Button stamping

I spent an afternoon at Barnes and Noble this week - cup of coffee, a treat, and a stack of art books and magazines for an afternoon of inspiration. I found an interesting book, Print and Stamp, by Traci Bunkers. She shows how to make stamps out of all kinds of crazy stuff - pencil grips, straws, flip flops ! Some of the stuff was a bit edgier than my style, but I was intrigued with a stamp made out of buttons. She stuck buttons onto a piece of wood with foam tape. A variation was done by pressing button into PenScore.

The first sample above is the one with buttons mounted with foam tape on a little strip of wood. I had trouble stamping with it - hard to get the ink onto the buttons - the book recommends keeping all the buttons the same thickness, which I did, but still didn't print all that well. I tried acrylic paint, brayering ink and just rubbing ink on the buttons - none of it spectacular. The bottom sample is that button "stamp" pressed into the PenScore and this worked much better. In the middle is another PenScore stamp - this time I just pressed buttons into the heated foam. Be careful with the foam - if it gets too hot, it hardens and looses the ability to take an impression.

Here are a few cards I made with my new "stamps". I love the grungy look of the buttons! The background is artist paper, the birdie cut from an old French book. The fabric scrap is a piece of worn canvas webbing I found on a beach walk and love the texture and worn green color.
And another - this one with a fun little leather flower.

I love this nature chair stamp and think it fits well with my grungy buttons. Think I'm going to attack the text piece with some tape a la Tim Holtz - don't really need "abhor" on the front - oops!!