Don’t Stencil Your Wall, Stamp It!!!

Kelly Condie Thompson
by Kelly Condie Thompson
10 Materials
$20
2 Days
Advanced
This method of decorating your wall is so much more creative and goes much more quickly than stenciling. Allow me to explain. There are hundreds of molds that can be used in any number of embossing machines that are on the market today. The machines that could help you make a stamp are: Cuttlebugs, Big Shot, Sizzix, Spellbinders, Silhouette, etc. I used a Cuttlebug Machine and the Sizzix mold - Valentine Flourishes.
I ran this mold through the cuttlebug machine 4 times with thin sheets of craft foam and glued the layers together and onto a ruler. I chose a ruler because it would keep the foam material (that was cut from the mold) nice and straight and would be easier to place whenever I used it as a stamp.
I made just one section for use where the entire ruler would not fit - against the wall or into the corners. This little section could be turned over and upside down and put together to make a long, one piece stamp.
Next, it was important to decide the placement of the stamp. I took the level and held it against each edge where the stamp was going to be placed. It was important to have the level be used for placement, also to make sure your lines are plumb. I marked the wall with white chalk for most of the project. I learned that it was a mistake using the blue chalk that came with the plumb line. It just didn’t erase off of the wall very well. I had to actually paint over it where it showed through the stamp with another layer of paint. (You want to learn from my mistake on this one and not make more work for yourself.)
This photo shows what the wall would look like with only the stamp. It was too plain (in my opinion). You can see the blue chalk line. Oops!
This was the acrylic, white gloss paint that I used for the stamp. But, I used a ratio of 1/3 Cup of paint with 2 tsps. of water added to it and mixed thoroughly. I was worried that using pure paint was going to be too heavy for some of the finer details of the stamp. So, I thinned the paint and it worked just like I wanted it to. Sometimes the stamp produced too light of an image, but by carefully placing it back over the top of the stamped place that I had just done and rocking the stamp back and forth to get the impressions of the sides of the stamp, it worked very well. And, with the stamp and ruler being so thin, it was easy to put it right back in place, over the area I had just stamped that was too light. I did apply more paint to the stamp in-between stampings to get a more precise image. Yes, I know that in the regular stamping world you are not supposed to rock the stamp, but this stamp was made from different materials that your regular rubber stamp. Rocking this stamp was necessary.
This is what the stamp looked like with a few extra details added with the silver scrapbooking pen. It was metallic so it added some nice interest to the plain white of the stamp and the gray of the wall. I left a small space in-between stamps for an embellishment of its own in silver. Because I did everything free handed (without being precisely measured) I could move the distance between the stamps without having it make too awful a statement that my design was not exactly perfect. This helped me adjust the numbers of times the entire stamp went on the wall or if a had to make an adjustment to the stamp‘s size. I had more freedom in the design. After the silver pen had been set for part of the day, I went back and using the end of a paintbrush, made white dots in the middle of all the silver dots and silver diamonds.
The hardest part was doing against the back wall of the bathtub. I am rather short on one end and had a hard time reaching clear across the tub to do the stamping and extra embellishing. I would recommend using a shower chair to stand on or a very small stool. Ladders don’t work and your arms get really tired staying up for so long. Shower chairs can be obtained second hand from a thrift store or from someone who has been injured and is now recovered.
This picture is a teaser for the next project that I will post. I used the same stamp as was used on the wall. I didn’t want to stamp all the way around the cabinet and so I stamped the cabinet to make everything in the room cohesive in design. I will be e plaiting this project next week. I just wanted to give you a sneak peak. You can choose to stamp wherever you desire. It goes really quickly, turns out nicer (to me) than stenciling) and is fun to invent by yourself! A quick and easy re-do for any wall in your house. Enjoy!
Resources for this project:
See all materials
Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
Hometalk may collect a small share of sales from the links on this page.More info
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Comments
Join the conversation
3 of 4 comments
Next