Monday 20 April 2020

A piece of our history | Sam Ball | Stamping Techniques

Stamping is definitely not my forte… In fact, I could go as far as to say it’s been my nemesis in the past!

I think I’ve had that many unsuccessful attempts at stamping in the past that whilst I really like the principle, I simply avoid it like the plague. So many times I’ve stamped an image, only to discover the central area is missing, or the detail isn’t sharp, but never understood what I was doing wrong.

They say you’re never too old to learn and this is certainly true when it comes to stamping! I recently attended a workshop that made me realise that I’ve fundamentally not been doing it right.


The key to successful stamping isn’t the ink pad you use, the size of your acrylic block, the pressure you apply, or even the paper that you’re stamping on but ensuring that the worksurface you’re working on is absolutely rigid and flat.


In light of the unusual world that we are currently living in, I decided to use a selfie that I took of myself in my hairdressers a couple of years ago. Having short hair, I tend to get it cut every 6 or 7 weeks, and I can’t deny it’s something I’m selfishly missing!


Having looked through my stamp stash, I found a stylistic face stamp that I’d been given as a gift which had yet to be used, so I decided to stamp this onto tracing paper and use bookplate behind it, fussy cutting the left hand side of the stamp.

After fussy cutting some decorative frames, to reflect the elaborate mirror in the photo, I added embellishments such as tape measure ribbon and wood veneer scissors to ‘nod’ to cutting, trimming and measuring, all things that a hairdresser does!


Do you have a scrapbooking nemesis and if so what is? And don’t forget to share your stamping layouts too on our Facebook page, or tag us on Instagram

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