LittleBirdyScraps

Stamping on Saturday

As threatened promised, this week I thought I'd pass on some tips about choosing stamps.    There are so many of them out there, I find it very difficult not to just buy all of them....but if you're on a tight budget, or any budget at all really, this just isn't possible.

Or maybe you're a bit wary of buying stamps at all, because you don't know how much use you'll get out of them.  Certainly if you're a scrapbooker you might not be able to see yourself using them at all.

Stamp sets, or unmounted sheets, tend to fall into one of several categories:

Character stamps:  These are more usually sold individually, but often you'll find a set which includes several different figures, maybe some accessories, and maybe some decorative elements such as borders.  There are usually some sentiments included too.

• Why would you buy character stamps?  Well, if you like to make cards using this type of image, you've probably got plenty.  You might be attracted to a particular manufacturer such as Stamping Bella or Kraftin Kimmie, or maybe you're after something for a specific occasion such as 'get well' cards.
• What might you use them for?  Apart from making cards, this type of stamp can be used for scrapbooking - you can use a decoupage technique to make layered embellishments, for example.  This looks particularly effective with fantasy characters such as fairies, or cartoon/retro images.  I used one here:

Can you see her? 

You can also use little figures on other projects such as ATCs, for which they're a perfect size,  and if you make batches of cards for children at school, they're extremely useful!

• Is it worth buying a set/sheet of character stamps? This is a personal thing, obviously, but I think you need to look critically at what's included in the set.  If you really like a character stamp, I would suggest trying to buy one individually, as realistically you're not so likely to use the other elements in the set.  However, individual character stamps which include a sentiment or two are very useful indeed.
• In conclusion....Having said all that, I wouldn't recommend making a character stamp set your first purchase.

 

Decorative elements:  Images such as swirls, borders, medallions, flowers etc.  These are extremely useful, whatever type of project you like to make.  It's tempting, when you're trying to work out what to spend your precious pennies on, to decide that you don't need any more decorative stamps because you've already got some.  Next time you're looking for just the right swirl, or the right size circle frame, and you can't find it - make a note of it.  Decorative stamps are a good thing to look for in the sales, and a carefully chosen selection will be useful for years.

• Why would you buy decorative stamps?  They're useful for just about everything - scrapbooking, cardmaking, mixed media, journaling, and so on.  You might already have several borders or swirls as part of other sets, but look at the possibilities for using a set of images designed to go together.  Can you layer them to make floral motifs?  Could you create a frame with corners using the stamps in one set?  Are the elements interactive?  One of the best sets I've bought is the Prima Build-a-Frame set, which I've used here:

It's a simple idea - you combine the elements to make frames of any size, and there are some images which will work as corners or just decorative elements.  I've used this on ATCs as well, so it works at any size. 

• What might you use them for? Again, this are great for making embellishments on scrapbook pages.  You could use a border to make journaling cards, or buy some journaling stamps which are pretty versatile in themselves: use one underneath a flower or title to add layers, or make one into a flower centre.  Scalloped borders are very versatile - I've used them to make roof tiles, waves, and the edges of rolled flowers.  And don't get me started on swirls!  Medallions are another extremely useful design, like circles in general.  If you're a cardmaker you can use decorative stamps to make layered background papers, or to frame/accent your focal point.
• Is it worth buying a sheet/set of decorative elements?  I would say, yes!  Choose carefully, and think about starting an 'I wish I had...' list.  It's easy, particularly when a sale beckons, to forget all your good intentions and buy something a bit mad! 
• In conclusion:  I think that decorative stamp sets are great 'working' stamps that you'll use again and again.

 

Mixed sets: Probably my favourite, purely because they're such good value for money and I can often satisfy several needs at once with just one set!  A good mixed set of stamps with include the following:

A background design

One or more focal images

Decorative elements

Words/sentiments

And - if it's interactive, you've hit the jackpot! :D

 

Let me explain.....

Here's a set from Artistic Outpost, one of my favourite manufacturers

The background image in this set is the printed seed packet - but look!  On the left is a seed packet, from which you can trim the sentiments in the middle, to leave you with a frame, or you can stamp the marigold print on top of it, making a complete seed packet.  So it's also got an interactive element.  And you needn't stop there - that blank seed packet could have anything on it: the girl with the wheelbarrow, the flowers underneath, or an image from somewhere else entirely.

The focal images are the girl, and the flowers at the bottom.

Accent/decorative images are the bees and the strawberry.  You could use that strawberry to make background paper, or stamp, mask and stamp again on the seed packet.  How about using it on shrink plastic, or in a metal-rimmed tag?  I've heat embossed it on a frame and it looked really sweet in bright red.  The bees could make a border, or a little tag; I cut mine out separately but they can easily be put back together on a block. How about stamping them in a ring, all facing inwards around a simple daisy image, for example?

Think about how these different images would look as second-generation imprints - pale, background interest.  Can you heat emboss them, colour them, paint them or shrink them?

Here's another set from Paper Artsy:

The obvious background image is the grass at the bottom.  But you could use the flower head  or the swirl, repeat stamped to make a background, too.  That little 2p stamp could be cut out and used as an accent, maybe covered with Glossy Accents or made into a flower centre.   Repeat stamp it in a row to make a border or frame - this would look lovely if you coloured them with different pencils.

The bird or the flower head could be focal images, and there's an interactive element too - the 'secret garden' phrase will fit into the film cell as will 'take flight'.  The film cell itself is just asking to be layered - cut out the cell, maybe stamped onto a section of a photograph or another image, and layer it with foam pads over an identical image stamped onto your background.  Like this:

This is particularly useful, too, because of the 'flight' and 'nature' themes.  Any of those words could be used on an ATC or a card for universal appeal.

Now, obviously this is only my viewpoint - you may well have an entirely different opinion about choosing stamps.  But hopefully this has been useful to some people.  How about going off to browse some stamps online, and see if you can develop a critical eye!?

What would you have, if you could choose just one stamp set?

WOYWW #119?

Yes, I think so.  I think it is definitely #119.

What's on my desk this week is a pile of layouts which I have been forging through in an attempt to use up as much stash as possible because I can feel a SHOP coming on.  There are lots of luverly things I want, and don't need AT ALL, such as some Lily Bee and some Cosmo Cricket and some Kaisercraft Christmas doodads. 

So I've photographed them, and here you are, and it serves you right for clicking on my link cos now you have to look at them.

(No cheating now, you're not allowed to cover your eyes or hide under the table.)

First one is a holiday photo, and I've used one of the WRMK kits I picked up in TK Maxx for 3p - or something silly.  With an album.  I kid you not.  (Well, I think it was a fiver, all in.)

Now, I've been looking at all these LOs and thinking 'Hmm....what does that need?'  And I have a theory which proves true time and time again - that when you see your work on screen, about to reveal itself to other people, the missing element suddenly becomes obvious.  That one up there needs some doodling.

The next one needs a bit of yellow ribbon on the left, there.

...and three buttons on the bottom right.  Trust me...:D

Next one!  I made this with the acetate shapes created here.

Bit of a rubbish photo, actually, but I feel this one needs no additions.  Unlike the following:

I'm struggling a bit with this one, but I think it needs some more vertical/horizontal accents.

Then there's this one, which DEFinitely needs something but I really don't know what.  My instinct is to put a vertical line down the right third, but this would bisect the big photo and I don't want to do that.

The next one uses lots of leftovers, I was a bit worn out by the time I did the title....sorry about that!

(I always like the look of these Western/surfing/ranchy woody campy type papers, but they always end up looking like gravy when I make a page with them...)

Anyway.  Just one more.  You must be getting fed up, even I'm bored.

I think this is the one I like best.  ALL sorts of leftovers on here which I picked up off my desk. 

Youngest got in BIIIIIIG trouble after I printed these photos off because I left the photo viewer open on my laptop and Visible Teenager saw that Youngest had been mowing the grass whilst wearing Visible Teenager's shoes!!!!!!!!!!

Unfortunately Visible Teenager is a bit odd and I can never make up my mind whether I should have had him looked at.  I worry sometimes that he's got a touch of Aspergers - not least because of the way he overreacts to random things.  The other day he got very angry with Youngest for walking around with no top on, and threatened to hit him.  I asked if he would be hitting his student housemates when he starts at Uni next week, and he said, without a trace of irony - Yes.

Visible Teenager says he's looking forward to going to Uni, and when I asked him today if he was perhaps a bit anxious about it - last night he yelled at me for refusing to get out of the bath so that he could use the loo, when there's another one downstairs; then he kept Youngest awake all night by shouting at him whenever he started snoring or sleeptalking - he gave it a few moments' thought and said - No.

I don't believe him, and on Sunday we'll be driving down to Portsmouth with whatever supplies and home comforts I can afford to buy him, in view of the fact that my grant hasn't come through yet......D:

In the meantime, have a hop over to Julia's blog where all this snoopy prying started, and get a look at all the other lovely workspaces.

Tag Swap and a last-minute WOYWW #118!

The other day I received through the post some tags from a swap I took part in on UK Scrappers.  It's the first time I've done a tag swap and there was some blood, sweat and tears involved in making them!  Well, a bit of swearing anyway...:D

The theme was The Wizard of Oz, and I'm very pleased with myself for NOT rushing online to buy an appropriate stamp set.  Since the link didn't have to be too overt I settled for the following:

Well, I say it's not overt and then I show you red shoes and a yellow brick road!  The shoes were from a See-D's Vintage stamp set, they're the perfect size.  The yellow brick road is a Katzelkraft chain-link stamp which I hadn't used at all before this. 

Here's a No Place Like Home jobbie.  I lurrrrve that stamp of the girl, and I was rather pleased with myself for managing to think of that masking trick.  I need to be a bit more creative with my stamps.  You know, rather than just buying them by the buckletload and then gazing at them...

We had to have something peridot green (for August) on the tag, and also a metal element.  On this one I used gold foil, which Jean Hardy of Crafty Individuals loves so much.  I have to say I'm with Jean - but I can't get it to work with a glue stick like she does.  Probably my cheap glue sticks, but I find a Quickie glue pen is ace!  You have to be patient and leave it to dry, but then it grabs that foil like nobody's business!

This is my favourite tag, and I'm touched that Leanie, the swap host, sent it back to me.  One reason it's my fave is because I used the acrylic flower I made here, after a light-bulb moment when I realised it was peridot green!

Now, I made three other tags in the same vein - ie, book page with a definition circled, and a design relating to that word.  But I didn't like the other three, despite spending quite some time on one of them...!  Instead, I ripped them to bits, hehe, and redesigned them all like this one:

Interestingly, this was done rather quickly as I needed to finish up and clear away before I went on holiday.  So I've used the first things I thought of and it seems to have worked rather well.  It so often happens that way - without all the agonising and trying to make it perfect, I ended up with something I really like.

I was going to show you a photo of the tags I got back, which I nicked from Leanie's blog.  Just because I'm too lazy to take a photo here and upload it.  But it occurs to me that it would be much better to link you to Leanie's blog, which is here - mine is the second group, as you can probably see.  It was lovely to get all these different tags through the post but I'll need to create some sort of album for them now; I've already put my name down for the September swap!

Now, it occurs to me that I can justifiably link this post to the WOYWW lot over at Julia's blog, albeit late in the day so that I'm probably #2060 and no-one will ever read it, lol!  If you are here via another route, however, do take a look on Julia's blog and maybe have a rummage around in the huge list of participants - it's very rewarding and has resulted in many additions to my Google Reader list.

Sunday School #5

I think it's #5.  I seem to have four folders of stuff from previous Sunday Schools, so we'll stick with #5.

This is all about stash busting!  After a year of living dangerously, I've now realised that I don't have lots of moolah to spend on stash; not only that, but in an even more familiar scenario, I've got enough stash already to build a small housing estate from paper.

This week, dear reader, we will be copying other people's work.  Ssshhhhh, though, don't tell anyone.

I will say, right at the start, that some of this copying mularkey is rather time-consuming.  It's crafting, though, and it gives you something quite individual - when I say copying, I don't really mean copying - it's just that instead of buying something, you could always try and make it!

The first thing I thought I would make, was words.  Not these here words on this screen, but words to use on scrapbook pages, ATCs, cards - anything really.  I don't suppose I'm the first person to do this, but you know I'm happy to be first in the trenches and test stuff out...

Now, I've made a couple of versions of these words.  Truth be told, this is because the first version I made was pretty much a copy of some I received for a commission.  I will be showing you these, since they are a favourite; I found them very easy to reproduce and was able to choose my own words.

And this is how you do it:

Find some suitable card.  You could use paper, there's no reason why not - but thin card is my preference as it always looks like quality, guv'nor.  On the other hand, if you want a very flat collage effect, printer paper or similar would be quite fine.

I've inked up my card with Distress Inks.

Not the fabbiest photo, owing to the fact that Youngest appears to have absconded with my camera.  Don't know why, he's got a hideously expensive phone.

The slightly buckled appearance is due to the fact that after inking the card I spritzed it with water.  Don't worry about this, particularly if you're me, because after it's been through  your printer 20 times in an effort to get the damn thing to print, it will be nice and flat.

You may be asking: Helen, what sort of card should I use?

Well, I'm glad you asked that.  I've used two different sorts - the other one was a smooth-coated white card from Ryman's (used with Promarkers) which doesn't actually take distress inks very well.  It soaks them up immediately so that they are difficult to blend.  It takes printer ink very well, though.

The card you see above is from a pack they sell in Asda; it's shinier on one side than the other, and I've used the less shiny side here.  It takes Distress Inks beautifully and gives you time to blend them.  Cheap as chips, it is.

Right.  The next step is to create a Word document.

The big tip here is: Choose your font right at the start and stick to it!

Obviously this tip is of most use to eejits like me, who think it's a super idea to type out dozens and dozens of words before selecting 'all' and converting to a different font.  It doesn't necessarily work.  You may find that the spacing is different - so if you've increased the spacing in your original, boring font, once you change it all to 'rough typewriter' or what-have-you, the spaces are bigger anyway so your words are too far apart.

Or you may find that changing the font changes the size, and instead of double-spaced lines you have some which are single-spaced.  Blah.  In fact, I had to type the whole flippin' sheet out again.  So be warned...

Previously I had printed out a sheet with all the words in the same font.  For this second sheet with its rather summery shades, I went for some summery words and changed the font every couple of lines.

After I'd created the document I changed the font colour to a dark grey.  I think brown or grey look better than black for these little words.  I copied the first line into a new document and printed it out to see how it looked.

Yes, I know.  It looks blurry.  Someone's got some explaining to do when he gets home.

Then I printed out the whole thing:

If you want to know what the fonts are,  I've used A Little Pot, Beautiful Every Time, Sweetie Pie, Cutie Pop, Daniel, Gabriola, Jellyka CuttyCupcakes (yep), and then Gabriola again - in that order.  I thought maybe you might like to download one or two - they're all free from Dafont.

The next thing is to cut them up.  I was prepared to use a metal ruler and a craft knife to cut the strips, but in the end my guillotine worked fine.  If you're using a guillotine or rotary cutter you'll need to take care, not because it's sharp but because after about nine or ten strips you may lose the will to live and become careless of your squareness, lol.

Then you snip them into individual words, et voila!

(Clearer pics coming up!)

Now obviously you can do all sorts of things with these.  You could mat them before adding them to a project, or ink the edges which would make them look more like the pre-made ones, although that's a bit of a faff but usually I find it's worth doing.  Or you could stamp a second-generation image over them, faint enough to let the word show.  You could doodle a little border round the words, or attach several to a strip of paper and faux-stitch them together...Here are some I messed around with quickly:

The bottom three on the right are unadorned; I hope you can work out what I've done with the rest of them.  All the inking has been done direct-to-paper.

I'm sure at some point I'll be able to show you some layouts using these - in fact, there is one on my desk at the moment destined for a UK Scrappers challenge in September which is in serious danger of having a bit of everything attached to it, the longer it sits there!

As usual, I hope this is useful and/or interesting to at least someone, lol.  Have a lovely Sunday whatever you're doing!