Wood Mounted Stamps and Storage

Hello my crafty friends!!  This is Leslie from http://www.scrapnlifeaway.blogspot.com/ and today it is my pleasure to share here on She’s A Sassy Lady!!  A heartfelt thanks to Sheila for inviting me!!

I can’t believe it’s December already and Christmas is just a few short weeks away!!  For me, that means a TWO WEEK break from school, which mean TWO WEEKS of crafting fun!!  I just love my CTMH stamps, but I have tons of wood mounted stamps that need to be re-organized to take up less space.  

So, that means that this gallon size bag of wood mounted stamps (which is just 1 bag of many lol!) needs to be un-mounted and still remain useable!  This is such a fun and easy project!

First, using Stazon Jet Black ink, I stamped each stamp onto a sheet of sticky backed foam.  (I got this at Michaels for just .89 each).  Be sure to leave space between each stamped image so you can cut them out!

Here is an example of just a few of the wood mounted stamps from my gallon size bag, stamped onto the foam.  As you can as see, I left an ample amount of space around each stamped image.

After stamping onto the foam and cutting them out, I removed the stamps from their wooden blocks.  I then removed the foam from the back of the stamps.  If removing the foam gets difficult, simply put the stamp in the microwave for 20-30 sec. and that should loosen any glue on the back of the stamp, and allowing you to pull the rest of the foam backing off!

I made sure to clean off the back of each stamp with “Un-Du” and carefully scraped off the excess glue with my cricut spatula.  I then wiped them off with a baby wipe.  I just purchased some Goo-Gone to see how that works as “Un-Du” is a bit pricey and can be hard to find.

Now I peeled off the back of the sticky foam and held it up to a light and lined up the actual stamp with the stamped image on the foam.  Once I was confident the images were lined up nicely, I pressed the stamp down firmly to ensure that the stamps were nicely stuck to the foam.  I used scissors and on some stamps I used a hot-knife to trim away any excess foam from the stamp.

And here you have it!!  All those wood mounted stamps hae been removed from their wood blocks and remounted onto foam.  Now, not only are they ready to be used on my stamping blocks, but they take up much less space to store!

Here are the before and after pics!!  Can you believe it!! 

They now fit into a sandwich baggie!!  Once I get all of my wood mounted blocks unmounted and put onto foam, I will put them on laminated sheets for even easier access and storage!!

I hope that this tutorial encourages you to get those stamps out, get them organized in a fashion that saves on space, and gives you easier  access to them!!  You won’t use them if you don’t see them!!  I am hoping to do my very first video tutorial using this technique!  I want to get that accomplished on my two week break!!  Thanks for hanging out with me today!!  Keep on crafting and from my family to yours, have a safe and wonderful holiday season!!