Stamping on Sandpaper! Great for Dad's!!

Hey all! A friend mentioned she had seen something recently about stamping ON sandpaper so I thought I'd give it a whirl. Since Father's Day is right around the corner I thought I'd dedicate my examples to all our Dad's out there :)

Some info about sandpaper in case you're unfamiliar with it. Sandpaper comes in MANY different "grits". Grit is how large/small the little particles are on the sand paper. Sometimes you'll find it with numbers and others just names. Coarse (60-80 grit) is the VERY rough pebble-y kind, Medium (150) somewhere in between, and Fine (220 grit) can be like tiny grains of sand down to microscopic bits you can barely feel or see. Usually you don't want to use any of the extra or very fine/microscopic type because it's pretty expensive. I used a Coarse (60), a piece of "used" Medium (150) and Fine (220) grit types today.

You will also notice that the color of sandpaper varies by manufacture. Some are a deep brown while others are a light tan. It just depends on what type of grit and base paper they use to make their particular brand of paper. There is also a bit of black sandpaper in the photo ~ that is a piece of Making Memories sandpaper thrown in just to show you another variation :)

A couple things to keep in mind about your tools & sandpaper....Sandpaper WILL dull your scissors & cutters!!! TRUST ME ~ I ruined a rotary blade cutting the paper right off the bat! Luckily I had another blade otherwise I'd have been down for the count! Can't LIVE w/o my Carl!! To cut the sandpaper after that I used a pair of Tonic's/Tim Holtz Scissors...They are EXTREMELY durable and cut like a charm. It didn't bother their blade at all! Another cool thing to do is to just tear it if you're leery about using any of your cutting tools on it.

I found that of all the inks I own...and I have a plenty...that the new Adirondack Pigment Inks work best. They are thick & creamy enough that it will penetrate even coarse sandpaper and still make a great impression. You will want to watch running ink pads along the edge of the sandpaper as it will tear up the foam. I used a Distress Ink Pad on it which is pretty much done for so it didn't hurt it.

On to the examples... (not all images were stamped using Adirondack Pigment Inks)

The first example was made by stamping on Coarse sandpaper. I used a Heidi Swapp Crown stamp, Inkadinkado Border Stamp (both clear) and I added "stitches" using an old black marker (don't use a new one as it will damage the tip). A bit of Stickles for accent and a few letter beads and it's all set to go!

King for a Day...I used a variety of stamps as well as Sandpaper for this example. The Ruler Border stamp is Postmodern Designs stamped on a Medium grit sandpaper, the man also from Postmodern Design is stamped on a Fine grit sandpaper. The sentiment is Autumn Leaves.

The last example is an Inkadinkado image stamped onto a used piece of Fine grit sandpaper. (The inside says is the #1 Dad? - YOUUU!!!)

I've got a couple other ideas for using sandpaper but I have yet to try them out....time allowing I'll give em a try to see how they work and share them later this week.

Also this week I'm going to do a comparison between Adirondack & Pinata Alcohol Inks!

Till then, stay safe & dry!!

(we've been having terrible storms here!!)