Cleaning up hands after stamping

My son got a set of rubber stamps today and loved them. But, the blue ink is stuck on his fingers and we can’t clean it off. I’ve tried using different types of soaps and scrubbed them with a cloth, but no luck. Is there a trick to getting the ink out of tiny fingers?

What soaps have you tried? I’d try Dawn dishwashing soap. That’s my go-to for everything.

If that doesn’t work, try a heavy-duty grease remover soap meant for people who work with machinery. It stinks, but it can remove grease and oil from hands, so I bet it will take off rubber stamp ink. You can find soaps like these at machine shops or farm warehouse stores in your area.

Thanks, Amy. I’ve tried all my hand soaps and even my dish soap, but it’s not Dawn so I’ll pick that up. My son has been sick this weekend and hasn’t touched his stamps since Friday, but two baths later and he still has the ink on his fingertips.

I’m ashamed to admit I’ve used a Magic Eraser to get ink off my hands. They are kind of harsh on the skin, but I swear they will take off all sorts of crazy craft messes!

Wow!  Those Magic Erasers really do work for just about everything.

Did you try rubbing alcohol?  I’ve used that before, and it works pretty well.  I had this brilliant idea of doing stamped hand prints with my son when he was a baby.  I used red “washable” ink, but the end result was really gory.  And his hands were red for a long time.  Rubbing alcohol finally did the trick.

I forgot about rubbing alcohol! I’ve used that before with pretty good results—much less harsh than the Magic Eraser too.

Kate—I can’t stop laughing at the image of your poor baby with gory red hands. I hope this happened around Halloween so you could try to pass it off as a very creative costume.