Decorating dominoes of all sizes has become one of the newest crazes in stamp art. The possibilities are endless as to materials one can use to decorate them with. You can paint them, dye them, cover them with tissue paper, embellish them with charms, or use them as an embellishment for cards, boxes, journals, etc.

You can also use them to make jewelry, particularly pins, necklaces and bracelets. If you drill a hole in them, you can attach fibers and/or jump rings or attach them together with cording or a hinge to make bracelets or even a miniature book.

First you need to decorate them! July's Project of the Month deals with the decorating aspects of domino art.

To create colorful backgrounds, you can paint the smooth domino with just about any acrylic paint. Many stampers use Lumiere paints, which we tried on some of our samples. Martha told me her favorite paint is Dr. Ph Martin's Spectralite Acrylics - the Private Collection.  Why? I'm glad you asked! It leaves a smooth, shiny surface and the colors are so vibrant, which we both liked. You can apply them by just dabbing the color on with a tissue. If you sand your domino surface first you can even use a stipple brush. For sanding my dominos, I use a soft nail file cube.  For a more textured look, try Doc Martin's metal craft paints!  I also liked the results I got with Spectralite Acrylics, but I equally liked the effects of using Brilliance Pads!

Once you have created a background using whatever paint or inks you like, allow the top surface of your domino to dry completely. You can speed up the process by heat-setting with an embossing tool, and then you can stamp an image on the top surface, or place several dominoes together and stamp on all of them to get a connected image.

Martha's favorite pad to stamp dominoes with is the Document Ink pad, but also notes that you can use any dye ink pad, the Brilliance pads or Doc Martin's Inkpaks to stamp…all will dry if you heat set them.

I decided to stamp my images using black pigment ink and embossed the stamped image with black detail embossing powder. I loved the raised look it created.

A colorful background technique is the Polished Stone technique. Martha used Fiesta inks on many of her samples by putting several drops on a piece of felt and dabbing it onto the domino surface.

You can also use the "direct to domino" approach and use your stamp pads to cover the domino. Just sponge on any dye ink and heat set … or pigment ink and emboss.

Try stamping an image on tissue paper, color in the image and then use Mod Podge, or any clear drying adhesive to adhere the tissue paper image to the domino. Paint the Mod Podge to the top surface of the domino and lay your tissue paper image on top. Smooth it out and cut off the excess tissue paper. Then seal it with another coat of Mod Podge on top and edge it with a Krylon metallic marker.

The benefit of using tissue papers is that it allows you to color in an image with colored pencils, or Radiant Pearls ... or edge it with Rub-Ons; any kind of medium that won't work directly on a domino.

I found that by sanding the domino with a soft nail file block, I created enough of a tooth on the surface of the domino that I was even able to paint with Radiant Pearls … yes, Radiant Pearls! I figured if I could emboss pigment ink, why not emboss Radiant Pearls? There is only one catch. If you paint your domino art with Radiant Peals, do NOT use Krylon spray to seal it. Krylon spray will actually lift the Radiant Pearls off, in the form of a decal.

After some experimenting with Radiant Pearls, and a few dominoes later, I applied a thin coat of Diamond Glaze, or 3D Crystal Lacquer, over my embossed Radiant Pearls image and viola! No more peeling!

You can also stamp your image directly on the domino, with or without creating a background first, and color it with a permanent marker. Martha and I both tried this method using Fabrico markers (you must heat set), and both liked it. However, using Krylon spray to seal will also lift your markers, so I suggest using Mod Podge, to seal when using Fabrico markers.

Another coloring option is to paint your image with an acrylic paint. In the Zia Bamboo sample, shown top center, Martha painted the domino with Dr. Ph Martin's Metal Craft paint (brass) and then stamped the image. She then painted the image with Doc Martin's Calligraphy Colors inks for a pearlescent finish.

No matter how you decorate your domino, you should always seal it with some type of sealant.  We used either Krylon Crystal Clear, Crystal Lacquer/Diamond Glaze or Mod Podge.  Some people are also using Future Floor Finish to seal the dominoes but we found that to be really messy, and sometimes caused the ink to "bleed" on some of our samples.

A final tip from Martha … when working with dominoes…if you mess one up, just clean it off with Goo Gone or Goo Off, then wash it with soap and water and start over again.

Now that you have all of these decorated dominoes, what do you do with them? Watch for Domino Art Part II next month. We'll give you many great ideas for making domino art. Stamp artists Wendy Vecchi, Patti Gramza, Kathy Mailloux, Belinda Schneider, Snowstamper, and of course Martha and I, will show you how to use your decorated dominoes to embellish journals, make beautiful key chains, necklaces, dolls, and more!  Have fun and experiment with a variety of materials.  Drop me a line and let me know what you're doing with your domino art!


See "Domino Art Part II" for more ideas!