Happy St. Patty’s Day! Just a quick post to let you know everything at Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff and sitewide at MyGrafico is 40% off today!
While you are there check out these fun products for Easter, it’s only a couple of weeks away!
Oh, and a couple of freebies you can use today!
Don’t wait, this sale is over at midnight! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Howdy folks! Here is a card I made from scraps leftover from this project. I’d rather make a new card that put all of that stuff away LOL! I liked the results so much I submitted a sketch of it to Oriental Stamp Art and they are using it as this week’s layout challenge!
This could be a wedding or anniversary card. I kept it vague. The focal stamp is the Chinese symbol for Double Happiness. I like that 😀 Maybe because I have twins and 2 is better thank one, or that it is such a nice marriage wish or maybe it just reminds me of Chinese food…hmmm, I could go for some Sechwan Tofu! I stamped the image (Art Neko) in a silvery purple ink and heat embossed it with clear powder, see the shiny!
The other bit of shiny goodness is the cardstock rectangle I dry-embossed then clear inked and brushed with purple pearl ex. Boy, I just love purple, I can’t wear it but I’ll use it on a card any chance I get!
Thanks all for today folks, thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Howdy, time again for another What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday! I spent the entire day painting, sipping coffee and watching Gossip Girl on Netflix. Not a bad way to spend a rainy day!
I am pleased with how my painting is turning out, hubby bought the lovely cyclamen plant for me on Valentine’s day and it is still alive (will wonders never cease?) so I decided I better paint it before it realizes I am the one caring for it and it and it keels over. Ha Ha. 😀
That’s all for today, if you want to see other people’s creative mess you can head over to the Stamping Ground, the home of the WOYWW phenomenon. Til next time happy crafting!
When I opened my big box of AWESOME (aka my new TC Stampmaker) last week I was thrilled with the machine. I was making stamps, stencils and embossing plates with my own designs. It was love at first sight. I posted some of my cards and I heard from some stampmaker owners that were less than thrilled with their machines. I decided to try and troubleshoot some of the problems people were having with their TC Stampmaker. One big complaint I heard was that the stamps with fine lines fell apart. I decided to try and make a couple of Elvis stamps for photos I found online (you cannot buy Elvis stamps) and I was worried that the delicate lines in his portrait and the lines in the “Jailhouse Rock” background might not work but as you can see they were fine:
If you are trying to make a stamp with fine lines you need to expose the underside of the clamp (back of the imagepack) to the UV light for a few seconds to give the stamp a bit of a base. I found 5 seconds to be ideal for this (in the stampmaker instructions they recommend 3) but 8 seconds is TOO LONG (don’t ask me how I know LOL!) Here I stamped out 4 stamps, the first with no underside exposure and the others with 3, 5 and 8 seconds respectively:
Here are some close-ups of the stamps.
Obviously I can use the Elvis Jailhouse Rock stamp (I made the above card with it) but it is not ideal, I had to ink it carefully as not to smoosh ink on the background. Even though I got less than perfect results with some of the stamps in my experiment it was worth it to find the “sweet spot” for exposing these stamps. I hope I can save other Stampmaker owners a bit of work too!
BTW the polka dot background (stamped in blue) was such a bold stamp that I did not expose the back of the stamp to the UV lights. It did not need it. You could play with the amount of underside exposure, for instance is you had a stamp full of fine journling lines or some fine line artwork you would want the whole 5 second exposure but if you had a bolder image 3 would suffice and if it is a really bold image you can skip it all together. Think of it this way; a certain amount of light needs to pass through the transparency in order to harden the polymer enough to make a stamp. If you only have a few fine lines for the light to squeeze through you will need some exposure from the back to harden the bottom of the gel to the film…make sence?
OK I just had to show a close up of these cards because Elvis was so handsome 🙂
Another Tip: The stamps you make in the stampmaker do not cling to your block. They are the same high quality photopolymer (you can tell because they have they same beautiful sweet smell the other top stamps do!) so you can either add the imagetac tape to your stamping block or th stamp, put cling cushion on the stamp or my fave technique (drumroll please….)
TIP! After you washout the stamp dry the back of the imagepack film off and smear some of the leftover red goo on the back of the stamp before you pop it in the tray of water for the hardening process, viola-a stamp that clings!
I hope these tips helped those of you with Stampmakers who have been frustrated with their stamp making endeavors. I hate to think of many of the wonderful machines collecting dust 😛
Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Have you ever gone to stamp and found that the pigment ink pad you wanted to use is dried up? Arrrrghh! Don’t worry, today I’ll show you how to make your own pigment and chalk ink with a few simple ingredients:
Watch the video to see how much of each one I use and how I mix and load them on the inkpad:
Troubleshooting:
If your ink is transparent you used too much glycerin. If your ink does not feel sticky when you stamp you need more glycerin. It is really pretty foolproof 🙂
Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
We all need these right? You remember a birthday the day after it came to pass and you feel like a dolt. Well, save face in style with this simple design:
I used the library card digital stamp from the Teacher’s Helper SVG kit and the vintage typewriter from the Steampunk Style digistamp kit BUT I turned them into real stamps with my stampmaker! I decided to create a troubleshooting guide to the stampmaker, look for that in a day or two 🙂 Here is a look at the kit’s I used today:
Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
It occurred to me that many stampers do not know how to use a stamp positioner. That is a shame, really, because a misplaced stamp can ruin an otherwise good card! I have a video today that will show you how to line up your backgrounds for stamping using a stamp positioner. Don’t worry if you do not have one, I’ll show you how to make one with legos 🙂 Then you can use a piece of plastic packaging or vellum for the imaging sheet, no need to run to the store. I used a stamp positioner to stamp the background panels on this card:
And, yes, you guessed it, it was another challenge from Oriental Stamp Art. Sunday was Hinamatsuri or Girl’s Day in Japan. There is a festival of dolls and on the card I put the lyrics to the song the children sing, here is the English translation:
Let’s light the lanterns
Let’s put peach flowers
Five court musicians are playing flutes and drums
Today is a joyful Doll’s Festival
I found the origami doll pattern here. I was mistaken when I said I found it on the Zakka Life blog but she has lots of good Hinamatsuri ideas too! I think this would be awesome to do for Girl Scout’s Thinking day, well, maybe next year!
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a crafty weekend and til next time happy crafting!
A few months ago I saw some little metal stamps advertised in the Oriental Trading scrapbook catalog designed to use on chipboard so you have a debossed letter or design. Cool huh? Well, I thought it was neat until I saw the price, $50 an alphabet set! Then I remembered that I have a leather stamping alphabet set that I bought for $12 at the craft store a few years ago. I decided to see if that would work. While I was experimenting my daughter came along and asked if she could try. She made this brooch for her sister:
Here is what you need: A hammer or mallet, chipboard, a spray bottle of ink or water, a metal stamp set such as the leather stamping set and a hard surface like a cutting board. Optional: Metallic rub ons or chalk.
Step 1: Spray the chipboard with water or ink and let it sink in a minute.
Step 2: Insert the metal stamp into the handle and situate it on the inked chipboard. Tap the end of the tool with he hammer 5 or 6 times. Repeat for each letter. Be sure to protect your work surface with a cutting board!
Step 3: Rub the metallic rub-on paste (or chalk) over the letters to highlight.
Step 4: Embellish as desired.
My other daughter loved receiving the brooch and wore it that night! Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not putting down the Chip Art Stamps by GSD studios, they have some really neat designs but if all you want are the basic letters you might have luck in the leather supply section at the craft store! Thanks for stopping by and till next time happy crafting!
It’s Wednesday and that means time for WOYWW! Before I show you my mayhem and foolishness that is my work desk(s) this week have a look at this pretty card:
Now, my room is a total wreck today because the item sitting on the corner of this work table.
Yep, saved some of my Christmas money and bought a Teresa Collins Stampmaker!!! (totally worth 3 exclamation points BTW) I have been wanting one for about a year! I got the starter kit on sale at Custom Crops for $100 and I am glad I did because it is $152 now! I made the cameo stamp using the fonts DB cameo and DB cameo busts from Lettering delights, they have such pretty dingbats and fonts, I love their stuff!
So, the stampmaker is Totally. Freakin. Awesome!!! I played with it all morning and made a bunch of stamps. I first made a stamp with one of the predesigned negatives that came in the kit and then I printed my own negatives to make my own designs. I have wanted to make this library card into a stamp for the longest time!
All have more on the stampmaker later. I am having a couple of friends over to play with it tomorrow, I want to try making the embossing plates and stencils too. It is so much fun and honestly, I am still amazed that it works! I’ll leave you with one more sweeping vista of my train-wreck of a craft room. I’ll have to clean it up before my crafty friends arrive;) Till next time happy crafting!
The Frugal Crafter Blog 