It seems quite easy to ink a rubber stamp. However, there are a lot of difficulties and challenges in the inking process. Too much or too little ink will cause the stamped image unclear. The key point in inking a rubber stamp is making sure the rubber stamp is evenly coated with ink. Here are some specific techniques that will help you get perfect stamped images.
How to Ink a Small Rubber Stamp
A rubber stamp smaller than the ink pad can be inked by gently tapping the stamp onto the ink pad. Several repeated gentle taps are better than pressing the stamp hard into the pad. A hard pressing may cause over-inked, making the stamped image blurry.
How to Ink a Big Rubber Stamp
To ink a rubber stamp larger than the ink pad, what you need to do is cover the rubber stamp with the pad, rather than press the rubber stamp on the pad. You can place the rubber stamp on a flat surface or hold the rubber stamp with your hand. After securing the rubber stamp, tap the ink pad repeatedly over the surface of the rubber stamp by another hand. Also, you should tap lightly. Pressing hard will cause over-inked and make the image unclear.
Other Tips:
Gently breathing on an inked pad will provide just enough moisture to revive dried ink.
Repeatedly tap an over-inked stamp on scrap paper to clean. If the stamp is very over-inked, particularly with pigment inks, wash it and start again.
Wait a minute for drying the ink of the image.
Clean the rubber stamps well after every use to ensure a clear effect later.