StampingNewsFlash

1. Do NOT rock your stamp unless you have a curved surface that you're stamping on. The covered buttons for example, curve at the edges so you need to tilt the stamp a little over any edges. This allows the image to stamp completely, even if the stamp is slightly larger than the flat area without these curved edges.

2. Clean your stamps after using by tapping in a container of Baby Wipes until all residue is removed. OR, spray the stamp with 409 Cleaner, lightly scrub with an old toothbrush, rinse and dry thoroughly before putting them away.

3. Use a Petifour Sponge to apply acrylic background color to a wood painting surface just as you would for regular painting. The petifour is also useful when applying a decorative edge on a wood piece. Use your finger as a guide along the edge of the wood piece. Sometimes you might find it easier to use a large flat shader or filbert brush to spread paint onto the routed edges.

4. A permanent Gold Pen is also useful in adding a decorative edge on wood, porcelain, ceramic, cardboard or paper. It is especially compatible with an embossed gold image.

5. For the most part, you will find a Gold Detail Embossing Powder will give you a finer, more delicate line for your embossed image. Using regular embossing powder gives you a thicker, lumpier line. I like to use Detail PEWTER Embossing Powder for birds & animals, and BLACK Detail Powder for things that need to be predominantly black, such as the loon, Canadian Goose, etc.

6. When stamping on paper, have the paper on a firm, flat, smooth surface before pressing the stamp onto the paper. Surfaces that are dirty or even slightly corrugated or creased will cause irregularity of the stamped lines.

7. If you are stamping on an object that isn't solid under pressure, such as a papier mache' box, you will get a more complete image if you lay the moistened stamp on its back, then position the box over the stamp. Press down lightly, but firmly onto the stamp from the back of the box. You could also use your supporting hand to press from the inside of the box against the stamp that you are pressing against the outer surface with your other hand.

8. Stamping on a Glass Jar: Be sure that the jar has a solid, opaque coverage of acrylic color, (See instructions in Special Santas for prepping glass jars for stamping). Position the stamp with the rubber up on a flat surface, then hold the jar so you can start at one side of the image and then gently roll the jar across the stamp's surface around the curve. Be sure that you choose a stamp that is shorter top to bottom, than the portion of the jar that is vertically flat. Be careful not to let the stamp slide or move as you roll the jar across, as it will distort the image. If it's not right, wipe off the image with a slightly damp paper towel, dry a bit with the heat tool and set aside for a half hour or more before attempting to stamp it again. When the image is positioned where you want it, pour on the powder and heat set with the embossing heat tool as usual. Careful. It will be hot!

9. Stamping on a Candle: You CAN'T emboss a candle, because the heat would melt the candle wax, BUT you can stamp on a piece of tissue paper. Carefully color the design after embossing, then cut out the design going as close to the stamped image as possible. Apply spray glue to the back of the paper and gently press the paper onto the candle's surface. Add a little varnish, just over the painted paper area. You might want to coat the area of the stamp that you will be placing your image on with some acrylic with the DecoArt Candle Painting Medium in it for an even nicer background color.

10. Re-inking Your Stamp Pad will be necessary when you notice that the whole stamp image doesn't imprint evenly and completely. ALWAYS try to buy a refill when you buy your stamp pad. Distribute the Embossing Fluid from your refill bottle over the pad, then butter the fluid into the pad by pressing and spreading it with a palette knife. Squeeze down so that you press the fluid evenly into your pad.

11. When gluing transparent papers such as Velum to a second paper, tape will show through the velum. Use spray glue on the back of the paper, testing the glue spray on a separate piece of newspaper to be sure that it sprays evenly.

12. You can do some "shading with a sponge" especially when using a shaped plastic or heavy velum template. Use a very fine sponge cut into small pieces. Make-up sponges work well for this. Rub the rounded edge of the sponge across a colored stamp pad, then pull the color at an angle across the cut edge of the shaped template placed on your paper until the desired effect is achieved. You can also purchase pre-cut templates (such as clouds, etc.) to put shaped color effects onto paper. Always brush away from you, working from the template onto the paper. Lift off the paper gradually to end color softly. Move the template down a bit and use another color to get a great effect. Nice to stamp balloons over the cloud background for making cards.

14. Creative Matt and Paper or Wood Enhancers: There are many sizes and shapes for nibs in the permanent gold metallic markers. Y & C, DecoColor and Krylon all have gold, silver and other permanent gold metallic pens. Use these pens to outline the outside edges of the various projects. You can buy a variety of paper punches and deckle edge scissors for cutting shapes that create attractive edges on paper. Using several layers of paper, getting smaller and using different shapes with each successive layer is an interesting effect. There are numerous fiber or textured papers also.

13. Hot Glue Tidbits can be sliced about 1/8" thick. Cut each circle into fourths. When you're ready to glue a bow or other small item onto the stamped and finished surface, place the glue piece where you want to glue the accessory. Hit it with the heat tool to melt the glue, then immediately place the bow or other tidbit accessory into the melted glue.

15. You might want to stamp on Bristol Board (a paper that is slightly thicker than the regular heavy card stock, and it accepts floated color well) when working with the layered paper effect or to create inexpensive pins, etc. Stamp, heat set and paint with floated acrylic color as usual. To further stiffen if you're doing a pin, you can apply plastic laminate to both front and back of the stamped and painted images. For the pins, use a sharp scissors and cut just outside the finished image, then glue a pin on the back. You can cut a rectangle just larger than the finished design just on the plain Bristol Board (be sure to square it up) then use this over layers of different types of paper. You can also use one of the numerous template shapes (hearts, diamonds, squares, rounds, etc.) to create a shape a little larger than the design. Glue this over the top of layered variety papers. You might even want to elevate the design a little with one of the little spacers created for the purpose.

16. Add a little "Sparkle" on any surface. A little layer of DecoArt Glimmer Clear will give sparkle to snowmen, clothing or other areas of your design, whether on paper or wood. It dries clear and leaves a slight holographic sparkle.

17. Creating your own decorative corners for paper is simple when using either the scissors type or the regular corner cutters. The advantage to the scissors type is that you can cut either an inward or outward corner cut.

18. Make your own Corrugated Paper. If you have one of the old squeezers used to press the oil paint down into the neck of the tube, you can run strips of card stock weight paper through it. They now have wider models available at the stamp or scrap booking shops that are wider than these old paint squeezers.

19. When Stamping on Porcelain or Ceramic you must be sure that you have a very smooth, flat surface WITHOUT any dips or bumps. You will also need a pair of tongs or a potholder of some kind to protect your fingers from the heat. It takes a lot longer for the porcelain to heat enough to melt the embossing powder, and longer to cool down. BE CAREFUL when handling the hot piece and remember to protect the surface you're heating on.

20. Painting on Embossed Surfaces really isn't any different than if you had traced the design. You can pretty much ignore the embossed image. The nice part is that the viewer sees a "finished design" even before you have added color and is satisfied that everythin is there. For the most part, a little twinkling of gold or other color here and there doesn't bother the eye. It just makes it more interesting. Use as much shading via floated acrylic color as desired. Your own satisfaction with the degree of perspective achieved through the shading will dictate when you will stop. Try to "reserve" the lightest values by blending up toward forward areas from either side. This will leave forward center areas lighter and with less color. Detailing is also a matter of taste.

Rubber Stamping is the first "REAL" short cut I can recall in my 35+ years of decorative painting. We ALL are loath to "give out" our hard work on big projects, unless we KNOW the recipient will treasure it as much as we do. It's wonderful to be able to have little things that you can give to friends "just for the fun of it" and know that you haven't spent too much precious time to be able to do so. The best part is that even other painters really have to look hard at the finished work to tell if it's stamping OR regular painting!!! The array of fun, useful little items that you can do with the help of rubber stamping is ENDLESS!

I HOPE that this has given you a little insight into some of the tips and techniques for utilizing the wonderful short-cuts afforded by using rubber stamping in your decorative painting. I know that I have personally been able to cut my painting time at least in half if not more. If you're not so good at floating, perhaps you would like to spend "A DAY WITH JEAN" if you're in the Orlando/Kissimmee/St. Cloud area. I'm sure I could help you with a fast and efficient brush loading technique, directly on Painter's Pal sta-wet palette. This is an essential tool in painting, in my opinion.

Remember that there are several advantages to using embossed rubber stamped images in Decorative Art. The stamps I've designed are done with painters rather than stampers in mind. If you can efficiently float acrylic color, you can easily cut your painting time in half OR more! This is especially useful if you need to have numerous small gifts or are selling your artwork. The stamped image gives the immediate illusion of a "finished product" to the viewer. The color YOU add is simply the frosting on the cake, and you can add as much or as little detail as you choose. You will not need to be too aware of the stamped image. Just float color and if some goes over the stamped lines, that won't be a problem. You will need to prep the wood, etc. and finish/varnish as you normally would, however spray varnishes tend to dull the gold lines. Always use waterbase brush-on varnish.

Choose a medium value for the selected area and side-load your brush for floating color. Be sure that the acrylic color doesn't travel more than 2/3's of the width of the brush and ends softly. Begin along one edge of the area and blend color across the area ending usually on the side toward the light source. If the area tucks beneath another portion of the design, you will want to put the darkest first color in against the top surface and blend out toward the outside edge. This should leave you with varied value in each section of the design. Allow to dry as you continue laying in the medium value for all parts of the design. Come back and add shading and finally highlights and detailing.

Shade soft atmospheric background against the design. Add fine line detailing as needed, especially on fruits or florals. If you are painting a Santa face on a Buttermilk background, wash over the entire face except for the eyes with Fleshtone, then apply the shading to the eye cavities, cheeks, nose, sides of forehead, lips, etc. with French Mocha. Do the eye details, then add some blush to the cheeks, nose, etc. with Brandy Wine and finally add highlights on the face with Hi-lite Flesh. Your hair areas will need to have Charcoal Grey laid in to separate the various hair tendrils, then add plenty of white first with a filbert rake, then detail with a fine liner. The lines that you've covered with color will still show through giving the effect of wrinkles, etc.