Toilet Tissue Stamping - TUTORIAL

Wow, several people asked for a tutorial for the Toilet Tissue stamping that I did in my previous post, and I'm honored to provide it. This is my first tutorial! If you have any questions, leave a comment and I'll do my best to provide an answer. Here we go ...

Gather your supplies:

*Stamps (large ones work best, detail is ok but don't get too fussy!)

*Roll of TP (I used Charmin because that's what we've got!)

*Old Paintbrush (this was one of the kids' brushes ... notice I said "was")

*White washable glue (Elmer's in the US, PVA elsewhere I believe)

*Two small containers with water

*Mod Podge or other decoupage medium (for use later)

*Paint (for use later)

*Beverage of choice (coffee, black please)

and prepare your work surface (this one isn't too messy).

First Step: Using PLAIN WATER, wet the surface of your stamps (you might as well do several, it's easy but it takes a while). Cover the stamp with one layer of toilet tissue. You may need to overlap a few pieces if your stamp is really large. Just make sure it is all moistened.

Use your brush to gently push the TP into the details of the stamp. For the pear, I pounced the brush and for the fish I brushed gently along the fin lines. Do whatever feels right, but be gentle - you don't want to tear the TP (if you do, just remove and start over).

Now mix some glue in with your small water container ... I don't know what ratio I used, probably about 2 parts water to 1 part glue. I don't think you need to be too picky about it. Brush the watery glue onto the TP on your stamp - cover the whole surface of the stamp, plus a little around the edges, but don't worry about going all the way to the edges of the TP - you will be cutting the image out later.

Add another layer of TP, and then paint it with glue. If your shape is large, make sure you place the TP pieces in different directions and locations - you don't want all the seams in the same place.

You may find that the center is building up faster than the edges ... just add partial pieces around the edges until it looks even.

Keep adding layers of TP and glue until it seems like a reasonable thickness ... about 8 to 10 layers of TP.

OK ... now we wait ... go work on something you are avoiding ... go clean out a closet ... go to the grocery store ... take a nap ... hum the "Jeopardy" theme song over and over again ... whatever but don't peek at your images!!!

If you feel the top of the TP on your stamps, it will feel slimy. You don't want to move on until most, if not all, of that sliminess is gone. I set my pieces on the counter underneath a ceiling fan and waited about 4 hours ...

When the time comes that the sliminess is gone, CAREFULLY peel the TP off the stamps. The impression should be there ... and the TP will still be wet, so be careful. Go wash any residue off your stamps (there shouldn't be much glue on the stamps - this is why the first layer is water - but clean them anyway).

Here are my pieces once I removed them. Now you need to wait again - a couple of hours - until they are completely dry. You can turn them over to help dry them out from the other side as well. Make sure they are totally dry before you continue. If there are seams that aren't glued down or small bubbles, don't worry about it (you can see some in the flower).


Time for the Mod Podge and another beverage - tea this time. Now that your pieces are completely dry, paint them with Mod Podge to seal them (you did wash the glue out of your paintbrush, right?). Once the front is done, and dry, flip them over and paint the back. Let dry.

Now we are ready to paint!!! Use your favorite acrylics to paint your pieces. For these I used Golden Fluid Acrylics, Setacolor Transparent Acrylics, and Lumiere. You can use whatever you like. It's your art!

Once the paint has dried, cut out your images. For more complicated images (like the fish) it is helpful to refer to the actual stamp for the details. You can glue these, or stitch them. You can seal them with varnish if you'd like. You may want to paint the edges. If any of the layers are trying to separate, just dab some glue in there. They did NOT respond well when I subjected them to a heat gun, but go ahead and experiment.

Below is a detail of the fish: I painted it using red and yellow directly on the fish, so that they combined to varying shades of orange (rather than one solid color). When it dried, I rubbed gold and turquoise lumiere on it to bring out the details. I just LOVE the way this stamp works with this technique.

If you give it a try, be sure to let me know!!!