Using Big Stamps

Recently, I found a new-to-me stamp company, Colorado Craft Company. Their Big and Bold stamp collection looked particularly interesting because they are really large images! I purchased a couple of sets and started playing with them. The first one is called "Miss You Peony". Working with the gorgeous peony image led me to discover a few tips and ideas that I hope you will find useful when using big stamps on your projects.

Stamping Tips

3C's Blissful Butterflies and Miss You Peony

Extra-large clear stamps may be too big for a traditional acrylic block. Listed below are some alternate ideas for using a big stamp. Practice on some scratch paper to see which options work best for you and your project. Keep in mind, it is a good idea to turn the stamp upside down and apply the ink to the stamp rather than tapping the stamp onto the ink pad.

Using the carrier sheet that the stamp comes packaged upon
Fiskars Easy Stamp Press I have better success with this tool if I press down without hesitating
Using your hand as a flexible 'block' - this is particularly useful in art journaling
Using the top side of the MISTI tool or removing the top of the Tim Holtz stamp platform and using it as a giant block

Ideas

Watercoloring

Both of the examples above were colored using watercoloring techniques. The stamps can be stamped using traditional, no line, invisible line, or ghost stamping and then inked or painted. In the video below, I show a couple of ways to do this along with some of the stamp block substitutes.

Traditional Coloring

The card posted below was colored with Tombow Dual Brush Pens. I outlined the image to help make it pop a bit. This is a personal preference. Please do what you think looks best!

Background stamping - no coloring

Neither of the example shown below needed coloring after stamping. The crisp image is so striking on the scrapbook page that it did a good job of adding to the story without taking away from the photographs.