Heidi Swapp: Tips and Tricks for my Acrylic Stamps

This article was taken from Heidi Swapp's blog at Scrapbook.com . . .

I will tell you a secret… I am a horrible stamper. I am not sure if it’s just the lack of patience, or the unwillingness to spend the money on wood mounted stamps; however, when I was introduced to the magic of clear acrylic stamps, I was hooked! Not only do I love that they are totally cheap, but the fact that they are clear makes them so easy to use! You can see right where you are stamping, which really cuts out the guess work that usually keeps me from buying rubber stamps! When I started to create clear stamps, I decided on some of my favorite handwritten words. These can be purchased individually and are meant to be used with the Heidi Swapp Acrylic Block. To use, simply peel the stamp from the clear acetate backer, and place on the acrylic block. Ink the stamp and press firmly where desired. It’s perfect every time! To accent the large title words, I decided to create some roller stamps that would have small coordinating words. Below are a few ‘how to’ directions on how to use the combinations, and hopefully get you thinking of your own ideas!

1. ALL MY LOVE – Here I stamped “all my love” with black ink onto white cardstock. I then stamped the words “truly, madly, deeply” from the LOVE roller stamp onto pink cardstock, leaving just enough room between each word to adhere a little jewel! To pull everything together, I used pink thread to sew a box around the two elements.

2. CHERISH – In this example I used the same stamp to show how it looks when you use ink versus paint. On the pink “cherish” , I used white acrylic paint on both the clear stamp and the roller stamp. I love the chunky look of the paint, to finish, I added a jewel for the dot of the “i”. On the green dot paper, I used black ink, and then black ink with roller stamps on orange pieces of cardstock. I then attached the printed pieces with little green brads. You can see how the sub-titles support the main title, for that little something extra.

3. FAVORITE – Once again, I chose to use black ink for this example. I wanted the small roller stamped words to stand out this time, so I stamped them directly onto a pink chipboard strip and then sanded the edges for contrast. The surface of the chipboard was a little slick, so I used Staz On Ink.

4. I ADORE YOU – Some of the roller stamps have little sentiments that don’t need a coordinating title to make sense. For this, I stamped with dark pink ink onto a journaling spot and backed that with white cardstock and attached that to a orange circle of cardstock that was already embellished with a pink flower and my favorite bling frame!

5. I LOVE YOU – Many of these sentiments or titles are perfect for cards and announcements. Here is a quick, fun way to embellish an envelope… I stamped the roller word, “i love you” and then overlayed a ghost heart, and finished by adding some small wings to both sides.

6. BABY – It’s so easy to mix colors as you apply them directly to the stamp. That is what I did on this little baby announcement piece. Start at the bottom, and just dab the stamp onto one color of ink, and then repeat halfway up with another coordinating color of ink, then stamp your page. You will be surprised by the professional tie-died effect you’ll create!

7. YOU ARE MY LOVE - Here is just another example of utilizing the roller stamps as support for the large titling stamps. The pink is chalk ink. Be sure to always clean the stamps right after use!

Check back in 2 weeks for more Tips and Tricks!