aside and let the ink dry completely before continuing.

Step 3: While the ink is drying clean the rubber pad with soap and water or with the same product you use to clean your rubber stamps.

Step 4: Lay the background paper face up on your work surface (the deer should be upside down) and lightly draw a pencil line extending to the left from the bottom of the deer image (which is now the top).  Make a small pencil mark above the pencil line marking where the deer image ends on the left side.

Step 5: Place the tree image (Stampin’ Up!) stamp face up on your work surface and align one edge of the rubber pad along the stamp’s edge and mark the length of the image with two pencil marks.  Transfer/extend the marks so that they are visible on the back side of the rubber pad.

Step 6: Lay the rubber pad down flat on your work surface with the marked edge on the bottom and stamp the tree image in brown ink between the pencil marks along the edge of the rubber pad.

Step 7: Carefully rotate the rubber pad and align the edge of the stamped portion of the rubber mat to the underside of the line you drew and aligning the right pencil mark on the back of the rubber pad to the left one at the end of the deer, lay down the rubber pad and rub the back to transfer the image to the paper.  If everything worked out you should have a continuous image.

Step 8: When the ink is dry, turn the paper around so that the stamped deer and tree is upside down and using a position tool direct stamp the deer and tree in brown ink slightly overlapping the bottom edges and again set aside and let the ink dry.

Step 9: When the ink has dried, color the design.

To finish the deer card, I trimmed the stamped panel so that the water line is centered on the card; I then edged the stamped panel with brown ink and mounted the panel on a white card.