Stamping

More techniques for stamping--


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Bleaching - You can use bleach on colored paper for a washed out look, or you can stamp with bleach. Just use a mixture of water and bleach, and play with it a little. Make sure to have a well ventilated area.

Chalking / Chalk - You can use chalk for anything, wet or dry, shading or coloring. Play and have fun with it. I just use chalk from the dollar store, I don't buy the fancy expensive kind at the craft stores. Chalks can be applied wet as well as dry. To use chalks wet, simply dip a paint brush or cotton bud in water and rub this over the dry chalk. The color is more intense than when the chalk is applied dry. The water will not hurt the chalks although the water might leave a slight mark on the chalk.

Designer Paper - Some stamps and inks are all that is required to turn a plain sheet of paper into an attractive and unique paper sheet. This can be used as special stationery, in handmade card making projects, as invitations or used in a wide variety of other projects. Many different effects can be achieved - stamp the paper in a single colored ink for an elegant monochromic finish or stamp with different colors allowing the images to overlap and blend. Large flowers and swirls are very popular at the moment and are well suited to all over designs.

Dry Embossing - This is when you use a light table, stylus tool, and a template. You place your template on the light table, then your cardstock, then using your stylus tool, you trace out the pattern on your template.

Heat Embossing - Take your stamp and stamp it with embossing ink. Then stamp your cardstock, then cover your stamped image with embossing powder. Tap of excess powder, then using a heat or embossing gun blow dry your image. The powder will melt and create a raised image. Beautiful!

Kiss stamping - a basic technique that a lot of haven't thought of trying or just haven't had the right stamps to inspire us to try it. You simply need bold stamps and background stamps. Instead of simply using markers or ink pads to ink an image, you use a background stamp to apply your ink to the bold image. You can also ink your bold image with an ink pad and then use uninked background stamp to remove ink, or a background stamp inked with another color to apply a different color of ink.

Flocking - Use flock with glue to quickly add some texture to rubber stamping project. The flocking powder creates a velvet or fuzzy surface.

Layering - Many rubber stamp designs are great for layering. Different sections of the stamped image can be cut out and reassembled to add depth to a rubber stamping project.

Bubble Wrap - Stamping needn't be an expensive craft. Many different items can be used to give a stamped impression and bubble wrap gives an interesting result that is great for all over designs. Using unusual and discarded materials also makes this a great 'green' technique. A cassette tape box was used rather than a stamping block in the photographs to demonstrate that it is possible to stamp with just about anything!

Marker Pens - Available in a wide range of colors and their vibrant hues bring depth to a variety of projects. Marker pens can be used to add just a touch of detail to a project or to color in an entire design. Outline stamps produce great images for coloring and a range of different effects can be achieved by changing colors. Marker pens are ideal for projects where deep and more dense shades are required - decorating chalks give more subtle and muted colors.

Templates/Masking - This is a very simple technique that can be adapted in a variety of ways. By stamping repeatedly over a piece of paper a block of color can be created. This technique can be taken one step further to produce bold shapes and patterns by using a mask. Use one of our shape templates from the template library or use a shape of your own to produce an interesting design for a card. Bold shapes work the best as fine or intricate shapes can get lost when stamped over. Clip art shapes would also work well.