Teresa Collins Stampmaker!

Well, I didn't figure I'd ever have the money in my craft budget to buy this machine, but my husband and daughter went together to get it for my birthday.  THANK YOU!  This is so much fun!  I LOVE being able to make my own stamps!  (For more information about the process of making stamps, check out the end of this post.)

For one of my first projects, I made something I've been wanting for a long time.  A SET of stamps for card greetings.  I made 3 or 4 different border stamps and LOTS of different mix and match words to go with them.  I used them for this stamped greeting which I then cut out and matted on several backgrounds using my Spellbinder's dies.

I learned 2 things:

1. First, StazOn ink might not work quite as well with these stamps. However, that MAY have actually been the fault of the gold foil I used.  The StazOn certainly worked fine on the white card stock. I'll have to do a bit more experimenting.  
2. The second thing I learned was that stamps made from two different "gel packs" might not be quite the same height.  What this means is that I couldn't put all those words (made with different gel packs) and the border on my acrylic block and stamp them all at once.  I needed to stamp each word separately.  However, since they ARE acrylic stamps, this is not a big deal. I can see exactly where I want to place them.  

I used this particular greeting on a Napkin-Fold card (information about making a Napkin-Fold card here). I used black card stock for the base and sprayed it with gold smooch spritz.  I paired this with a golden glimmer paper, a white paper with golden metallic swirls on it, some gold metallic paper, and some cream glimmer-type paper (on the inside).  Gold ribbon quite literally ties it all together.

Here's what it looks like on the inside.  The small golden square with the cake on it is actually the front cover of a little booklet that a whole bunch of people signed.  It was kind of nice having a little page for each person's message.

So, how was it making stamps with the stampmaker???????

Rather than just starting right in and possibly ruining some of my gel packs, I decided to first read about other people's experiences on-line. The more I read, the more concerned I became about whether or not my printer would print the negatives okay.  This seemed to be a real problem for some people and I KNEW that my printer didn't have a BLACK ONLY setting for graphics.  However, I joined the tcstampmakertips yahoo group and read everything they had posted about settings for different printers and got ready to try my luck.  Hit it right on the first try!

As you may remember, I have a wide-body HP Photosmart B8550 printer.  The settings I used were as follows: HP Everyday Photo Paper Matte, Best Quality, Grayscale, Maximum Ink.  I printed some pretty small images and text.  Amaze font prints smaller than most and I printed a 10 font with it -- which is probably equivalent to an 8 or even 6 font of Arial.  I wouldn't want to go much smaller than that because I wouldn't be able to read it, but it did fine at that size.  I made a couple of return address stamps, using that font and a couple of little pictures from a dingbat font, in addition to my greetings set.  I was quite please with the results.

Once you have a good negative, the hardest part is lining it up nicely with the gel pack in the magnetic clamp. That sometimes takes me a few tries before I'm happy with it. Other than that, it is amazingly easy to make a stamp!  Some important things to watch out for are:

• Make sure you've created a black border around your stamp as described in the instructions.
• Make sure your negative is dark enough. If you hold it up to the light and put your fingers behind it, you should only be able to see them through the light areas -- not through the dark areas.
• Don't leave your gel packs sitting out.  They are light sensitive and you could ruin them.  Keep them in their box until you're ready to use them.
• Be sure to assemble your "sandwich" correctly. Which side is up on the gel pack and negative makes a difference.
• Once your gel pack and negative are in the clamp the way you want them, be sure to press in the center of the clamp to make sure the gel is spread out clear to the edges.
• Be sure to "flash" burn the reverse of the sandwich for 3 seconds before cooking it for 3 minutes as described -- especially if you have small details on your stamp.
• Rinse/scrub your stamp in cool water with dish soap -- too hot of water may melt the stamp before it's been cured.

I should probably mention that I was much happier with the quality of negative I could get with my photo software than I was with that that came with the kit.  Most photo software has an "Invert" or "Negative" option for transforming your drawings, and that is what I used. All in all, I am REALLY enjoying the flexibility I now have.  If I don't have the stamp I want for a card, I can just MAKE one!