Dominoes come in various shapes and sizes from tiny travel sized dominoes to jumbo dominoes. They are usually a smooth white plastic although not always... I have some antique ones that appear to be made out of bone and recently on a trip to Mexico I came across some beautiful sets of dominoes carved from granite and mahogany wood. You can also buy black ones with an embossed dragon on the back, that on first sight, seem limited in use but they look wonderful used in Asian themed artwork or as a body for an angel. Some brands have cartoon characters on the back; this image can usually be removed with some paint stripper on a rag or can be painted over.
Dominoes can be basepainted in an opaque color using any paint you like such as craft paints or art paints. I prefer to leave mine plain and use the white domino for my base. I've also experimented "antiqueing" dominoes by soaking them in very strong coffee or tea... often for a few days or more. This gives the dominoes a tint varying from a light tan to a deep brown color depending on how long I leave the dominoes in. Stamping on the dyed dominoes with brown ink makes them look like they've been gently ageing in an old trunk in the attic!
I've also used dye inkpads to color the dominoes; this gives them a sheer, see-through tint. I try to heat set the inks so they won't run or smear when I stamp over top of them. Markers can be used both for a solid colored effect or used with rubbing alcohol for a mottled look. This necklace is done using that technique. You simply sparingly drip rubbing alcohol onto the still-wet ink. The alcohol makes the ink spread and separate.
To get an image onto the domino, you have a couple choices. You can stamp on paper and glue it onto the domino, this way you can use any inks that are appropriate for paper. On this pin I've stamped onto white tissue paper then glued it to the domino.
Or you can stamp directly onto the domino. I've found the best ink to use directly on the dominoes are the StazOn inks by Tsukineko. This ink just sticks to the plastic like crazy! Even very detailed stamps like the photo realistic stamps come out crisp and clean using StazOn. I generally heat sent the ink briefly after the domino is stamped. Images can be then coloured in by your preferred medium; pens, pencils, rub-ons and chalks can be used. I always recommend using a spray finish such as Workable Fixative by Krylon to make sure inks and colouring mediums can't be rubbed off. After all that work you don't want that happening!
So you have this stamped domino... now what do you do with it? Well, you could stamp the whole set of dominoes and look at your artwork every time you play dominoes... But that's not likely to happen right? Here are a few suggestions... I've used dominoes for wearable art like pins and necklaces, key chains and luggage tags, embellishments on cards and artwork, grouped together in a frame or just piled in a basket. Dominoes are "hand" friendly, everyone likes to pick them up and feel them... most can't believe it started out as a humble domino!
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To attach a domino to a background or card I tend to reach for Goop most often. A domino can be heavy and needs a strong adhesive. Goop is available in most hardware stores and comes in different types. I most often use the household or crafters Goop.
But don't stop here, use your imagination and see what YOU can create from a simple game piece.
