Spa Treatment for Some Golden Oldie Wood Mount Rubber Stamps

 I've been rubber stamping and card-making for a long time. I started in 1976, my sophomore year of high school, thanks to a wonderful, gifted art teacher. Finding rubber stamps back then was extremely difficult. I did learn how to make my own by cutting rubber blocks and erasers. The process was fun, although tedious, and occasionally bloody if you slipped with the knife you were carving with.  In the 80's, Rubber Stamp Madness magazine came out, and basement stamp companies were born.  By the early 90's, there was an explosion of rubber stamp companies, books, magazines, and MLM companies. By 1992, I was single, and my kids (5 and 9) were old enough that I could invest lots of time ( after they went to bed) in this art, I enjoyed the beautiful stamps and papers and began designing for companies and searching for images to help them grow. 

When the digital world mingled with card making I was there too and loved it. I still do, all of it!  

While the clear unmounted stamps rule the stamping universe right now ( and for a lot of good reasons), I still love my beautiful maple-mounted red rubber stamps. I even still buy them when I come across a great deal. About 10 years ago, I unmounted all of my wood-mounted stamps and stored them on special heavy-duty boards, categorized them, and put them in labeled drawers, and I totally regretted it a year later. Space was the problem. 

Space is no longer a problem and I am enjoying the mounted wood stamps once again ( I sold  most of the ones I unmounted).   Today I am going to show you  how to bring new life to old stamps.  If the red rubber stamps aren't stored properly they will dry out, crack and become useless.  My method is quick and easy, and cheap!

 My patient today is a nice men's kimono by ToyBox rubber stamps circa 2000

 I purchased it on eBay for a few dollars to add to my kimono stamps.

The rubber is ink-stained and very dry.

I wiped it down with a damp baby wipe to remove dust; the surface rubber was dry and unflexible. I then inked it up well using Versafine Clair ink.

Stamped the image on Neenah Solar White cardstock:

A poor image, to say the least.

Here is my Fix, which works 85% of the time. If the rubber is cracked, it won't be repairable.

Using fine-grit sandpaper (250-350 grit), I evenly sanded the stamp's surface. Don't bear down; just apply steady, even pressure. Keep at it until you feel the underlayer of rubber and it feels like new rubber. 

You can see I removed a decent amount of the top layer—this will not affect the image. 

I wipe the stamp down and give it an even coat of vegetable glycerin.

I let this sit on the stamp for a couple of hours or you can let sit overnight and then clean the stamp with your fav stamp cleaner.  You will get a result like this.

Dry the rubber, ink it up, and test it. If you don't have a great image, give it another round of sanding and glycerin.

This was my first stamp image after spa treatment.

I was very happy with this;

my total investment was 5 minutes.

 I did the rest of the stamps in the first picture in another 10 minutes; they needed minimal sanding.

I hope this helps you rescue some of your old favorites!

Ginny M