This quick, easy project doesn’t just have to be for Valentine’s Day.  You could easily use different stamps to create custom decorative candles for your home, for parties, or for gifts.  I made several winter themed candles as gifts for my neighbors for Christmas, and they loved them!  So pull out your inks and stamps, and let’s decorate some candles!

Project estimate:

• Candles, on hand or $1 and up
• Stamps and ink, on hand
• Tissue paper, on hand
• Hair dryer or heat embossing tool, on hand

Total:  Free or $1 and up

It’s a good idea to do a few practice runs with old candles or dollar store candles.  I often find bags of new to barely used candles at thrift stores, and they are great for practicing this technique.  The candle I used in this project was purchased at Dollar Tree, and while it is a battery operated votive candle, it has a wax coating on the outside, so it works for this project.

To make your own stamped Valentine’s Day Candle:

Step one:  Cut a piece of tissue paper to fit around your candle.

Step two:  Stamp the tissue paper.  First, I covered my paper with a text stamp that has the definition of love. Then I stamped the heart image over the text.

Step three:  Wrap the stamped tissue paper around the candle.

Step four:  Heat the tissue paper with a heat embossing tool or a hair dryer.  As the wax melts, the tissue paper will seem to disappear into the candle, leaving only the image.  Be careful to keep moving your heat tool so you don’t burn the tissue paper or create uneven dimples in your candle.

If you want to, you can further embellish your candle with ribbon, string, rhinestones, etc.  I’m decorating a few candles with blue and green damask stamps to match my living room.  Which stamps are you going to reach for?  Have fun creating!

The post Tutorial: Stamped Valentine’s Day Candle appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

Image by flickr user Eileen Kane. Licensed via Creative Commons.

If you have a rubber stamp collection, you know how much money you’ve invested in those little suckers! If you have spent so much money on them, it makes sense to get as much use out of your rubber stamps as possible. Well, I’ve come to your rescue, with 6 Creative Ideas for Using Rubber Stamps, that aren’t just your standard stamp on paper. (*I wrote that article as part of a paid collaboration with eBay.)

I love the idea shown above: to stamp polymer clay with a rubber stamp to create an impression. So pretty!

Do you have any new ideas for how to use rubber stamps?

Here’s another creative project I made with rubber stamps: Make Custom Stamped T-shirts

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Mother’s Day is coming up, and I bet the special women in your life would love a hand made gift!  Inspired by Anthropologie, these stamped fabric gifts are quick to make and easy to customize for the recipient.  (And why not make a few for yourself to keep, too?)

If you’ve tried painting on fabric before, you know that paint tends to leave either a slick or scratchy feel to the finished product.  That’s why I’ve never tried to put paint on towels or cloth napkins…who wants to feel that when you’re trying to clean up?  This fabric paint is different, and, like the name says, really is soft.  I wish you could reach through your monitor and touch it.  It’s unbelievable soft and you can’t even feel the paint at all!  I think the finished project looks professional, thanks to rubber stamps and the special paint finish.

Project estimate:

• Towel or cloth napkin, $1 and up
• SoSoft fabric paint, $1.86
• Rubber stamps, on hand
• Foam spouncer, on hand

Total:  $2.86 and up

Step one:  Place the fabric on a smooth, hard surface.  Iron before stamping if needed.

Step two:  Use the spouncer to apply paint evenly to the stamp.

Step three:  Press the image onto the fabric.  It might be a good idea to practice a few times on scrap fabric to get the feel for how much pressure to put on the stamp and how much paint to use.

Step four:  Reapply paint to the stamp with the spouncer, and repeat as desired.

Let dry, then it’s ready to use.  The paints dry very quickly, and they don’t require heat to set.  No ironing…yay!

I worried that detailed stamps might not work with the fabric paint, but I think they produced better results than the simpler stamps.  I’m crazy about these pretty birds!  Doesn’t it make a lovely pattern? And I was able to make towels and napkins that coordinate beautifully!  The SoSoft Paint is perfect for wearable projects, too, like these socks that I painted.  They’d be great for baby items, like bibs, since there will be no scratchy, flaky paint to worry about.  Have fun crafting and creating!

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I’ll be honest: I have always been better at working with paper than with fabric.  Give me a stack of cardstock and a bottle of glue and I can craft circles around most folks I know.  But give me a pile of fabric and a needle and thread and expect me to make anything presentable with it?  Yeah right!  Since that rules out quilting as a hobby for me, this idea from Mollie at Wild Olive is much more feasible for me.  She carved this wonderful little hexagon stamp out of an eraser, making a DIY tool with diverse possibilities.  You can embellish just about any flat surface with your quilt block stamp – you could even stamp on fabric to create an actual “faux quilt”!  [how to make a hexagon quilt block rubber stamp]

Project estimate:

• Eraser, on hand or $1
• Stamp carving tool, on hand or $1 and up
• Ink pad, on hand or $1 and up

Total:  Free and up!

The post Make Hexagon a Quilt Block Rubber Stamp appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

Fancy cookies are a fun and elegant way to add a little class to any event.  But they don’t have to be difficult to make in order to be impressive to look at!  Over at Alphamom, Lindsey came up with a way to make stamps for adding images to sugar cookies or shortbread cookies – and she used all things that you probably have on hand already!  This is a great project for kids, who can create their own stamps easily – even this super fancy stamp was simple enough for just about anyone to make.  [how to make a custom cookie stamp]

Project estimate:

• Salt dough, on hand
• Carving tools, on hand
• Glue, on hand

Total:  Free!

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I love projects that are both easy and versatile; something with a lot of possibilities is likely to keep my attention longer.  (Yes, I have the crafty equivalent of ADD most of the time!)  Claire from Fellow Fellow made this cityscape art by cutting a stamp block (basically a blank rubber stamp) into geometric shapes.  Can’t find a stamp block?  Look for large rubber erasers to cut into shapes instead!  [how to make a stamped geometric cityscape]

Project estimate:

• Stamp block or rubber erasers, $1 and up
• Craft knife, on hand
• Ink, on hand or $1 and up
• Paper, on hand
• Frame, on hand or $1

Total: $1 and up

The post Make a Stamped Geometric Cityscape appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

When Kim from Easy Peasy Pie got done reorganizing her laundry room, she noticed a big, blank space on the wall.  It was the perfect place to put some inspirational art!  She used actual clothespins dipped in paint to create a stamped pattern, using both standard clothespin and an extra-large version that she found at Target’s Dollar Spot.  Doesn’t it look like something you might see in a West Elm or Pottery Barn catalog?  [how to make clothespin art prints]

Project estimate:

• Canvas or other paintable surface, on hand or $1 and up
• Clothespins, on hand or $1
• Jumbo clothespin, $1
• Paint, on hand

Total: $1 and up

p.s. Check out our CoffeeTalk conversation this week: “What do you put in your child’s Easter basket?“

The post Make Clothespin Art Prints appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

I’m sure you’ve seen potato prints before, but how about celery prints?  That’s right, celery!  I’m absolutely amazed at how the cut-off ends of a bunch of celery, a part which would normally be destined for the garbage can or compost pile, looks strikingly like a rose when used like a rubber stamp.  Maureen of Maureen Cracknell Handmade used her celery stamp to make beautiful Valentine cards; this would also be a cute and easy way to make hand-stamped wrapping paper, and could have many uses in DIY wedding projects.  [how to stamp a rose using celery]

Project estimate:

• Celery, on hand or $1 and up
• Ink pad or paint, on hand

Total:  Free and up

The post Make a Rose Stamp with Celery appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

Happy Evil holidays, everyone! All right, I admit it, I’m a geek.  When I saw these stamped Cthulhu Christmas cards from Giggedy Geekmum, I squealed just a little, and the geeky little voice in the back of my head said, “No freakin’ way!” If you aren’t familar with the green, tentacle-faced being, he is a creation of sci fi author H.P. Lovecraft and is often referenced in pop culture when speaking of extreme evil.  (My favorite of Geekmum’s card captions is, “Looks like *someone* was naughty!”)  Using an ingenious technique, Geekmum created her own Cthulhu stamp, enabling her to crank out a lot of cards in just a little time!  Don’t send cards?  Use them as gift tags instead!  [how to make stamped Cthulhu Christmas cards]

Project estimate:

• Cardboard, on hand
• Toilet paper tube, on hand
• Glue, on hand
• Paper, on hand
• Acrylic paint, on hand or $1 and up
• Marker, on hand
• Cotton balls or rounds, on hand or $1

Total: Free and up

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Need a quick and easy activity to entertain your kids this afternoon? Check this idea from Sarah at Stepping Thru Crazy: make stamps out of those little magic sponge capsules. Sarah used them with fabric paint to decorate tank tops, but you could easily stamp card stock and make custom notecards. This is a perfect technique for refreshing t-shirts that have seen better days (strategically stamp over small stains, maybe?) [how to make magic sponge stamps]

Project Estimate:

• Package of magic sponge stamps, $1
• Acrylic or fabric paint, on hand or $.50
• A blank t-shirt or other stampable surface, on hand or $1 and up

Total: $1 and up

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