Rubber Sheet

From Amish to Creative: The Story Behind Heartfelt Creations Rubber Stamps

Every company has a story of how they started. or where they began, or even the hardships they went through to get to the top, but I would dare say that there is no story like that of Heartfelt Creations. A leading manufacturer of rubber stamps in the scrapbooking industry that came from the farms of Northern Indiana to now a celebrity company to crafters around the globe. From summer of 1995, President Linda Bontrager picked up her first stamp and went from Amish to creative and she has never looked back. Now 10 years later Heartfelt Creations is one of the top providers of quality rubber stamps with innovative and cutting edge designs. They inspire, they make you dream, and bring out the creative genius in all. But how did this all start from an Amish lady on a farm?

The Company

Summer of 95 is when Linda had her first encounter with a stamp and the rest was history. Living on a farm and being raised Amish, Linda was not taught to think outside the box or to explore ones creative imagination until a short and simple demo of how a stamp worked for her kids would change that forever. As told in her own words, “I will never forget the day I picked up a stamp for the first time. I had bought a little stamp set for my kids & I was showing them how to use it. I remember picking up the stamp, inking it up & pressing it down on the paper, as I lifted the stamp and saw the image it was that AHH HA moment. Its one of those moments in life when you realize just now you had discovered something amazing, and that would shape the course of your future.” By winter of 1997 she had collected a box full of stamps and started the family business right in their new home on an 80 acre farm. In a way you could say it was symbolic of starting a “new” life and putting behind the old one. In any sense the stamping journey began for Heartfelt Creations.

The Stamps

Heartfelt Creations currently provides four types of stamps: mounted, unmounted, precut, and rubber sheets. Wood mounted are deeply etched rubber images with 1/8 inch foam, mounted on hard white maple, indexed in black and lacquered. Unmounted would be the stamp image itself, but with no foam. Precut are to be used with the acrylic block. They are cut and have the EZ Mount Foam on them for the Acrylic Block. Then lastly the rubber sheets, which are usually 8.5 x 11 inches unless and are available with wood mount foam or the EZ mount foam for the acrylic block. There are also a more recent type of products too that is making headlines. They are the most popular line of stamps that coordinate with exclusive Spellbinder dies. This process of combining the stamp with the die results in a detailed image on your die cut, enabling you to create a stamped dimension without using scissors. The Spellbinders dies with the matching rubber stamps by Heartfelt Creations gives you a 3-D explosion of possibilities, and adds depth to any project.

As stated in the introduction of the article, the innovative and cutting edge designs is what makes these rubber stamps very desirable for any craft lover. With a little heartfelt family from Indiana and an amazing imagination for creation is what keeps this company going strong. A mere thought in 1995 to a passion for designing in 1997 to an all out change of lifestyle and risk in 2004, truly defines there was a time for every season and a rhyme for every reason. And now from 2007 to the present day, Heartfelt Creations has their retail store in Nappanee, Indiana and continue to express their stamps across all scrapbook and craft tradeshows. What was once a simple idea on a Amish farm has now made history as a creative legend and will live on in the posterity for years to come for the Bontrager family.

About the Author

To learn more about Heartfelt Creations including their exclusive matching Spellbinders Dies and all products you can visit CutAtHome for more information. CutAtHome is an online scrapbooking, card making, and paper crafting store. They specialize in providing only quality die cuts, die cutting machines, paper, embellishments, and rubber stamps.

20 LB Rubber Sheets