Beginners guide to stamping
Published on 5 November 2021 3 min read
Whether you’re a paper craft newbie or a card making connoisseur, it’s always a good idea to brush up on your stamping skills! Stamping is the one of the best ways to create super impressive, professional-looking cards - a versatile and accessible craft that has endless design possibilities. But how can you get started? We’ve put together this comprehensive guide to everything you need to know.
What do I need to get started with stamping?
Stamps
Whether you’re looking for a simple shape printed on paper to an intricate design or image, stamps come in all shapes, sizes and designs to keep making interesting! Stamps come in a few varieties with clear and rubber stamps being the most popular. You might be wondering: should I use a clear stamp or a rubber stamp? It’s really all down to personal preference.
Clear stamps
Clear stamps are imprinted onto a completely clear photopolymer or vinyl, which you can peel away from an acetate backing to reveal a sticky surface. Clear stamps are then applied to clear acrylic blocks to be used, and then can be taken off after ready for the next time!
Clear stamps can give you more precision than rubber stamps, as you can see through the design to line it up on your project. Clear stamps are also good for space-saving, as they often come on sheets with multiple designs. As you only need one clear block to mount them on to, they take up much less space in your stash!
Rubber stamps
Rubber, or wooden stamps, have a design in rubber that’s pre-mounted onto a wooden block. As the stamp is already in place on the wooden block, these stamps are sturdy and less likely to suffer from wear and tear with use. Rubber stamps are, however, a little bulky and if you have a few in your collection you’ll need lots of crafty storage!
Explore Christmas stamps
Stamp sets we love!
Inks
Build up a spectrum of colourful ink pads in your collection to experiment with colour in your stamping designs. Ink pads are ideal for a beginner stamper - they are easy to use and a quick way of transferring your design from the stamp to your paper! Dye ink pads are a stamper’s staple ink pad. You will find the most variety within the dye ink pads category with so many tones to choose from. Super simple and easy to pick up.
Cardstock
High quality card will give a seamless stamping transfer from your ink to your paper. Stamp straight onto the front of your greeting card or press onto some fun patterned paper to create a fun motif for your cards or notebooks. There’s so much fun you can have with different coloured cards and inks to create real one-of-a-kind designs!
How to stamp
Stamping is super easy to learn, and once you get the hang of it you’ll be able to create beautiful designs in no time at all. Here are our favourite videos explaining the vital skills you need to get started in stamping.
Learn to stamp with these easy video tutorials
Take your stamping to the next level with embossing
Stamping and embossing go hand-in-hand. With the stamps you already have an a few extra essentials including an embossing ink pad, embossing powders, and a handy heat tool, you can level up your stamp designs with glitter finishes with a great embossed feel.
