I came across a pile of found treasure when we were on a walk with Harry our Jack Russell Terrier dog…SLATE! And lots of it! I spent a long time picking it up as I went around with the intention of using it as natural embellishments for this issue.

Slate makes me think of Welsh Slate and traditional ‘Slate Art’…I remember when I was a wee kiddie being dragged around Welsh Gift Shops while on holidays in Wales, as my mother used to love collecting pictures painted in white on Welsh slate…so when I saw the naturally formed pieces of slate on the ground I knew I wanted to recreated that lost art using rubber stamps!

Read on for the low down on how I rubber stamped on slate!

Supplies Used For Stamping On Slate

* Flat Natural Slate
* Moonshadow White Brilliance Inkpad (Tsukineko)
* Baby Wipes
* Heat Gun

All Rubber Stamps Used By Scottish Borders Stamping

How To Stamp On Slate


 First of all you need to get some slate! So take a look around when you go for country walks as you could be walking on slate! The best kind of slate to pick up is small flat thin pieces, the flatter the better. But remember slate is a natural element so it is impossible to get perfectly flat pieces!

Once you have your slate you will need to wash it, I left mine soaking in hot soapy water. Then I rinsed it all off, and set aside to dry overnight.

Now to get stamping your slate! I tested several types of inkpads, and Brilliance inkpads came out best for me. They are very moist, and give you a nice juicy impression. I chose white ink because I wanted to emulate traditional slate art.

Chalk inkpads may also work, I didnt try them, but they are pretty similar to Brilliance in how they work, so give them a go and let me know if they work or not!

Now the best method of stamping on slate, is to ink your stamp up with Brilliance, turn your inked rubber stamp; rubber side up on your work table, and press the actual slate onto the rubber itself.

If you dont get a good stamped impression at this point, dont panic, simply wipe the ink off with a baby wipe, let dry for a few seconds and try again! I stamped on the slate a few times till I got the hang of it, wiping off my mistakes each time, until I was happy with the image impression.

Once you are happy with how it looks, either let the ink on the slate dry naturally, or heat set. You dont need any sealer on the slate because Brilliance inkpads dry permanently.

Once stamped you are ready to use your slate embellishments in your stamped art!

You can use them as they are, or edge them with leafing pens to add further interest.

When affixing them to card I used heavy duty double sided sticky tabs.