The main thing about any form of crafting is that it should be relaxing and enjoyable, so sit down forget your everyday stresses and wander into that wonderful place of “a little bit of me time”!
Basic equipment
- Rubber stamps – wooden mounted or clear, if you are using clear stamps you will need acrylic blocks to mount the stamps onto
- Ink pads – please see below for different types
- Card or paper, plain and decorative
- Colouring pens or paints
To preserve the life of your stamps the correct cleaners are always a good idea.
Optional extras
- Embossing powders
- Craft heat tool (essential if using embossing powders)
- Decorative cutting tools
- Glitter glues
- Anti-static bag
There are so many ink pads on the market today it can be very confusing, especially when your just starting out. I have listed below some of the most popular ink pads, together with a brief description of the type of ink, and suggested uses.
Ink Pads
ADIRONDACK DYE based ink pads – these come in a wide range of colours and are made to match other Ranger ink and paint products. They can be used for stamping, water colouring, brayering and direct to paper.
ADIRONDACK PIGMENT based ink pads – like the dye based pads they come in a wide range of colours and match other Ranger ink and paint products. These are a much slower drying ink pad, so are ideal for heat embossing. They can also be heat set on acetate and glass etc.
ARCHIVAL - these are a permanent ink pad. Like the pigment ink pads these can be used on gloss card and acetate, and heat set to dry. These are great to use with any kind of water based colouring medium like Aquamarkers.
BIG N JUICY- these are very large dye based ink pads, they have many colours on the one pad giving a rainbow effect. You can get amazing results with these when used with a brayer, you can also use the ink to colour in images. “Splodge” the ink pad onto a shiny surface, (a protective heat resistant non stick craft sheet is ideal) then use a damp watercolour brush to pick up the ink and paint.
BRILLIANCE – these come in three different types, dewdrop, full size and trio pads. These are a pigment ink with a beautiful pearly sheen. You can emboss with these or let them air dry.
DISTRESS- these pads have such a wide range of uses. They blend perfectly (best on a coated card), great for stamping and direct to paper they can even be embossed. Some amazing effects can be achieved with these pads like faux bleaching, spritzing with water and many more. The colour will not split when watered down.
IMPRESS DYE- ideal for any form of rubber stamping and use with Promarkers.
MEMENTO DYE based ink pads which give a fine detail and are great to use with Promarkers. These come in a lovely range of colours.
VERSAFINE – these are an oil based ink pad and give a crisp fine detail to your stamped image. These can be used with watercolour mediums.
VERSAMARK - these are a very sticky clear ink pad. They are fantastic to emboss with. You can stamp onto coloured card to get a lovely watermark effect. Can also be used with mica powders and chalks.
STAZON - a permanent solvent based ink, great for stamping and if your quick, embossing. Great to use on acetate and can be used with water colouring mediums.
Card and Paper
The results you get when rubber stamping will vary greatly with the type of paper or card you are using, so a good tip would be to experiment before stamping your final masterpiece! Decorative papers can look especially nice.
Method
Top tip – always make sure you are working on a flat surface
As a rule of thumb always take the ink pad to the stamp, and not the other way round. Even the smallest sized ink pad can be used to ink up a large stamp. Hold the stamp upside down on your work surface then apply the ink with light tapping movements, this way you won’t over ink the stamp and will avoid leaving unwanted marks around the stamped image. If you do catch the side of the stamp with ink simply wipe away with a piece of kitchen towel. Before stamping the image check for any un-inked areas by holding up to the light.
Make sure your card is on a flat surface and place the rubber stamp firmly onto your card or paper. Use a nice even pressure and be careful not to rock the stamp. Just practise a few times on scrap paper, you’ll soon get the hang of it.
Colouring Your Image
Depending on what ink pad you have used to stamp your image, as covered in the ink pads section, you are now ready to colour your image. There are a variety of specialised felt tip and marker pens on the market today and these can give you quite a bold look. If you want a softer image, use watercolour pencils or felt tip pens and a damp watercolour brush. Promarker and Aquamarker are a firm favourite of crafters. Promarkers give a professional look leaving no tell tale shading lines like a traditional felt tip pen does. Each pen is double-ended, with a broad chisel nib for large area fills and a fine bullet tip for more detailed work. You can build up the colour to give wonderful shaded areas.
One Promarker pen was used to colour this image letting each layer dry before building up the colour.
This image was stamped with a denim blue dye ink pad, a water brush was then used to drag the colour from the outline and colour in the image, giving a watercolour look to the design. This kind of effect is very subtle and inexpensive as just one ink pad is used.
Tip – try using a multi-coloured ink pad such as Big and Juicy for a more vibrant result. They give a rainbow effect providing a smooth transition from one colour to another.
Embossing
The best kind of stamp to use when embossing is one that does not have too much fine detail, so use a fairly simple design. This is because some of the detail can be lost in the embossing process. When the embossing powder is heated it melts and expands, and lines that are too close to one another can become blurred. If your stamp does have an element of detail on it then use a ‘fine detail’, embossing powder, this is a much finer powder and is designed to stick to fine inked lines.
You can emboss on many surfaces including paper, card and wood. Top tip – Why not try transforming plain inexpensive wooden table mats by embossing them, giving a very designer look!
When you handle the paper and card it is very easy to leave finger marks and smears, even though you can’t see them, and embossing powders can stick to these unwanted areas. If you wipe the paper or card first with an Anti-Static bag this will help to eliminate smears, smudges, fingerprints and stray particles of embossing powder that could appear on your work. It only takes a few seconds to use and could save your finished piece of work being thrown in the bin. The Anti-Static bag is filled with a fine powder and any excess can easily be wiped away after the embossing powder has been heated.
Method
In order to heat emboss, you must use an ink that dries slowly, as already discussed the ink pads section. Dye inks dry too quickly for this process. Also keep in mind that if you want to have a totally transparent embossing effect, use clear embossing ink, not tinted. The tinted ink will show through. If you do use different colour pigment inks remember, your image will be the colour of your embossing powder not the ink. Using different colour inks can enhance the colour of the embossing powder, but won’t be seen unless you use a clear embossing powder.
Ink up your stamp, then working quickly (so the ink doesn’t dry), cover the entire image with embossing powder: – Tip – If using a glitter or sparkle powder, shake well first.
Tip the excess powder onto a clean sheet of paper and then return to the container. Check for any stray embossing powder, if there are any remaining embossing powder particles; use a small, clean paint brush to remove them.
The next process is to heat the embossing powder. For this you will need a heat tool, and there are various inexpensive models on the market. Top tip – don’t be tempted to use a hair dryer instead, they don’t provide enough heat, and would blow the powder away.
Using your heat tool, heat the image until the powder melts and turns shiny. Hold your heat gun about 6 inches from the paper. Sweep back and forth over the image until you notice the embossing powder melting. When melted the powder becomes smooth and shiny, and has a raised edge. Don’t heat too close to the cardstock; you can cause the embossing powder or the card itself to burn. Be very careful you don’t burn your fingers.
Once the image is embossed you can leave it as it is, or colour with any type of colouring medium.
I will be regularly providing lots of ideas using rubber stamps, inks and embossing powders, so check out my Inspirational Ideas.
Have fun!