Carrielyn
03-31-2005, 03:01 PM
****This is a handout from a class I taught on stamping in my pre-Evan days. In the class we went through some of the terms used, and basic stamp usage, so if something isn't explained very well, let me know, and I will clarify. *****
Stamp Basics:
Stamps are a versatile tool that can easily be integrated into your scrapbooks. For a beginner stamper, getting a few alphabet sets in different styles and sizes is a good place to start. A few basic shapes are also a good place to start. Circles, squares, hearts, stars, and other shapes you find yourself using often are good investments. . Also, don’t look just in the rubber stamp aisle of the store, there are stamps of different tpes located in other areas. Look for foam stenciling stamps, fabric stamps, and fun shapes and sizes of non-stamp items can easily be turned into make-shift stamps. You can also cut your own basic shapes out of fun foam, cork, and other soft materials. Often these other items are less expensive, and more unique than traditional rubber stamps.
Inks can be confusing, there are not just millions of colors to choose from, but many types of ink to be found as well. The most common inks are pigment and dye based inks. A pigment ink is a thick, slow drying paint like ink that lends itself well to heat embossing. Dye inks are a more common use ink; they are quick drying and quick to clean up. Pigment inks and dye inks each have their own uses, and can be intermingled to get the desired effects.
Watermark inks are a colorless pigment ink. Because they are colorless, and dry slowly, they are wonderful for heat embossing, and chalking exact images. You can also leave the watermark untouched to dry, and it gives the stamped area a darker hue, making a “watermark”. Watermarks can fade overtime however, so use with caution.
Chalk inks are a combination of dye and pigment inks, giving a few characteristics of each. Like a dye ink, they dry quickly and clean up quickly. Like a pigment ink, it gives crisp images. These inks also give a soft chalklike finish when dry.
One of the less common inks is solvent ink. These inks dry by evaporation, so they make stamping on nonporous surfaces possible. Metals, pottery, plastics, glass, and other surfaces do not allow dye inks to set, and pigments inks must be set with embossing powder, so solvent ink is a good alternative.
For a beginner, it’s easy to go overboard and by an ink of every color and type. To start with, try buying a basic black of each type of ink, and few other of your most used colors, and a watermark pad and a white pigment pad. Remember, you can always mix paints or use chalk to get the less used colors.
You can also purchase items other than traditional stamp pads for use with your stamps. There are several slow drying marker brands that allow you to color in your stamp. You can also use watercolor or acrylic paints, watercolor pencils, pastels, charcoals, and other art mediums. Stamps can be used with wax to create wax seals, with hot glue, clay, glue, etc. Do not limit yourself to the traditional uses, think outside the box.
Stamping Tips:
There are several methods to give your stamps new looks. Try using different textures with your stamp. Here are some ideas to try, and get you imagination moving:
1. Load your stamp with ink, and blot with a wadded up paper towel or plastic bag to randomly remove some of the ink (think sponge painting)
2 . Load your stamp with ink and stamp first on a piece of fabric, then stamp your paper. This will create a linen like texture within your stamp.
3. Load your stamp, and then use a dry paint brush to drag some of the ink or paint off (think dry brushing on a wall). You can also use a dry brush loaded with a different medium to create a two grains of color.
4. Double stamp, using different colors, or mediums.
5. Load your stamp, and drag a toothpick lightly across the surface in different patterns, swirls, lines, whatever.
6. Use a resist method by stamping with a watermark ink, heat set, and then pounce the area with chalk, or use a brayer or sponge loaded with ink (if using ink, you should using clear embossing powder when heat setting the watermark ink). The area stamped with the watermark ink will not take the color of the second medium, giving you a negative space.
7. Use a watermark ink, and immediately pounce with chalk… you can use several colors for a swirled look, or one color. The ink will catch the chalk, giving you a slightly raised look… almost like a matte embossing.
8.. Use your inks or other mediums WITHOUT a stamp to create custom backgrounds, and textures. Use sponges, paper towels, wadded up newspaper or plastic bags, fabrics with different textures, quilt batting, metal, cork, foams, pencil erasers, toilet paper, whatever you have within your reach.
9. Create your own stamp with household items. The bottoms of coke cans make a nice “ring”, foam and cork cut into shapes, the bottom of your shoe, fabric stretched across a piece of wood, the leaves from your front yard, your fingers, again, anything within your reach. Experiment.
10. Masking. If you only want to use part of the stamp you have, place a piece of masking tape over the area you DON’T want to use, and then load with ink. Remove the tape, and stamp!
11. Masking part 2: Lets say you want a layered image without the mud of multiple layers of ink. Stamp your first image on your project, and then stamp again on a piece of scratch paper, and cut that image out. Position your scratch image over the first image, this will protect the first image from the next round of stamping.
12. Add extra dimension by stamping your image on your project, and stamp the image on a second piece of paper, and cut part of the image out, position it over the original image, but use a pop dot to raise it off the page.
13. Rather than reloading your stamp each time, stamp multiple times, each stamp will become slightly lighter.
14. Stamp your image on the back of a piece of metal foil. Trace the image with a stylist on a soft surface like mouse pad.
15. Create a negative image in any shape you want with scratch paper (use letter stencils, shapes, anything you can think of). Place the image on your project, and use a background stamp to “fill” the negative space. Remove your scratch paper, and you have a custom “stamped” image. You can also fill the space using a stencil brush, paper towels, sponge, fabric, batting, anything.
These are just a few ideas to get you mind moving, experiment with lots of different mediums and different techniques to come up with unique projects!.
Stamp Basics:
Stamps are a versatile tool that can easily be integrated into your scrapbooks. For a beginner stamper, getting a few alphabet sets in different styles and sizes is a good place to start. A few basic shapes are also a good place to start. Circles, squares, hearts, stars, and other shapes you find yourself using often are good investments. . Also, don’t look just in the rubber stamp aisle of the store, there are stamps of different tpes located in other areas. Look for foam stenciling stamps, fabric stamps, and fun shapes and sizes of non-stamp items can easily be turned into make-shift stamps. You can also cut your own basic shapes out of fun foam, cork, and other soft materials. Often these other items are less expensive, and more unique than traditional rubber stamps.
Inks can be confusing, there are not just millions of colors to choose from, but many types of ink to be found as well. The most common inks are pigment and dye based inks. A pigment ink is a thick, slow drying paint like ink that lends itself well to heat embossing. Dye inks are a more common use ink; they are quick drying and quick to clean up. Pigment inks and dye inks each have their own uses, and can be intermingled to get the desired effects.
Watermark inks are a colorless pigment ink. Because they are colorless, and dry slowly, they are wonderful for heat embossing, and chalking exact images. You can also leave the watermark untouched to dry, and it gives the stamped area a darker hue, making a “watermark”. Watermarks can fade overtime however, so use with caution.
Chalk inks are a combination of dye and pigment inks, giving a few characteristics of each. Like a dye ink, they dry quickly and clean up quickly. Like a pigment ink, it gives crisp images. These inks also give a soft chalklike finish when dry.
One of the less common inks is solvent ink. These inks dry by evaporation, so they make stamping on nonporous surfaces possible. Metals, pottery, plastics, glass, and other surfaces do not allow dye inks to set, and pigments inks must be set with embossing powder, so solvent ink is a good alternative.
For a beginner, it’s easy to go overboard and by an ink of every color and type. To start with, try buying a basic black of each type of ink, and few other of your most used colors, and a watermark pad and a white pigment pad. Remember, you can always mix paints or use chalk to get the less used colors.
You can also purchase items other than traditional stamp pads for use with your stamps. There are several slow drying marker brands that allow you to color in your stamp. You can also use watercolor or acrylic paints, watercolor pencils, pastels, charcoals, and other art mediums. Stamps can be used with wax to create wax seals, with hot glue, clay, glue, etc. Do not limit yourself to the traditional uses, think outside the box.
Stamping Tips:
There are several methods to give your stamps new looks. Try using different textures with your stamp. Here are some ideas to try, and get you imagination moving:
1. Load your stamp with ink, and blot with a wadded up paper towel or plastic bag to randomly remove some of the ink (think sponge painting)
2 . Load your stamp with ink and stamp first on a piece of fabric, then stamp your paper. This will create a linen like texture within your stamp.
3. Load your stamp, and then use a dry paint brush to drag some of the ink or paint off (think dry brushing on a wall). You can also use a dry brush loaded with a different medium to create a two grains of color.
4. Double stamp, using different colors, or mediums.
5. Load your stamp, and drag a toothpick lightly across the surface in different patterns, swirls, lines, whatever.
6. Use a resist method by stamping with a watermark ink, heat set, and then pounce the area with chalk, or use a brayer or sponge loaded with ink (if using ink, you should using clear embossing powder when heat setting the watermark ink). The area stamped with the watermark ink will not take the color of the second medium, giving you a negative space.
7. Use a watermark ink, and immediately pounce with chalk… you can use several colors for a swirled look, or one color. The ink will catch the chalk, giving you a slightly raised look… almost like a matte embossing.
8.. Use your inks or other mediums WITHOUT a stamp to create custom backgrounds, and textures. Use sponges, paper towels, wadded up newspaper or plastic bags, fabrics with different textures, quilt batting, metal, cork, foams, pencil erasers, toilet paper, whatever you have within your reach.
9. Create your own stamp with household items. The bottoms of coke cans make a nice “ring”, foam and cork cut into shapes, the bottom of your shoe, fabric stretched across a piece of wood, the leaves from your front yard, your fingers, again, anything within your reach. Experiment.
10. Masking. If you only want to use part of the stamp you have, place a piece of masking tape over the area you DON’T want to use, and then load with ink. Remove the tape, and stamp!
11. Masking part 2: Lets say you want a layered image without the mud of multiple layers of ink. Stamp your first image on your project, and then stamp again on a piece of scratch paper, and cut that image out. Position your scratch image over the first image, this will protect the first image from the next round of stamping.
12. Add extra dimension by stamping your image on your project, and stamp the image on a second piece of paper, and cut part of the image out, position it over the original image, but use a pop dot to raise it off the page.
13. Rather than reloading your stamp each time, stamp multiple times, each stamp will become slightly lighter.
14. Stamp your image on the back of a piece of metal foil. Trace the image with a stylist on a soft surface like mouse pad.
15. Create a negative image in any shape you want with scratch paper (use letter stencils, shapes, anything you can think of). Place the image on your project, and use a background stamp to “fill” the negative space. Remove your scratch paper, and you have a custom “stamped” image. You can also fill the space using a stencil brush, paper towels, sponge, fabric, batting, anything.
These are just a few ideas to get you mind moving, experiment with lots of different mediums and different techniques to come up with unique projects!.