Tile Stamping Tutorial

I was asked by one of my readers about how to stamp on a tile. For this project I used a smooth non-glazed tumbled tile. This tile is more or less a raw tile. There is no finish on it at all.

To prep the tile you just need to wipe the surface down with rubbing alcohol and let it dry.

Once dry you are ready to stamp your image. Be sure to use Staz-on ink for this. You don't want it to come off with just a drip of water. Before you stamp your image on the tile stamp it on a piece of white copier paper. This will serve two purposes. One it will let you know your "touch" on the ink pad. You will see if you need to press harder for more ink or give it a lighter tough because you have too much ink on the stamp. You only have one shot at this and you want to get it right. It is extremely difficult to remove the Staz-on from the tumbled tiles without some residue being left behind. Now I have not tried the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser Sponge on this so I can't tell you if it would help but it would be something I would try if I needed to. Using glazed tiles is different. The Staz-on does come off with rubbing alcohol.

And the second purpose of stamping the image on copier paper is to give you a mask to work with. I cut away all the parts I want red. You will be making as many masks as you have colors to add. Cut one for the red clothing, one for the shoes, belt and mittens, etc.

For my colors I used colored Sharpies. Nothing fancy and nothing expensive. They are a permanent marker and work fine for this project.

Here you see how I was coloring in the areas. After stamping my image on the tile and cutting out the pieces on the copier paper I lightly taped it in place on the tile. I took a red Sharpie and colored on a piece of acetate. You need to work a little quickly here but not frantically. If the marker on the acetate dries just color more in a different spot and continue. Pick up some of the marker with a cotton swab and dab in the areas you want that color. Continue until you have all areas covered. Carefully pick up a corner and see if you like the color. If not, put it back down and add more until you get the darkness you like. You can also do shading in areas this way too. Adding darker where you think it needs it.

Here is my finished tile. I added some pink cheeks by touching the tip of the cotton swab on my alcohol wipe and dotting it on the cheeks and nose of Santa. The blue around Santa was done the same way. The rubbing alcohol dilutes the color a bit to give you a lighter look. For the "sponging" of the edges look I colored blue on my acetate and picked up the color with an alcohol pad and used it like a sponge. A cotton ball will do just fine too. Keep it fairly wet but not sopping. You don't want it dripping down your arms but you want it wet enough to work with.

If you want to seal this I suggest you use a clear acrylic spray. You need to be careful with this because it will lift the colors right off the tile and cause them to run, bleed and drip. Start out about 2 feet away and give the tile a quick sweeping spray across the tile. Hardly anything will get on the tile. That's what you want. You will want to let it set for a couple of minutes and then repeat it several times. Then you will move in a little closer. Always use quick sweeping motions. Don't spray directly onto the tile, too much spray gets on it and you will not be happy with the results. Start off to the side of the tile and spray across to past the tile. Do this outside and in a well ventilated area. To avoid any spraying at all you can take clear contact paper and cover your tile. This is something that can be replaced in time. With the acrylic spray your surface can still get scratched and ruined by whatever gets set on top of it. And if you're just going to mount it on a plate hanger then you don't need to do anything to it. Click on the photo for a closer view.

I hope you have fun with these and if you'd like to share what you make email me a picture of your tile and I'll display it on here.

Thank you for stopping by,
Wanda