Stamp Your Own Hand Fans!

Hand fan stamping is great fun! It only requires imagination and a few simple and affordable tools and materials. Do it at home, at school, at your social club... Create commemorative fans for your celebrations and give them to relatives and friends. Make each fan unique, so that every person receives a truly personalized gift, handmade by you.

Stamping Instructions

What you need

• A comfortable work place. You will need a sufficiently large, clean work surface, and enough space for putting your stamped fans to dry.
• Plastic foil for protecting your furniture, as required.
• Acrylic inks for painting on fabric. We recommend the Americana acrylic inks by DecoArt.
• One or more rubber stamps, depending on your design.
• Brushes.
• Cleaning clothes.
• A piece or flat, clean cardboard, larger than an unfolded fan.
• A new, dry sponge cloth.
• A pair of clothespins.
• A few disposable glasses, for inks and water.
• A small piece of cotton fabric for testing. Ideally the cloth should be similar to the fabric on the fans.
• And, of course, the fans!

Stamping procedure

1. Prepare the work space as required.
2. Fix the dry sponge cloth flat on one surface of the cardboard piece.
3. Prepare the inks as prescribed by their maker.
4. With a brush, apply ink to the surface of the stamp, removing any excess.
5. Place the test cloth on the sponge cloth and try stamping on it. Apply the stamp firmly, without making too much pressure. Repeat from step 4 until you get the knack of it. Then remove the test cloth and clean the sponge cloth if required.
6. Fix one of the fans, wide open, to the piece of cardboard, the back of the fan on the sponge cloth. Fix the fan, one clothespin on each guard stick, to the edge of the cardboard.
7. Stamp the fan as you have learnt.
8. Remove the fan from the cardboard, and clean the sponge cloth as required.
9. Do not fold the fan. Place it, wide open, on a clean surface, until the ink is dry.
10. Repeat from step 6 until you stamp all the fans.
11. Do not attempt to heat-set the ink, as the fans will not stand high temperature.

For more about creative stamping, we recommend reading the book Rubber Stamping for the First Time by Carol Sheffer.