Amazing Gift Ideas For Teachers - Personalized Stamps

In 1736, Charles Marie de la Condamine of France discovered rubber when he was traveling in the Amazon. Initially, rubber was fashioned into cubes and were used to erase pencil; however it did not hold up well. In 1844, Charles Goodyear found a way to use the rubber and registered the invention he came up with. He named his invention vulcanization. When rubber was first found by Charles Marie de la Condamine, he had another issue to deal with. If it got too hot, the rubber transformed from a sold into a soft, mushy material. Charles Goodyear intended to use rubber in a way that would stand up to both hot and cold temperatures. Charles Goodyear was working in his laboratory and accidentally invented a way for rubber to remain solid regardless of the temperature, which is how a lot of inventions are initiated.

By 1860, a number of inventors were saying they were the true inventors of the rubber stamp A person who made furniture in Illinois began stamping every piece he made, while a dentist began manufacturing denture molds in New York. No matter who actually invented the rubber stamp, it was made through vulcanization which makes the rubber remain in a solid state regardless of how hot or cold it is.

Most of the first rubber stamps were used for business purposes in offices. But now, custom rubber stamps come in many different types and are used for a wide variety of reasons, such as to decorate gifts, for handmade letters and invitations, and much more. Not only that, these stamps can be the ideal gift for any number of occasions.

An Overview of Rubber Stamps

In recent years, rubber stamps have become hugely popular among people of all ages. Stamp collectors have found all sorts of interesting ways to use these stamps. As a result, the demand for well-made, creative and interesting stamps has increased. You can even buy custom-made rubber stamps manufactured out of a variety of materials. And now stamp manufacturing companies are employing designers to think up exciting new stamp designs. Rubber stamp collecting is now a hot hobby these days, enjoyed by people who like to search for appealing, hard-to-find designs.

Buying Stamps For Creative People

Specially designed rubber stamps are an ideal gift for people with a creative flair. If any of your artistically inclined friends or family members have a birthday coming up, a customized rubber stamp might be the perfect gift. Many types of stamps can be customized to add the owner's name or other sayings or phrases that have special meaning. Some people use these customized stamps to put their personal mark on their works of art. You can also use customized stamps to make unique cards or scrapbooks. There are endless uses for these special stamps, which makes them such enjoyable gifts for craftspeople and artists.

Stamps For Kids

Kids also have a great time using rubber stamps. Lots of youngsters like to decorate their scrapbooks with specialized stamps. Some kids use stamps to create chart papers and eye-catching models. Other kids use stamps to put their name on their work - even their homework. The market is full of various types of stamps, which have a wide variety of themes and designs, such as cartoon characters, movie characters, animals, and more. Think about giving your children some customized stamps on their next birthday. And you can use these stamps for children's birthday gifts when your kids are invited to birthday parties.

Stamps Are Unique and Economical

You won't have any trouble finding custom stamp shops at your local markets. Special stamps also can be purchased online. You can have your stamps personalized in many ways. Try to come up with a stamp that is uniquely your own, using special designs that you have created. If your budget allows, you can buy higher priced stamps made of non-traditional materials. No doubt about it, a rubber stamp can be a wonderful gift. If you want to take a large amount of stamps to sell at a festival, you can buy them in bulk. And remember that when you buy your customized rubber stamps in this way, you are eligible for a bulk rate discount.

A lot of people wonder what type of paper they should use for projects that involve rubber stamps. This guide will show you what types of paper are best to keep your stamped project looking good.

There are a lot of different types of paper available to use for various craft projects, however when you are using rubber stamps you need to think careful about what paper you decide to use.

Most craft stores and office supply stores carry low-cost paper in plain or patterned varieties for use with a number of different paper projects. Most will even carry special imported papers or handmade papers that cost a lot more. You don't even have to stick with the standard letter-sized 8.5 x 11 inch paper if you don't want to.

If you are making handmade cards you can add in other elements such as doilies, foils, magazines, pages from old books, printed gift wrap, origami paper, place-mats, old sheet music and napkins to the mix. Unfortunately, not all of these paper options will work well with rubber stamps.

Figuring out whether the surface of the paper is coated or non-coated is the first thing you need to think about when choosing paper. Unfortunately, paper that has a protective coating will repel the ink used with your rubber stamps just as it would any other type of liquid.

You can still make stamps on surfaces that are coated, however, the ink will need to be embossed in order for the image to remain intact on the paper. You will need to do this whether you are using pigment inks or dye inks, as neither will dry very fast on paper that has a coated surface. If you fail to emboss the image you will need to take special care with the stamping until it is totally dry or risk ruining it.

To determine whether paper has a coating or not all you need to do is look at the surface of the paper itself. Paper that has been coated will look glossy, however some coated papers also have a flat, matte finish as well. Sometimes the coating is only applied to one side of the paper.

The best choice to make sure that your rubber stampings last a long time is to find paper that is acid-free or is labeled as archival paper. Because of the materials used during the manufacturing process or influences caused by the environment surrounding the materials during creation, some papers can become acidic, so it's important to ensure that the paper you choose is guaranteed to be acid-free. Rubber stamping is very popular so most paper companies now label their items "acid-free" or "archival quality" on the packaging.

Most of all, just make sure that you have all the quality materials you need so you can enjoy creating your new rubber stamp project.

I hope the information found in this page has been of help to you. It is sometimes hard to think of great gift you can give your teacher, and hopefully this page has brought you some ideas on what to get.