I was asked to write an article about rubber stamping. The things that I can say about rubber stamping will take up the entire newsletter so to come up with an informative, yet brief article is quite a feat for me. I love rubber stamping. My passion started about 7 years ago when a very dear friend introduced me to it. I enjoy making my own greeting cards, Christmas cards, gifts for my son’s classmates and when I discovered how to take this to memory booking you can just imagine how excited I was!
Rubber stamping is probably one of the most versatile crafting media there is. With the right stamps, you can create cards, gift wrap & tags, a one-of-a-kind garment or bag and with respect to scrapbooking, your own stickers, borders and die cuts. Even frames, photo corners and background paper. The possibilities are endless!
What do you need to add this wonderful craft to scrapbooking? The answer is easy. You need stamps, ink, paper and imagination! You don’t need to be an artist, you don?t have to draw. You need to remember what it was like to be a child. As a child, purple penguins were totally cool, flowers came in every color and size and a simple cotton ball made a billowy cloud. Stamps give you the art work, you just need to put on paper. Stamping gives an adult license to be a child again. Coloring, cutting, pasting and even getting ink all over your hands.
A word or two about stamps. Stampin?Up!(tm) offers such a wide variety of stamps, you are sure to find many favorites by just glancing through the 200+ page catalog. I was asked to pick one set of stamps that would be the best for the beginner, I would have to say that set is ?Fabulous Flourishes.? It’s very elegant, very practical and is quite versatile! I would also recommend that you purchase at least one set of alphabet stamps.
Now you need ink.
Let me take a little time to educate you about ink. You will spend a lot of time on your memory album so you want it to withstand the test of time, too. Your choice in ink is very important. All ink pads offered in the catalog are acid free and completely safe for your album. However, the Stampin’ pads are dye based ink which will fade over time. The lighter colors fade much faster than the darker colors. Stay away from the pastels and lighter shades if you are to choose the dye based inks.
Then there are the inks manufactured by Colorbox. These are the pigment based inks which are acid free and permanent. They are Petal Point, PaintBox and Cat’s Eye by name. The colors in the Petal Point (in the catalog) are exclusive to Stampin’ Up! and follow the color scheme of Stampin’ Up!- the Bold Brights, Soft Subtles, Rich Regals & Earth Elements. One more brand of ink pads are available. These are Ancient Page and are designed specifically for scrapbooking.
When using any of the inks that I’ve mentioned I would strongly recommend that you stamp on a separate sheet of paper, cut it out as you wish and then mount it to your memory page. The paper that I recommend is either the Ultra-Smooth White or Vanilla cardstock. This cardstock is acid free, lignin free and buffered. It makes your images bold and quite beautiful! If you have chosen the permanent pigment inks, you will want to heat set the ink. You can do this with a heat tool used for embossing.
I’ve given you suggestions on your first purchase. The stamp sets, ink and paper. You will be spending a little over $50.00 (before tax & shipping). Sounds like a lot? No, not really. Let me put into perspective. With Fabulous Flourishes, you can create a floral scene, add some really neat squigglys (technical term!), even use it for Christmas pages, create a vine – if you can see it, you can do it. With stickers, you do have bold, beautiful images and are great fun. However, you can only use them one time. Die cuts offer a little kick to your pages, but again are a one time use. Letter stickers, image stickers and dies cuts can only be used just once, and if you are creating pages with a particular theme, you may need to buy multiple packs of stickers or die cuts. With stamps, the only one time use is the check you use to pay for them.
Please see my layouts where I’ve featured Fabulous Flourishes and Alphabet Appeal Upper stamp sets. The ink that I have chosen for the layouts are the dye based ink. Again, I caution you about the fading factor in these inks. If you choose these inks, please use the darker colors.
Melissa Craig
Stampin?Up Independent Rep
http://www.stampedbym.com/
