the hybrid chick

Here at The Hybrid Chick, we have lots of girls who are not only addicted to pixels and glue… they also are in love with stamping! But then we started to ask ourselves “Gee, I wonder if everyone knows what we’re talking about here? How much to they know about the stamping world?”

So, we decided that it would be fun to change things up a little bit and have “Stamp Week” here on The Hybrid Chick this first week of October! Stamping can really add the perfect finishing touch to your hybrid projects! We’ll show you a few ways that you can easily incorporate stamping into your hybrid papercrafting. And I’m here today to explain some of the basics of stamping to get you started!

First of all, let me hop down a rabbit trail for a minute with a little story. You see, if it wasn’t for rubber stamping, I wouldn’t have ever tried my hand at designing digital goodies! When I was in high school, I took a few art classes that I loved. But after high school, I always felt like the outsider looking in at the cool world of creative people, wishing I could do something—anything—like they did. Well, one day a girlfriend of mine sent me a pack of hand-stamped baby “thank you” cards. I was amazed at what she had done. The cardstock she used was a beautiful soft pink and yellow and the ink matched the cardstock perfectly! I had never seen anything like it. All I had in my collection was a random set of stamps my mom gave me (kittens and fairy line art stamps!) and a rainbow ink pad… needless to say, this gift opened my eyes to what you could do with stamps!

I signed up with a home party plan company and started to host workshops to teach others all about rubber stamping, too! I loved teaching people about the little tips and tricks that I had picked up (much more than I liked trying to sell them anything—LOL!) And maybe you can tell that I still love this? This is the whole idea behind our Hybrid Chick blog… sharing, teaching and helping others just makes me all warm and fuzzy inside! And enabling others with something you love is just plain fun.

Rubber stamping gave me the confidence to believe that after all I could be crafty—I could learn something new! So, I started to teach myself to knit, quilt and scrap. And then one day when I stumbled on to a free digital kit—well, that was the end of that! I had a new obsession! I wanted to learn how to make paper. (hee hee!) Bye-bye, rubber stamping blog!

All that to say that stamping is a wonderful hobby! It’s simple to do and can be so elegant. A raging addiction to stamping can be a little expensive (like anything else) with all the things you feel like you “have to have.” But there are also a lot of ways to save and make do with the products you have in your collection.

So, what do you need to get started with stamping? It’s pretty simple! You just need:

• Stamps,
• Ink, and
• Paper

The best stamps, in my opinion, are the kind that come in sets. There’s a lot you can do with a set of 8 coordinating stamps! I love companies like Stampin’ Up!, Close to my Heart, Hero Arts and Verve Stamps that make collections that take all of the guess work out of it for you. You get a few cute images, a few sayings and all you have to do is decide what sort of project you want to make to put them all together!

There are two kinds of stamps that call for two kinds of ink. One kind is called “Line Art” stamps. This would be the kind that you’d color in (like this cute little snail in this gift set by Julee which also uses Strawberry Café [Revised] by Sugarplum Paperie). You’d typically need a black or dark brown ink for this kind of stamp. The other kind of stamp is a “Solid Stamp. It’s the kind you’d use with colored ink or markers. This pretty leaf stamp from Verve would be an example of a solid stamp; you’d want to use green ink, for example, when you stamped with this.

To start off a collection of ink, I’d recommend:

• One black ink pad (that’s water-fast; meaning it won’t bleed when you color or paint over it)
• 4-6 ink pads in your favorite colors (like green, red, blue, etc.). I’ve found that the lighter the color, the more I use it. Ranger makes some great dye-based inks.
• Versamark: a clear ink that’s great for stamping a light background on colored cardstock (and because it’s just FUN!). It can also be used to hold embossing powder because it’s sticky until it dries.

And there’s another thing you might find to be confusing: ink! There are several kinds of inks on the market but they come in two main types. There are water-based dye inks (which you are probably the most familiar with already) and pigment-based inks that are more like “stampable paint” (this would include chalk inks, too). Dye inks are great for stamping and coloring. You can press your ink pad on to a plastic surface and use a watercolor brush to paint with your ink pads (which can save you $100 when it comes to buying a set of good markers—LOL!). Pigment inks are great for stamping on various surfaces where you need the ink to stand out and not soak in… like if you wanted to stamp a light ink on a dark paper. And I love to use pigment inks for distressing the edges of my paper! It’s my ink of choice for that.

Also, I wanted to mention that the other day, my daughter (who’s a total crafting nut!) went to town on a paper I had printed out for her. She’d colored on it with crayons and then discovered that if she piled a ton of watercolor on it until it was all purple and black, the crayon resisted the paint. Well, I discovered that my black printing ink is water-fast! Yay! I know that the color ink will run on me, but none of the images that were printed in black bled. And so if your printer is the same, that can open the door for you to use all sorts of digital images as stamps, like this cute set of Halloween doodles (Jeepers Creepers by Danielle).

And now for the last thing you’d need to get started with stamping: Paper!

Most cardmarkers will use cardstock for their projects because it’s sturdy and stiff. You’d need a great white cardstock, preferably one that is as smooth as can be. I know Stampin’ Up! offers a great white cardstock. Smooth white cardstock makes for crisp, clean impressions, so it’s worth the money!

And you’ll also want a pack of plain colored cardstock, too. You’ll use this for all sorts of things, like cards, boxes, tags, mats. It’s the base that will take the backstage to your stamped images and your hybrid embellishments.

The last kind of paper you’re going to want as a Hybrid Chick is a pack of Epson Premium Matte Photo Paper. All the girls swear by it! And I believe that some even stamp with it. (Yes? Girls, let us know in the comment section here if you’ve tried this and it worked for you!) This paper will enable you to open the door wide to use any of your digital goodies with your papercrafting endeavors! Use your favorite patterned paper as the background for a card or box (like Julee did here for this stamped gift set that also uses Twitter Blossoms by Sugarplum Paperie). Use your favorite little butterflies as embellishments (like Julee used for the card which uses Butterflies in Heaven by Pam & Dani at the beginning of this post)! The possibilities are endless when it comes to using your digital stash!

Well, I hope you’ve found this introduction to stamping to be helpful! I have a few more links for you that you might find useful! I’ve made two lenses on a site called Squidoo all about rubber stamping:

• Stamps, Ink and Paper: Get Started with Rubber Stamping! which has lots of tips that I brought in from my old rubber stamping blog.
• Stamping Shopper – Shop for Rubber Stamps, Ink and Paper which needs a little love and updating (some products might have been discontinued?). But it still gives you an idea of all the goodies you can incorporate into your stamping projects.

And enjoy Stamp Week as the girls are planning lots of fun things to show you!

Happy stamping and happy scrapping!

Other Articles by Nicole Seitler:

• Spotlight on: Kellie Mize Designs - February 27th, 2010
• Mini Envelope Mini Album - August 10th, 2009
• Diaper Bag Tag - August 7th, 2009
• Try your hand at a Hybrid Layout - May 2nd, 2009
• Paper Daisies - Free Paper Pack! - May 1st, 2009