Stamp of Approval

When I first started crafting, and before I bought my die cutting machine, I thought stamping would be the way to enhance my scrapbook pages and cards.  I thought it would be a really easy way to add to them.  After all most of us start stamping at a really young age with potato printing right?  How hard could this be?

I'd see the gorgeous stamps in their packaging with the samples of how they could be coloured in.  I knew I wasn't particularly great at colouring (or interested in it really) but I thought that I could paper piece (stamping the image several times onto different papers and then cutting out the different bits) them instead.

Right from the start however, I knew stamping was not going to the easy option I thought it would be.  I tried allsorts of things - different blocks, different inks, sitting and standing to get the pressure right - but whatever I did I always made a mess.  The most infuriating thing was that I would generally leave this bit to the end of my project and then make a complete mess of thing I'd been working on for ages.  A lot of my early craft pieces have a random butterfly or flower on them that was never intended to be there. 

It was so frustrating that I eventually gave up.  I was fed up of smudged images, half inked sentiments and ruined cards.  I collected all my stamps together and put them in a box out of the way.  But then I'd watch people like Phill Martin or Chloe Endean on Create and Craft, they moved channels, and they were always able to make stunning cards with their stamps.  Now I know they are professionals but how could they get perfection every time?  I thought it must be their particular stamps so bought some of theirs - still no success.  It was clearly me!

As I progressed I got into die cutting and stamps became a thing of the past.  If I lost my crafty mojo I'd turn to my Hunkydory kits and makes lots of cards otherwise I would spend hours playing with my dies.

Then recently I bought a bargain kit of papers and embellishments.  In the pack came a large stamp and I loved it. It was a beautiful girl and I just had to have a go. Because it was so large I took the paper to the stamp and for the first time I had complete success.  When I took the paper off I had a clear, unsmudged image.  I stamped her over and over again.  I was so pleased with the results that I set about making cards with her.

 

Using paper from the pads that came in the pack, Spectrum Noir pens and ink pads I did a bit of paper piecing to create this fresh feeling card.

 

This was a little more advanced as I embossed the 'waste' that was created when I heat embossed this Tattered Lace panel die (pictured) and used it as a background.  This time I coloured her in with my Spectrum Noirs.  A much more girlie image I think.

 

 

I think I may have discovered a liking for stamping now but perhaps I will save up and treat myself to a TODO so it can do all the difficult stamping bit.