A collection of free downloadable public domain images for crafters and web designers that have been rescued from old books, magazines, and other print materials.
All of the images in this collection are copyright free in the United States and any country that extends copyrights up to 70 years
after the death of the original artist making them in the public domain and free to use in your next scrapbook page, notecard or other craft projects.
This image is copyright free
and in the public domain anywhere that extends copyrights 70 years after death or at least 120 years after
publication when the original illustrator is unknown.
Rubber Stamp Look
Rubber stamping can quickly become fairly expensive. Every time a crafter makes a new project they may have to purchase a pre-made stamp or take the time and expense of making one of their own. Why hunt for a cheap rubber stamp when you can make your own?
There is an alternative!
Vintage black and white drawings and a bit of PhotoShop magic will have you finding a fun and low cost way to supplement your rubber stamping hobby. You can turn anything into a great rubber stamp picture. Have fun and save money; design a rubber stamp without the rubber, the glue, or even the inks.
So, enough talk. Let's get started - you'll be amazed at how simple this is and wonder why you hadn't already thought of it. Rubber stamp scrapbooking will never again look the same.
2. Open or cut and paste your image into PhotoShop. For those of you with more artistic abilities, you could always draw your own original artwork. Make sure the Image Mode is set to RGB.
3. Go to the layer menu and Layer Style, Gradient Overlay - If that selection is grayed out, you need to go to Layer menu and choose Duplicate Layer. Go ahead and keep the defaults and then work with the new layer. Return to Layer Style, Gradient Overlay.
4. Change the Blend Mode to Screen.
5. To create a simple uneven stamped look, select a Gradient using the drop down menu that has white and gray, black to transparent or something similar. Change the Opacity levels to create the look you desire. I used a gradient that went from white to transparent with 40% Opacity to get the following image:
If the image you have chosen to use is too crisp and looks printed rather than stamped, use the Smudge Tool, set the brush width to close to the size of your image as possible. Set the strength very low, 7% works well and then position the mouse over the image and just slightly move the mouse to create a smudge. You might need a bit of trial and error to get a hand-printed, rubber stamp look rather than simply getting a smeary look.
6. Use a gradient with shades of the same color to create a colored rubber stamp like what's shown here:
To create the wonderful looks rubber stampers are creating with multiple colored inks, select a gradient that uses three or four colors to get something like the image shown below.
7. Don't merge the layers (if you had to create a duplicate) and save your new rubber stamp image to a file or cut and paste it into your project.
Artist: publisher image - Blackie & Son of Glasgow
Image Appears In: A box of stories : packed for young folks
