Tuesday Tips

Tuesdays at For the Love of Scrap are full of tips. These tips could be anything, for example:

• How to organize your craft space.
• Hosting a crop at your home.
• Getting the most from your supplies.
• Great scrapbooking sites.
• Answers to questions you send to me.
• An much more...

Today's Tuesday Tip is how to properly clean your craft stamps. Regardless of what type of stamps you use (foam, polymer, or rubber) they all must be cleaned after each use. Cleaning your stamps preserves its details, prevents it from becoming brittle and avoids accidental inkings.

For proper cleaning you will need a stamp cleaning pad and stamp cleaner.


If you use a solvent-based ink such as Staz-On, you will need a solvent ink stamp cleaner.

Of course, if you use both types of inks, it's best to have a separate stamp cleaning pad for each.

What I have found works best to clean my stamps is to first clean them with baby wipes, then scrub them on the stamp cleaning pad (with the proper stamp cleaner) and finish by patting them dry on a clean cloth.

I hope you found this week's Tuesday Tip helpful.

All the best,
Colleen

Sketch #31

Get out your craft stamps. The finishing touch to this layout is two stamp images. To overlap the stamped image onto both the paper and your photos using acrylic or rubber stamps, you will need to use either Staz-on ink or regular ink and embossing powder that is heat-set. Otherwise, the ink will smear.

Here are some stamps to try:

If you aren't familiar with acrylic stamps, let me fill you in. In addition to our clear stamps, you will also need clear acrylic stamp blocks when using clear stamps. The blocks only need to be purchased once, can be used forever, and with any manufacturers acrylic stamps.
I love clear stamps. They take up so much less space than wood-mounted stamps. Also, if you need to restamp your image, they're see through, so you can easily line the image up and restamp.

Finally, you can use foam stamps and acrylic paint (which is acid free) to stamp on your scrapbook page. The paint adds an textural interest to your page that is impossible to get with any other medium.

Give these techniques a try.

"where there is fear, there is no creativity."
- Christopher Lowell

Get creative today,
Colleen