Stamp of Creativity : A crafts class offers tips on use of ink pads and how to ‘caress the paper.’ Non-traditional designs inspire the teacher’s remark of ‘interesting.’

Some guys are born with the craft gene, some aren’t. I got mine from my mother’s side. So did my sister, who has done enough crafts to stock a chain of Moskatels from here to Kentucky. So when I heard of a stamping class held at Stamp Into Burbank, I felt my DNA whir at the prospect of getting my fingernails inked.

I took along my friend Larry Nichols, an artist who makes jewelry. My stamping experience is limited to stamping “Third Notice Past Due” on invoices for magazines I write for. Larry once stamped his footprints on a birth certificate.

“Ooooh! A couple of stamp virgins!” Shop owner Lynne Lacy is eyeing Larry and me with the sort of look that tells us we’ll be buying $287 worth of stamps before the night is over. Lacy seats us at a cramped table with six other virgins, and the stamping begins.

First we make a border of leaf stamps around blank postcards. I look around the room, imagining that the home down the street has given us passes to attend this craft class--along with making us take our medicine, of course. Then Lacy bursts out with a chipper, “Clean rubber is happy rubber!” to explain how to clean our stamps. Fantasy quickly turns into reality.

Lacy explains that it’s OK to “beat your pad to death” with the stamp to get it really inked up. “But you must caress the paper lovingly with the stamp,” she says. “Besides, what’s the worst thing it ever did to you? Give you a paper cut?” I look over at Larry, who’s not caressing his paper. “Caress your paper!” I hiss.

Rubber stamping, I later learn, has been around for about 100 years, back when Goodyear discovered a technique for stabilizing rubber. A quick check in the phone book reveals that there are six art stamping stores in the Valley.

Lacy stocks a selection of 5,000 stamps and manufactures about 900 of her own designs at another location. The store carries seasonal stamps, including valentines, baby chicks, flags, turkeys, Santas and menorahs. Lacy also stocks the most popular designs--paw prints and cat stamps.

Stamping postcards and envelopes is quite popular, I’m told. Stamps also are used on invitations, fabric, T-shirts, tote bags, greeting cards, place cards, gift bags, place mats--the list is endless. Stamp Into Burbank even sells stamped birdhouses.

Lacy tells me that stamps also can be made into 3-D cut-outs and worked into pop-up designs. She also gives stamp parties at people’s homes, sort of a craft version of Tupperware gatherings.

Back at the craft table, Larry has created a collage of black, gray and green valentines that belong in a David Lynch flick. “Aaaah. That’s interesting,” says Lacy. “That’s really different.” (Read: Who let you out of the home?)

I’ve moved on to making a collage out of raffia, cardboard and netting as the background for a multicolored stamp of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream.” It’s for a gift bag. To put the hundreds of valentines I’ll no doubt receive. I think the women at the table think Larry and I are gathering material for the next “Addams Family” sequel. But I’ve taken Lacy’s advice of “the less you plan it, the better” to heart. She says people pay $8 to $10 for these kinds of gift bags in the stores.

I grow frustrated because there is one glue gun among the eight of us and Larry is hogging it. But I’m patient as I rub colored markers onto stamps to prepare other designs. It’s OK if the ink dries because you can spritz it with water to bring it back to life. And the water can add a watercolor effect that looks arty.

Then I lose my cool: “Larry! Give me the damn glue gun! You’ve been hogging it for the last 20 minutes!” Larry shoots me the kind of look that says he’s ready to pound a huge cat stamp on my forehead (I hate cats) if I don’t pipe down. He finally hands it over. I forget why I needed it.

We also learn how to make embossed stamps by rubbing a special embossing pigment onto a stamp and then cooking the stamped design with a dryer. The finished product is shiny and can be colored in. Larry says mine looks a bit girlish. I tell him that sometimes the craft gene mutates at birth, creating a class of people that are despised simply because they are unable to hold glue guns properly. Such people, I add, often criticize the gifted.

Where and When What: Stamp class. Location: Stamp Into Burbank, 3009 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank. Hours: 6 p.m. Mondays. Price: $16 for one class. Call: (818) 845-8180.