Rubber stamps have become widely popular over the last few years. Previously, rubber stamps were used for business purposes only, but people today now use rubber stamps extensively for craft projects. Nowadays, rubber-stamping has become a fantastic hobby where an individual can create all sorts of designs by using rubber stamps. For this hobby, obviously rubber stamps carved with different designs on the rubber is essential, as well as ink pad that is used to transfer the designs from these rubber stamps onto a medium like pieces of cloth, paper, or card.

Decorative rubber stamps, also called art stamps, are used extensively in homemade craft projects. Decorative art stamps leave a lasting image on the page and create wonderful paint designs on a wide range of surfaces. Art stamps can be used to decorate scrapbooks or to add color and variety to photo albums. Art stamps are also used on letters, greetings cards, birthday and Christmas cards, banners and flyers to give a personalized touch. Art stamps can also be used to decorate notebooks, stationery and holiday wrapping paper. Either one stamp design, or two or more complementary designs can be used at a time to embellish a single paper.

Art rubber stamps can be painted with fabric paint to create a decorative border design on a piece of fabric or an existing garment. The paint used should blend nicely with the fabric to give a personal touch to items such as tablecloths and napkins. Since rubber stamps can also be used on hard surfaces like wood or metal, hard items such as trunks, jewelry boxes and picture frames can also be decorated with rubber stamps. The paints used to decorate these hard surface items should be appropriate for the item's surface to get a good result. You can create elegant decorative borders, decorate a child's room, or design walls and ceilings with rubber stamps.

Care should be taken to choose the correct size of the rubber stamp. Small stamps should be used for stationery and wrapping paper, and extra-large stamps to decorate walls and ceilings. Paints should be applied to rubber stamps with a paint pen, small brush or the traditional stamp pad and rinsed immediately after use.

Much earlier rubber stamps had to be ordered or bought from office supply stores when needed. But today rubber stamps are available everywhere from local supermarkets to online sites that sell stamps of varied uses and designs. With the popularity of rubber-stamping, numerous books and magazines devoted to rubber-stamping are available both in the stores and on internet sites and display a varied range of rubber stamp craft projects.