Rubber Stamping Ideas: How to Get Your Money's Worth from Any Alphabet Stamp Set

Do you get your money's worth out of your alphabet stamp sets? If not, these suggestions will help you get more bang for the bucks you've spent (or will spend) on your rubber stamp collection.

Supplies You Need:

One alphabet rubber stamp set

One or more ink pads - the more colors, the better, but you can get great results even if you only have one color

At least one marker or scrapbooking pen, but an assortment of markers and pens is ideal

Cardstock and patterned papers - a variety. For each stamp set, I usually use 1 or more sheets each of white, off-white, beige, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, lavender, pink, and several different patterned papers. If you use patterned papers, go with patterns that aren't too bright or busy; light colors work best.

Cutting templates - a circle template, square template, and any other templates you might want to try

A variety of decorative scissors and paper edgers

A good organization / storage system - for example, a Paper sticker binder or similar storage system for organizing your stamped images

Write down the following:

The names of all friends, loved ones, acquaintances and co-workers that you have either taken pictures of or sent greeting cards to within the last year. Make sure to put your own name on the list, too.

The names of your pets, if any

Using a highlighter, highlight the names of the top 10 people you are most likely to make scrapbook layouts about.

For each of those people, complete these phrases at least three different times

__________ likes
__________ loves
__________ hates
__________ 's favorite __________

And don't forget yourself:

I like....
I love...
I hate...
My favorite __________

Do you take a vacation? If so, where do you go? Do you have favorite activities when on vacation? Write down any and all words that apply - use words that you might like to use as photo captions, labels for your scrapbook pages, layout titles, etc. Include the dates of next year's vacation. If you haven't already made scrapbook pages about last year's vacation, include those dates too.

Write down words and phrases about any holidays or special occasions you like to celebrate, or have celebrated within the past year, plus any big events that you usually look forward to. Examples:

Our Annual Christmas Party
Our Passover Seder
Alex's Birthday Party
Mother's Day Brunch
Our Family Reunion
Tailgating at the Big Game
Fourth of July Fireworks
Karen's Dance Recital
Our Anniversary Dinner
Octoberfest 20__

Now write down the types of greeting cards you usually like to send:

Happy Birthday
Thank You
Happy Anniversary
In Sympathy
Congratulations!
Happy Holidays!

Write down any other ideas you have for projects you'd like to stamp with your alphabet stamp set.

Stamp Your Ideas:

Now it's time to get busy stamping.

There are about a zillion different ways you can approach the stamping. You can do it however you like, as long as you are happy with the outcome.

When I'm doing this drill with my own stamp sets, I usually stamp each letter individually and cut it out individually. Then I store the letters together until I am ready to use them.

The downside to that: the letters can get separated if you don't make sure to put them away promptly. So, be sure to clean up after yourself and put your stuff away carefully after each stamping session. Otherwise, your work will be a waste.

Another possible approach is to stamp each word or phrase onto a tag, die-cut, or strip of paper. That way, you only have one piece of paper to keep track of for each phrase. I do it this way sometimes too.

Decide which approach you'd like to take. Then, stamp each of the ideas you wrote down at least once; it's better if you can stamp each one ten times or more. (Hey, the goal here is to get your money's worth out of the stamp set, right?)

The first time, stamp it on plain white cardstock with plain black ink. If you have more colors of ink, stamp it again on plain white cardstock with a different ink color. Then stamp it again with a different ink color. Stamp it as many times as you want to onto white; then move onto another cardstock color. Keep stamping!

At this point, I am going to stop for a minute and explain some more details about how I do this. Let's say I'm stamping my own name, Amy.

I'd stamp the A, the m, and the y with black ink. I'd leave enough space between the letters so that I have room to cut them out.

Let's say I'll use my circle template to cut out the first set. Perhaps I will draw a circle around each letter with my black pen, and then cut around the circles with scalloped scissors. Then I'll color in the scallops with the same black pen. So, in the end, I have 3 scalloped circles that spell out my name, "Amy."

The next time I do this, maybe I'll use a square template to cut out the stamped letters. Perhaps instead of using my scalloped scissors, I'll use just regular scissors instead. I could use black ink and pink cardstock for a different look. So, in the end I'll have my name, "Amy," spelled out in pink and black squares.

There are infinite possible ways to stamp your own name. It can be so much fun to just play with possibilities. After awhile, your name might get boring; at that point, move on to the next idea on your list.

If you make it the whole way through your idea list, and you've stamped out all your ideas, you'll have plenty of material to work with next time you sit down to scrapbook / make cards / create art. You'll also take great satisfaction in knowing that you definitely got your money's worth out of your stamp set!

Selling or Trading Alphabet Stamp Sets

When I've finished systematically working my way through stamping the ideas on my idea list, I will often sell my entire stamp set. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't; if the stamp set works really well with my style, I might decide to keep it. More often, I sell it and use the money to buy other supplies, or I trade it for a different stamp set. These days, I hang onto very few of the stamps I buy. This allows me to get even more mileage out of the money I spend on stamps.

Share Your Ideas for Getting Your Money's Worth Out of an Alphabet Stamp Set

This system works well for me, and I'm pleased to share these ideas with you. I hope they'll help you get your money's worth out of your stamp sets too. If you have ideas you'd like to share for getting your money's worth out of an alphabet stamp set, you're invited to post a comment in the comments area below. I'd love to hear your ideas as well.