Domino Stamping

To begin - prepare dominoes:

Either bleach overnight in strong bleach (careful not to get spinner immersed or it will tarnish) – wash well in clear water afterwards OR Use Gesso artists medium (gives a good base on which to colour).   OR Use a nail sanding block (available from good Chemists).

You can stamp direct to domino with Pigment or Solvent Ink Pad.

Stamping on Dominoes

I think the best Ink Pads to use are Brilliance (you must heat set first and allow to cool) or Stazon, but you can also use Memories, Ancient Page, Colorbox Chalks

Take domino to stamp rather than stamp to domino – heat in well-ventilated room.

Colouring Mediums:

Lumieres, Drawing Inks, Watercolours or Watercolour Pencils/Crayons, Pencil Crayons, Gel Pens, OHP Markers, Adirondack Pens, ,Chalk Ink Pads, Dye inkpads.  Always heat set between each stage.

Seal (takes 10-15 mins to dry) with:

Anita’s 3-D Clear Gloss Finish, Glossy Accents, Mod Podge, Diamond Glaze, Crystal Lacquer, Humbrol Acrylic Varnish

Before varnishing you can seal with a Fixative Spray (especially for inks/felt tips etc) but the only one that I found works does not seem to be available in the UK  – Krylon Fixatif – available in America.

Finish off with a border and edge the domino using  Edding paint markers or Krylon Pens.

Make into:

Pins, Pendants, Bracelets, Fridge Magnets, Keyrings,  Use as embellishments for cards and boxes, Use as spotlights for cards, Make a picture using several dominoes placed together and the masking technique or as large stamp.  Cover a flat clock face or old tray .....

If you are going to drill use  a low speed drill or Dremel (cheaper versions are available) or the domino will shatter – wear eye protection and put a piece of masking tape on first to stop the drill bit slipping when you start off.

Also use:

Trionimoes, Poker Chips, Check Its, Majhong tiles …….. most of these are available in America if you don't find them over here – www.SkyBluePink.com is a supplier I use.

(some people leave the back showing the domino, some paint the pips, some paint the whole back and some cover in felt/velvet.  I like to leave the back to show it is a domino, nice gift for a special birthday if the pips reflect an age.)


The above are notes I used to issue at my workshops (way back in 2003/4).  Sid asked me why I stopped doing dominoes - well, I guess I got so many I did not know what to do with them.  Towards the end I bought a tray from somewhere and lined the base of it with lots of my dominoes.

Can you see Elvis?

and there's Marilyn top right

I once did an article for Craft Stamper on dominoes, here are a couple of the things I included in that particular article

A couple of Coasters

Wine charms to go with them

and a cuff for the bottle of wine

There were also some Christmas tree decorations but they are away with all the other Christmas stuff so not easy to get to for the blog at the moment.

If you look on my post of the 20th April you can see the domino (tiled) picture on my cutlery box which I did.


I hope you enjoyed my nostalgic look back on my dominoes.  Now what can I think of to make with them next?

Back in Domino Land

I used to do lots of stamping on dominoes but haven't been there for a while.  Recently Leigh (Sharpie Domino Queen) got back in touch and I have decided to do some more.

I used to love doing faces on dominoes and here are three quite different ones.  The first one has a Brilliance background - love using the tri-pads - this one is Aurora - with the image stamped in black Stazon and a little colour added with a Sharpie pen.  The second one was coloured firstly in Black Stazon, the image stamped in Versamark and then gold ep put on and heated.  This was an experiment to try to do something different.  The last one is stamped and coloured with watercolour pencils.

this is a Tri-onimo

The first one above is coloured with Alcohol Inks to give the background (Lettuce and Butterscotch) and then stamped and coloured with Sharpies.  The second one has a bead at the top to act as a bale for using as a pendant and again is coloured with watercolour pencils.

My last showing are two dominoes using the "kissing technique" where I used Lumiere paints.  I cannot decide whether to leave them or stamp over them with something - maybe another day you will find they have changed.  If anyone is interested I can put up some of my notes for stamping on dominoes - do any of you remember when I used to demonstrate the various techniques at shows?  Remember my jacket full of them and my "tiara"?

I Love Neutrals

I love all the beigey colours so when I saw the colours on the Play Date Cafe Challenge I just had to do something.  Besides which I had this image on my desk and the colours were just right.  Can't remember stamping this but I know the stamp is from Butterfly Kisses.

There are some fabulous samples on the blog done by the design team so I suggest a cup of tea and a sit down - you'll be there a while.  I might even do another as I love these colours so much.

Another LTD Challenge

When I saw the topic for this week's Challenge on Lots to Do I immediately thought of a word stamp that I have and knew I had to use it.  I might do another card which has a bit more to it but for now this has to be my entry.

Not a clue where I got the word stamp from but I think this garishly coloured image goes well with it.  Had to colour her in with lots of different colours because that is how I think this person would dress.

Trouble is now I have this card but will have to think carefully who I can send it to without offending them.  Think she will have to be a very slim person!

Work in Progress

I have a friend who I used to work with when I was teaching in school and she now has a little girl who I love dearly.  Every school holiday the three of us go out for the day and I just love it.  Last week they went on holiday and the day after I got an envelope with the message on the back "just so you don't forget me whilst I am away" - it was from my little sweetheart (via her mum of course as she is only two).  As if I could.

Well, this new set of photographs would not go in my current album so I decided to set to and make a new album for her photographs.  Having just got The Cinch (thanks to Jayne) it was my first venture into ring binding and so I set to and made the cover.

Now you have to use your imagination here and pretend that there are ribbons and lace pieces decorating the spiral binding - which is not there!  Not there because I want to make all my pages and decorate them before adding the back cover and binding the whole lot.

The mountboard was covered with scrumpled paper which had been treated to a good old squirt or two with Sunshine, Popsicle and Waterslide Glimmer Mists.  Then I added Milled Lavender Crackle Paint to two opposite corners but it looked so white that I tried to cover most of it with Metallic Rub-Ons in Iris and Sky Blue.

Still looking a bit white I dyed some lace with the Glimmer Mists and stuck them on one side with Glossy Accents to cover up a little.  Then I sprayed some flowers and leaves with the two colours (Popsicle and Waterslide) and stuck them on.

Trying to be clever I used my Nestability 'Fleur de Lis Die' to make a square with Grungepaper.  I know, I know, everyone says it cannot be done.  After shimming and running it back and forth I gave up but there was sufficient "cutting" to allow me to go round with a craft knife and once I started I had to continue.

This was then coloured with Dabbers - Cool Peri and Purple Twilight - and finally a squirt of the two Glimmer Mists again.  Lettering done with a Spellbinders alphabet, a few rhinestones on my flowers which had been painted with Twinkling H2o's, and that was it.   Check out the little hearts that are dotted about.

So that is my front cover - as I said - imagine it with lots of ribbons and lace on the binding when it is finished.  Now to start on the pages which are going to make up my book.  Might be a "work in progress" for a few weeks yet but I will show it to you when it is complete.

As Promised

Teased you a bit with not uploading the two gorgeous atc's I got in a recent swap.  It all began when the subject was "Childhood" and I forgot to take my rendition along to Vicky Stampers.  Gill (Yin), who runs the swap, was kind enough to say that if I posted mine to her she would send me hers (taking it out of the swap that day).

Well, I never expected to get this in return for my meagre efforts

Isn't it beautiful!

When I next saw Gill I told her how overwhelmed I was by her atc and she said she had almost sent me a different one - and she just happened to have it with her.  When I saw it I thought it was absolutely gorgeous, especially the wall and I loved how she had shaded the blue sky.

To my surprise she said I could have that one as well.  Was not hinting - honestly.  But now I just cannot put them away.  Whether I will put them both in frames or use them on the cover of a book I am hoping to make shortly for photographs of my favourite little girl remains to be seen.  What would you do?

Lots to Do Challenge

Over on Lots to Do this week the challenge is "Stitches".  Not sure if someone laughing would do ("in stitches" - my poor attempt at humour) and not being one for actual sewing type stitching I decided to hunt for my stamps which depicted something to do with sewing.

Convinced I had a row of stitching somewhere I eventually gave up looking for it and instead made this card

I think the main image is Hampton Arts but know for certain the needle and stitching is Stampattack.  I stamped the main image on cream cs and again on white which I embossed in black and coloured in.  The painted image was then cut out and stuck over the top of the other one along with the words.

Now I think it should be eligible but then I got carried away by finding two more images which show someone stitching - does that count?

It's not really "stitches" is it?

Neither is this one but if you use your imagination they both are creating "stitches".  I'll leave it there.

Tomorrow you are in for a treat.  I am going to upload two atc's I got from a friend of mine.  Both are watercoloured beautifully.  Since I received them I have not been able to put them in my atc folder - they have both sat on a shelf in the dining room.  Now I can't make my mind up what to do with them - I certainly do not want to put them in the folder.  Until tomorrow ...