Stamped Paint Designs

Here’s a quick little how-to for painting a simple stamped design, such as my dots, on a wall.

 

 

For the large dot,  I used a rubber stamp from a Stampin’ Up set.  It’s 1.25” in diameter.

 

 

I used this same stamp in Pinkerbelle’s previous rooms for the dot detail on the scallop.  Each time,  I used latex paint.  I found that rather than dipping the stamp in the paint, it worked best to use a small paint brush to apply the paint to the stamp before each application on the wall.

When stamping the wall, push the stamp straight down and pull straight back up.  Do not wiggle it.  The paint creates quite a bit of suction between the stamp and the wall, so finding the right technique can be a bit tricky.  I recommend starting behind a door.  For the two dot design, I went around the whole room with the large dot and then went back and did the small.

 

 

However, I made a discovery this time that worked very well.  I did not have a smaller dot stamp and I ended up making my own rather than buying one.  I picked up this package of foam stickers for a couple bucks at Walmart  (I got flowers because they did not have circles).

 

I trimmed off a couple of the petals and applied them to the back of another stamp.  I put one on top of the other just to give it a little more height off the wood block.  Now obviously if they had had circles in the right size I would have used that instead of going to the extra step of trimming the flowers.

 

 

What I discovered is that the foam stamp was easier to use.  I could just dip it in the paint, skipping the paintbrush step, and it applied and came back off the wall much more easily than the rubber stamp.  My guess is that because the foam is soft and has air pockets, it did not create suction like the rubber.  I had to be careful about breaking the suction of the rubber stamp, so it wouldn’t slide in the paint and distort the image.  Probably you will not understand what I’m saying just by reading this, but suffice to say that the small dots went much more quickly than the large.

If I ever do this again, I think I’ll just use foam stamps, either using a premade shape (in fact, the flowers would be cute), or cutting my own.  I do think a simple rather than intricate shape would work best.

You could use this technique to add some cute detail to your child’s room.  Using acrylic paint would give you lots of color options very inexpensively, and you could use scraps of wood for your stamp block.  Let me know if you try it!

Have a great weekend!

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