Inking your rubber stamps is easy! Place the stamp on a flat surface with the rubber side up. Open ink pad you wish to use and dab the ink pad directly on the surface of the rubber. After applying the ink directly on the rubber side of the stamp, check the rubber to be sure all areas are covered with ink. Dab additional ink on any unlinked areas.
Stamps that are larger than your ink pad can be inked by dabbing the ink on the top of the rubber, while stamps that are smaller than your ink pad can be inked by tapping gently several times on the ink pad itself. Do NOT rub the stamp across the ink pad.
Ink parts of the image with different colors. Smaller ink pads, cubes and Daubers are an easy way to add more than one color of ink to an image.
Add ink only to the image itself. Avoid getting ink on the rubber around the image or on the woodblock. Additional ink around the edges of the rubber can be removed with a cotton swab or baby wipe before stamping on paper.
Stamping Your Image
Use firm, even pressure when stamping an image on paper. Use the scrolled wood sides to grip the stamp on either side with your fingers. If you see inked areas on your paper that you did not intend to stamp, that generally means that you moved the stamp as you stamped on the paper, or pressed too hard. This can be avoided by stamping on a piece of scratch paper first until you feel confident with a new stamp.
Stamper Must Haves
Stamps
Small and large floral
Sentiments
Various theme images
Backgrounds
Shadow stamps
Cutting Tools
Craft knife
Self-healing cutting mat
Paper trimmer
Bone folder
Scissors
Dye Based Ink Pads
Black
Blue, red, pink and green
Rainbow
Pigment Based Ink Pads
Black
Gold and silver
VersaMark
Coloring Tools
Colored pencils
Water color pencils
Water-based pens
Chalks
Clean Up
Stamp cleaner
Solvent ink cleaner
Baby wipes
Embossing Supplies
Embossing powder in clear, gold and black
Embossing ink pad
Heat Gun
Other Tools & Supplies
Clean Impressions
Stippling brush
Dove blender
Q-tips, cotton balls and make-up sponges
Stamping Basics
Overlapping Colors
Blending colors can be achieved with a single image or several images. A single image overlapped slightly creates added interest and dimension. Overlapping several different images with the same theme allows you to stamp images in unique formats. Simple images look best when using this technique. Color selection is very important. Be sure the colors you choose will create an attractive color where the images overlap.
Partial Inking
Experiment with partial inking of you stamps, which allows you to use only the image or message. Dab the ink pad on the stamp, being sure no ink appears on the part of the image that you don't want to use. After inking, look at the rubber under the light to see if all the rubber areas you wish to use are shiny with ink color. Dab additional amounts of ink in the areas that do not appear shiny. Remove any undesired ink with a cotton swab or Baby Wipe. Practice stamping on scratch paper to acquaint yourself with the new image.
Nesting
Use pastel or muted color inks and build up from light to dark colors. Stamp a large solid. Stamp a smaller solid over the larger solid. Finish by stamping an image or verse over the second solid.
Brush Markers on Stamps
Using water-based brush markers is a great way to add color just where you want it. This gives you the versatility to apply more than one color to each stamp to create great multi-colored images. Color directly onto the stamp, huff or breathe on the stamp to remoisten the inks if necessary before stamping. Clean your stamps well. And never, never, never use permanent ink pens which will stain your stamps . . . permanently!
Nifty Tricks
Additive Inking
Ink a solid stamp with a light color pigment ink. Ink an image stamp with a darker dye ink and stamp directly onto the solid stamps. Stamp the whole thing onto your paper.
Subtractive Inking
Ink a solid stamp with pigment ink. Use a clean, uninked image stamp and stamp directly onto the inked solid. This will remove some of the ink, creating a lovely tone on tone mono print effect. Stamp the solid onto your paper.
Discreet Journaling Lines
Although the VersaMark ink is sticky when applied, it dries like a regular ink and loses its stickiness. It is acid-free and therefore safe for scrapbook pages. It works perfectly on all colored cardstock.
Mixing Up Letters and Words
Message and alphabet sets are some of the most versatile stamps available! A five word message means five different possible words to use, combine and recombine for a great effect! And then there are the alphabet sets where the sky is the limit!
There are no rules, just play. Letters and words can be mixed together to form phrases, sentiments, poems, journaling, titles and more. An added advantage is that you will get more out of your stamps by combining the phrases and fonts.
The Many Uses of VersaMark
Coat scissors with VersaMark pad for nonstick properties.
Clean stained stamps then coat with VersaMark pad, let sit, then clean with spray cleaner and it will lift off any black stains!
Use VersaMarker for freehand feasibility.
Rub pastels or chalks onto dark cardstock as a background, then stamp with Versamark pad inked stamp and it will lift off pastels and leave dark image.
Use VersaMark to coat stamps when imprinting into melted embossing powder and stamp will release easier.
Use VersaMark with heat gun and add fun flock, glitter, Pearl Ex and much more!
Use VersaMark to heat emboss with clear embossing powder on white, vanilla, naturals, confetti, kraft or any soft colored paper. Then sponge over the clear embossed image with desired ink color and watch the image appear like magic.
Use VersaMark in place of embossing ink -- just stamp and emboss with colored powder or clear powder for a see-through sine!
Things to Remember
A decision should be made first on how you will color your images
If you primarily will use markers, colored pencils or water-color pencils and a dye ink pad will do the job nicely.
If you plan on embossing most of your images, you will need to purchase pigment ink pads or a VersaMark pad.
Ink Rules
Dye ink -- strong, crisp image
Pigment ink -- juicy, softer image
VersaMark -- watermark image
You can NOT heat emboss with dye ink -- it dries too quickly
You CAN heat emboss with pigment ink, embossing ink and/or VersaMark.
Embossing Rules
The color of your embossing powder is the color you will see DESPITE what ink color you use. For example, if you use black ink with gold embossing powder, your image will be gold.
There are two ways to purchase color: 1) invest in various colors of ink pads (dye and pigment) and use clear embossing powder OR 2) invest in various colors of embossing powder and purchase a black or clear ink pad.
The Cost of Stamps
One of the common complaints about stamps is that they are not very cost effective. Many people mistakenly believe you can only get one look from a particular stamp. But this is not necessarily the case. You can:
change ink colors
change the pressure you use to create different intensities
stamp on any textured paper and more!
In addition, one of the things we like most about stamps is that they are highly portable. When at a crop or scrapping with friends, you can create titles and embellishments easily!
If you're still in doubt about how versatile a stamp can be, we suggest you first purchase a set of alphabet stamps. You can use these stamps to create journaling, embellishments, titles and more-- and the different looks you can get from them is limitless!
Mistakes Happen!
Mistakes happen to everyone. If you make a mistake, there are several simple ways to rescue your project.
If an imperfection occurs on the front of your card or accent, attach a piece of coordinating paper over the area and restamp the design on another piece of paper and add to the layered piece.
If the image you stamped has ink in unwanted areas, cut closely around the image with a craft knife.
Keep a black pen handy. If the image you stamp does not have enough ink, draw in the image with the pen.
Before attaching embellishments or layers of paper, complete all the stamping on your project. If needed, you can easily restamp a design on an additional piece of paper and add the layers.
Shadow stamps can be layered in coordinating colors over areas of unwanted ink to form a collage background. Simply stamp an image on a piece of white paper and add to the top of your collage background. Stamp a single message over the collaged shadow and you have an original greeting!
Refer a friend to our site by entering their email address:
Real-time Chat