Make Your Own Invitations:
Rubber Stamps, Clear Stamps, and Stamping Supplies

You can make your own invitations that are seriously impressive looking, personalized, and easy to make. My secret weapon? Rubber stamps! It's really no secret that people have been using rubber stamps for cardmaking for a very long time. It's a very popular hobby. Although if you are new to cardmaking, or to make your own invitations is a new hobby of yours, then this might be news to you.

Not only is using rubber stamps for cardmaking a popular crafting activity, but there is also a huge array of new products from nifty inks and pads, to new rubber stamps themselves, like cling stamps and clear rubber stamps. Clear stamps are a really great product for card making and invitation making. Discover one really great clear stamp, and with a few accessories and supplies you can produce an entire wedding stationery suite on a super strict budget. Not only that but you can create one that will elicit drools and jealousy from fellow brides to be and bridesmaids.

Rubber Stamping Supplies and Accessories

Wood Mounted Stamps - Yes the traditional wood mounted stamp. An oldie but still a goodie! I still drool over a good selection of old wood mounted stamps. My favorite thing about them is that you can find some pretty cool vintage ones if you know how to search high and low. Even if you don't, you can still score some cool "vintage images" which is just as good in my book. he only downfall to teh wood mounted stamps, is that you cannot us theme quite as easily as a clear stamp. Clear stamps are, well, umm, clear. You can see where you are leaving your image! So this brings me to...

Clear Rubber Stamps - Clear stamps come unmounted clinging to a piece of plastic almost like purchasing a package of cool puffy stickers or something. In order to use them, along with your inks and things, you also need a clear acrylic block in which to mount your stamps. Here's the cool thing; clear stamps (most of teh time) come in packs with several coordinating images. Since you are mounting them yourself you can also arrange several images together however you want to! So you can use them in so many different ways! You can buy blocks in several different sizes, although I prefer to use a large block and affix several stamps to them to create a pattern. I have even used them to create my own patterned paper!

Accessories

Acrylic Blocks - It is crucial that you purchase one of these little bad boys before you begin using clear rubber stamps. They are pretty much just a small clear block of plastic with a very fine white grid on one side. The grid is super helpful so you probably do not want to purchase any should they happen to make them without. The grid makes aligning images and text a snap, as well as aligning with the edges of your paper to make sure you are stamping you image so that it appears straight. Acrylic blocks are also pretty inexpensive so no need to go without one. You really only need one or two to an entire collection of clear stamps.

Ink Pads - Here's some more great news for all of you happy cardmakers and invitation makin' mammas. Ink pads for stamping come in just about every color under the sun! You can get large ink pads in single colors. You can buy entire sets in matching colors, primary colors, pastels, and more. You can get textured fancy inks like metallic, shiny, and pearlescent. There is distressing ink to make pages look old and vintage. And even embossing ink to use with embossing powder and create raised images. Not to mention the chalk ink pads that have a whole other effect and texture! Possibilities are endless!

Ink Daubers - Instead of dipping you stamp into the ink why not apply the ink straight from the bottle right onto the stamp? That is what an ink dauber is for.

Rubber Stamp Cleaners - There are several products on the market made especially for cleaning the ink form your rubber stamps and conditioning the stamps to last longer. I, myself, just use baby wipes, but if you are really into preserving your stamps and keeping things super clean you may want to purchase something more specific. Especially if you intend to make your own invitations in large quantities (wedding) where it will have the potential to get a little messy.