Does anyone stamp?

[KimT]

I have a friend who is a consultant for Stampin' Up!. She creates beautiful greeting cards, stationery, etc... I love her work and I love the look of the stamps so I'm having a workshop at my house in a couple of weeks to learn the ropes.

I scrapbook too, so the nice thing about stamping is it can be incorporated in scrapbooking.

So if anyone stamps, do you have any advice on the "must-haves"! Thanks!

[Paula]

I stamp, but only my Christmas cards. I also stamped my sister's wedding invitations/announcements this summer. I have an alphabet set which I have used for scrapbooking.

[KimT]

I have an alphabet set which I have used for scrapbooking.

That's one of the items I plan on getting.

[amyval]

I just started as a consultant for Close to my Heart. They have a lot of stamps and scrapbooking stuff. I"m still learning on the stamps but I love it!

[Paula]

Now that I'm thinking of it, I used my snowflake set (it came with the words "Warm Winter Wishes") for a Christmas page. I have Night of Navy ink and then I used the 2 way glue and Dazzling Diamonds glitter. It turned out nicely.

[KimT]

Paula, that sounds beautiful.
I used glitter on the the greeting card that I made yesterday over my friend's house. It's so pretty!

[Quoth]

Must haves?

Basic inks, I like the Versa Color cubes. They're small, inexpensive and have a great range of colours. You can build up a supply of colours over time.

A multi purpose ink that adheres to any surface such as Staz-On. If you're on a budget stick to black for for stamping a strong outline and clear which you can use any colour of embossing powder with. If you buy that, you'll need a good stamp cleaner solution.

Embossing powder, a selection of colours, or again if you're on a budget you can stick to clear which can be used with any colour ink. If you plan to heat emboss you'll need a heatgun for the best results.

That's your basics. You can then add watercolour pencils for adding colour, or laquers that dry to a stained glass/enamel effect or fine glitters for sparkle. You can use chalks to create a soft shadow effect behind your image. You can try stamping onto shrink plastic to create wee charms for cards, SBs, keyrings etc. Stamping on acetate works well if you're using glitter.

In terms of stamps themselves, alphabet and text/greetings stamps are fabulous, really versatile. Simple bold basic designs - snowflakes, stars, hearts, can be utilised in so many different ways. Try to buy wisely, it might be really cute, but will you use it over and over again? Is it versatile enough to try different techniques or different looks. Could you use it for cards, SBs, stationary, decorating flower pots, textiles or picture/mirror frames, mobiles or shrink plastic charms.

Enjoy!

[KimT]

Quoth - my head is spinning! I have no clue what you're talking about, but I'm going to take your word and print this out!! Thank you!

[Paula]

I agree with the embossing powder and heat gun. That's a nice technique.

[Quoth]

Oh bugger...sorry! Feel free to ask, I'll try and clarify.