Stamping… Over the Rainbow

Posted By Phil on June 25, 2007

It occurred to me that not everyone visiting this site will be familiar with rubber stamping, so I thought it appropriate to do a bit of an introduction to the art itself.

In simplest terms, the art involves using a rubber stamp to place an image (pictures, words, etc.) onto paper by using ink. You may have encountered rubber stamps at the library, when the due date is stamped onto the little card on the inside cover. Or perhaps you might have gotten to use stamps in elementary school, as I did, for occasional art projects.

The rubber stamping we do, however, is not simply meant to add to other art projects (such as those done in elementary school involving only Elmer’s glue and glitter). Rather, the art itself revolves around the use of rubber stamps.

To start off, here’s what a rubber stamp looks like:

This stamp is made by Meer Image. (If you’re interested in purchasing this stamp, you can do some from the website, which I also have listed in our Favorite Sites section.)

Rubber stamps can be stamped in a variety of ways, including (but not limited to) the following:

• Solvent Inks: Solvent inks are great because they stamp well on most paper, and dry quickly. Also, they’re mostly water resistant and acid free. My favorite brand of sovent ink is StazOn (made by Tsukineko).
• Pigment Inks: Pigment inks are popular for the effect they produce, in addition to their color. They tend to dry slowly, but by applying heat, can be dried more efficiently. Embossing (explained below) utilizes a clear pigment ink. One pigment ink we use regularly is VersaFine. Other pigment inks include chalk inks, which have a slightly different appearance when stamped.
• Dye Inks: Dye inks are usually bright in color, and unlike pigment inks, dry fairly quickly. Downsides are that light exposure causes the ink to fade, and if the ink gets wet, it smears. Our current favorite dye inks are Vivid! inks.

Most of the above information was found in the May/June 2007 issue of The Rubber Stamper. For a more complete list of different kinds of inks as well as ink brands and specifics, see the Ink Chart Update in that issue.

Next, I’d like to introduce some of the different techniques used in rubber stamping. I guess it could be termed vocabulary or jargon, but that sounds entirely too formal. Here’s some of what we do regularly, just so you have a good point of reference:

• Heat set: For those inks that are slow to dry, applying heat to them speeds up the process. This can be done with a hair dryer, but if you’re an avid rubber stamper, chances are you have an embossing tool, which works just fine for heat setting.
• Embossing: This is the process of using a clear pigment ink, and quite often involves the addition of embossing powder. The powder sticks to the ink, and with the addition of heat from the embossing/heat setting tool, the powder melts together to form a raised surface.
• Masking: When doing a complicated card, sometimes one stamp overlaps another. When overlap is not desired, simply place scrap paper or a paper towel over the part you don’t want to have overlapped.

Other techniques we use will be mentioned as they arise in our work. Some require no explanation. For others that require more explanation, we will explain the process in relation to the given card or topic, and if relevant, I will update this list as we go. This entry will be listed in the “Useful Posts” section of the site for easy access and reference.

Category: basics, techniques
Tags: