Scrap Rubber Magic ~ Mosaic in Minutes

I'm sure anybody who has bought un-mounted rubber die sheets have ended up with a pile of scraps that look like this....lots and lots of plain rubber destine for the scrap bin! WELL, don't toss those scraps out just yet! You can take those bits and pieces and make an amazing mosaic background with them.








First, you will want to cut various shapes and sizes from the scraps of rubber you have left. You can do this a couple ways. You can make them all straight angles and cuts for a very linear design.

I chose to cut my scraps in a very random fashion. This means a bit extra cutting because you will need to trim all sides of the piece of rubber and give it a jagged, rough edge. If you leave one straight edge and the rest rough it would look very odd.

Instead of mounting each and every little bit I ran a line of adhesive on one of my acrylic blocks and just switched out piece by piece as I stamped. When the adhesive doesn't hold the rubber bits any longer just apply another line.

I decided to use 3 rich colors from the original Adirondack line ~ Cranberry, Denim & Pesto! Very bold jewel tones ~ just perfect for the holiday card I was making. To start, simply stick one of the pieces of rubber to the block, ink up and stamp. Change inks and stamps for the next piece of your mosaic. Continue to fill up the entire piece.

I left the center of this piece un-stamped because I knew I was going to be using another image in the center. You can fill up the entire panel if desired. To add more interest, I inked the edges with Walnut Distress Ink and the Ink Blending Tool from Ranger. I also covered each "tile" with Glossy Accents to add dimension and shine. I then stamped & colored the center piece and mounted on cardstock finishing the look with a bit of Gold Posh Ink Pen & Stickles Glitter Glue. Here is the finished card.....

**as a side note, don't toss the remainder of your scraps away...you can use them for a raised effect instead of foam tape. I mounted the Santa image to the green cardstock using several pieces of the rubber scraps and my ATG adhesive. Worked like a charm and it feels great to use up something that otherwise would have been pitched out :)

Sooooo, go to your garbage can and pull out all those scraps!! Put em to good use making your own mosaic rubber stamps :)

Supplies: Rubber scraps - um rubber die sheets; Distress Inks (for coloring image), Adirondack Dye Ink - Pesto, Denim, Cranberry, Glossy Accents, Archival Black Ink, Posh Metallic Pen, Stickles - Ranger; Santa Image - Fancy Pants; Cardstock - Bazzill

Happy Stamping!!