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STAMPS! (and a question about ink)

I spent the better part of this afternoon browsing at Michael's. I get inspired by the books, the beads, the tools, the paper...the stuff.

So, I'm browsing and I run across the dollar clear stamp sets.

Why didn't I know about these before? I bought five sets and the 2 sizes of dollar acrylic blocks. I got the owlie that has the "thanks" sentiment. I love that little owlie.

I opened them as soon as I got home, of course. I messed about with two rubber stamps I'd found at the Dollar Tree and never inked, they're both pretty cute.

I have a Marvy Le Plume with a brush pen and I tried that on one of my rubber stamps. The only ink pad I have is Craft Smart Dye Based, maybe this is Michael's house brand. I'm not very impressed with it as far as the clear stamps go. The ink pools up and the stamped image lacks definition. I did ink my clear stamps with the Marvy marker and it worked wonderfully.

What ink is best for the clear stamps? I know Staz-On is in many of your "recipes". Is this the ink I should be using with the clears?

Frankly, I'm fairly new to all of this and the only stamps I have aside from my one dollar beauties are some hand me down sets that I believe may be Stampin' Up! brand (they're all wood mounted rubber).

It will be some time before I venture into coloring my stamped images, I just like some of the sentiments and the owlie wants to live in my neck. :P But I do want the images that I do stamp to be nice looking. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

7 comments:

Jennifer Love said...

Okay a little about new stamps...you'll need to "condition" them. I usually take a piece of sandpaper (like I have a nail filing block with several different grits to it) and I lightly scratch over the stamp. This removes the residue left over from the processing of the rubber or acrylic stamp. The residue is what makes the ink pool and make goofy dots of color rather than a solid outline or solid color.

As far as inks, it just depends on your preference and how you'll be colouring the image. If you are using watercoloring with water-based markers, you'll want something like StazOn. If you want to use the OMS and prisma pencils, don't use StazOn because it will turn into a mess of black. I use Versafine Onyx Black for that application.

Your best bet may be to find some Palette Hybrid ink pads. Those are pretty good for all colouring applications as well as solid stamping.

Any ink will work on any clear or rubber stamp. It just depends on what you want to do with it afterward. :P And ink does matter. The cheapy ones tend to not cover as well and to dry out quickly. You'll end up spending more money in the long run by buying cheapy ink pads.

The Pallette ones are around 5-6 a pad, StazOn is a bit more at around 7 and the Versafine I bought was nearing to 8 bucks.

Word of caution, if you do buy the StazOn ink, you will need to buy some StazOn rubber stamp cleaner otherwise that crap will NEVVAH come off there.

I have the owl stamp, too. Isn't it cuuute? Eee!

Sew Club said...

Thanks for the tip on the red paper photos! I tried it today, and it worked like a gem! :)

Jennifer Love said...

Oh and even if your stamps get stained, they'll still stamp just fine. You should see some of my Hanna images. LOL

Mary Dawn said...

jennifer: i knew i could count on ya--i sorta figured that they needed something done to them before i used them, just wasn't sure what--i did scrub them with a dish scrubbie and soap, i'll see how they like my cheap ink tomorrow

kirsten: i'm really glad i could help--since .png is a lossless compression you can save as OR save for web, depending what program you use for photo editing

Lesli said...

I love Michael's Dollar stamp bin - they have some very cute things!!!

I like to use archival inks like CTMH or Stampin Up.

Mary Dawn said...

thank you lesli! you're gonna have to help this noob out..what is CTMH?

Jen Glover said...

Mary Dawn, I really, really appreciate your questions. I am also very new to stamping, and sometimes when I ask a question, I do not receive answers. :( Jennifer is so wise! What a jewel of a friend to have! Thanks again Cutie!