You have seen some of the wonderful things you can do with dominos used in rubber stamping before. They make beautiful pendants, bracelets, and decorative magnets. But have you ever thought about making a decorative (and, yes, functional) Domino Set? While this is a time consuming project, the final results are beautiful and worthy of sitting out for constant display.

Supplies:

• Set of dominos, your choice of size
• Archival Brilliance stamp pad - multi color
• Paper Mache box large enough to fit domino set
• Wooden doll’s head
• Embellishments of your choice
• Spray sealer
• Spray primer - white
• Tissue paper
• Fine sandpaper
• Staz On or Fabrico Permanent Ink Pad
• Stamp with small pattern
• Mod Podge – satin sheen
• Flocking
• Felt
• Aileen’s Tacky Glue

Lightly sand the back of all dominos. When they are sanded, rinse to remove any residue and let dry. When the dominos are dry, lay them all out face down and lightly spray with primer. Allow to dry, then spray a second coat. Allow that to dry.

Once the dominoes are dry, take your Archival Brilliance pad and stamp over the dominoes, turning pad as you go to distribute the colors randomly. Heat set the dominoes. Once the ink is dry take your rubber stamp and ink it up with the Staz On or Fabrico ink pad and stamp over each domino individually. This must be heat set as well.

Once all the dominoes are stamped and heat set, spray two to three light coats of sealer over them, allowing them to dry between each coat.

Take the tissue paper and crumple it tightly into a ball, then smooth it out and tear it into small pieces 1”-2” in diameter. Spread Mod Podge over a section at a time of the paper mache box. Lay pieces of tissue paper over the Mod Podge covering each piece with more Mod Podge as you go, slightly overlapping the tissue paper pieces. Once the lid and box are covered, allow to dry. Repeat this process with the doll head, leaving the bottom uncovered.

After box is dry, take two to three coordinating permanent ink pads in your choice of colors and lightly stamp on the box, lid and doll head. Take a paper towel and slightly blend colors together. Heat set the inks. Take your stamp from the dominos and lightly stamp randomly over the box. You will not get an even stamp due to the rough nature of the crumpled tissue paper, but that adds to the old look of the box. Heat set this as well.

When you have this done, paint the inside of the box with Aileen’s Tacky Glue and pour flocking into the box. Shake the flocking around to completely cover the glur. Then pour out the extra flocking onto a piece of paper in order to transfer it back into it’s container. When this is dry, inspect the inside of the box. If there are bare spaces, repeat the process with more glue and flocking for more thorough coverage.

Cut felt to 1/8” smaller than the bottom of the box. Paint the bottom of the box with the glue and adhere the felt to the bottom of the box, centering it. Once this is dry you are ready to place your embellishments onto the box. Depending on your embellishments you may need a stronger glue. I recommend E-6000 for this. Once everything is completely dry, you are ready to place your dominoes in the box.

The set pictured was made for my Grandmother several years ago and has gone through fairly constant use. The pictures were taken after about seven years of usage and they still look as good as new.