copic scene by Sandy Hulsart
It really depends on what subject matter you want to stamp but a good option would be one of the stamp sets. We've designed these sets to include some really good basic elements that can be used in many scenes. For example, a water pattern stamp can be used in all of your water scenes, a grass texture in many of your land masses or a basic cloud can be used in almost every scene. There are many approaches to scene building but my approach is to create zones within a scene: Subject/midground, foreground, and background. There can be more than one of each of these but an example might be foreground --an overhanging branch, midground --a lakeside cove, and background --a cloud in the sky. These three depths can create the illusion of deep space within a scene. Quite often, foregrounds and backgrounds can be universal. Another option to get a lot of scenic stamps in a hurry are the unmounted sheets featuring the Nature Sheets. To start scene stamping one doesn't need a lot of stamps however. It's entirely possible to create a complete scene that requires nothing more with even one stamp and a little creativity.
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Mounted stamps include wood (3/4" mount), cushion (1/16" double stick black foam), and indexing (poly laminate printed label) on top. Unmounted stamps are only the rubber dies. In some cases, if the unmounted stamp is a la carte, the rubber will include the cushion. If the cushion isn't desired, it can be peeled off the rubber.
Unmounted stamps can be mounted by individuals by purchasing a form of cushion and mounts. Several online retailers offer these supplies. Stampscapes does not at this time. Indexing is often done by stamping out an image of the rubber on to sticker paper and applying that sticker on top of the mounts. Stampers like unmounted stamps mainly for two reasons. First, a stamper can store hundreds of unmounted stamps in one notebook where the full stamp versions can take several drawers or boxes. When people use stamps in this type of storage system, they often use a temporary mounting system. See a site such as: rubberstampconcepts.com for more details on the static cling system. Another main reason for unmounted stamps is that they're cheaper and people can collect more imagery for the same price.
The benefits of mounted stamps is that mounted stamps are just nicely crafted printing tools. The indexing provides an accurate illustration of the image and allows for convenient registration when placing the image. Plus, some people just would rather not have to take the time to mount their own stamps.
For information on indexing your own static cling mounting foam style of mounting material you can download the Bob Lieby
Cling Mount Indexing Guide instructions. 859K download size.
A good balance might be that one has both unmounted and mounted stamps in their collection. For stamps that you might use frequently, have them mounted and ready to use and for stamps that aren't in use very often, such as seasonal stamps, have those in an unmounted form in organized categories in binders perhaps.
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In many samples and lessons, that you'll find on this web site, a certain technique has been used to achieve the final result. However, it is necessary to note that Stampscapes is not a technique and the line is series of images that can be used in many different forms of media as can be seen in the individual galleries of the "Gallery" section.
People use the imagery with their favorite media such as inks, chalks, pastels, colored pencils, watercolors, and other media. A popular medium right now is Copic Markers. These pens and the airbrushing system that you can use with them can make very dynamic cards.
The paper you would use would depend on the medium of your choice. For example, chalks, soft pastels, and colored pencils would require a paper with a little "tooth" to it so glossy paper wouldn't be your best bet for those. If you like deep and richly saturated colors, you might try dye based inks on glossy.
A lot of the online lessons and a large part of this FAQ section is based on dye based inks and glossy paper simply because that is one of my favorite combinations and I haven't used a lot of the dry media such as chalks. However, some people and some stores that teach classes using Stampscapes imagery, have never used inks as their favorite looks are through other media.
copic scene by Sandy Hulsart
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There are many quality inks and ink brands out there now. Do you need them all? No. Do you want them all? Probably, but I wouldn't recommend it.
I don't know of any that are inferior to others. What to look for are a raised pads --
so that any sized stamp can be inked-- and pads that seem like the material pad will last for many years. I would
also check that the pad company offers reinkers. You don't want to have to buy a new pad every time the pad goes dry. Most reinkers have enough ink to reink the pads
many times over. I like the Uchida Marvy pads a lot for their color coded cases and their ability to stack on top of one another. I can have 40 of their pads in a
small area on my table with no problem. I tend to use these in the office but especially at workshops and shows due to these aspects. The inks are vivid, the pad
material remains perfect even after years of use, and they come with reinkers. Ranger Industries offers a wide range of products and has been a significant player in the
stamping world for a while. They seem to be on the edge of development always coming up with offerings such as the Distress Inks that I love. I use those and the
Sea Shells --now called Adirondack Lights (same colors, different names)-- line of their inks for the very light values that I always start my scenes out with. Clearsnap sent me some of their
Vivid line of pads and it took me a while to get around to using them but after I started using them I wondered why I hadn't been using them for years. I tend to
like using a lot of different values of blue and it seems like they have at least 10 values of them. I did the scene below using the blue Vivid tones:
Added 04/20/09: There's a fairly new line of pads called Memento by Tsukineko. They're fade resistant, fast drying, dye based inks. I like the consistency of them, colors, and the fact that they're fade-resistant is a giant plus.
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If you're just starting out, you need not be intimidated by the selection of colors and number of lines. You can start with a nice selection of pads by selecting a first batch wisely. I recommend a range of values in some key hues:
Blues --very light, medium, dark
Green --light, dark
Red --light pink, dark
Orange --light, medium
Violet --light, medium
Brown --light, medium, dark
Black
15 pads here. If this is still too many, knock out the violets. Here's a key point: Dye based inks are
transparent. In other words, they're clear. If you know a little about colors and how they mix, you can get a world of different colors from these basic ones. If
you have pink on your card and you put one of the blue values over it, it will appear violet. What shade of violet? Depends on what value of pink and
blue you use. Yellow overlapping blue will look green. Red overlapping yellow will look orange. Etc.
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Certain card stock has a tendency of drying "flat" where colors seem to fade out. Sometimes you can give those cards a thick spray of some kind of clear acrylic --eg. Krylon Crystal Clear-- or a spray fixative --art store type spray. Others that work are clear sprays that you might use on furniture such as resin, or polyurethane usually found next to the wood stains in the hardware store. They might come back brighter if the sprays penetrate the inks and cardstock a little.
Another method that you can use is to apply another layer of ink to your faded scenes. Go back to one of your lightest colors that you applied to the scene to begin with and do another one of these coats over the faded scene. This can bring back the vivid intensity of the card. From there, seal your scene with one of the sprays mentioned above.
For new scenes to avoid the dulling out from drying, spray your scenes before they dry for the best results.
The art spray fixatives should work well in the long run without changing the colors. The others could turn a bit yellow over time. Personally, I tend to not worry about this aspect with my cards and I use all of the above depending on what is handy. I haven't seen any yellowing --that I can notice at least-- in cards that I sprayed as long as 15 years ago.
Ken Pesho is an instructor in AZ and he really likes the Ace Hardware "True Value PDS-7" Gloss Clear Enamel. It creates a nicely saturated card when applied in a thick coating and dries quickly.
Also, see my comment on Memento dye based pads in the dye based pads section (above).
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In our art/craft of rubber stamps we're often using dye based inks to create our pieces. Dye based inks are often the colours of choice because of their bright vivid hue. The downside of dyes is that they're often subject to fading when exposed to sunlight or light in general. A loose observation I've made when reading the light fastness meters on the back of watercolor paints is that the brighter the colors, the more prone to fading they are. Colors such as hot pink or yellow seemed to fade at a faster rate than, say, dark blues or greens. There are UV sprays that you can find at art stores that could help to prolong the brightness of your inks. However, if something that you have created is very dear to you, I would recommend scanning the card and putting a print of it on display instead of the original. If you don't have a scanner and printer, you can take your original in to a store that has a color laser printer and have them print out a high resolution print for you that can often match very closely the details and color saturation of the original piece. Then keep your original in a dark location and it should retain the vivid surface for a long time.
Also, see my comment on Memento dye based pads in the dye based pads section (above). The one thing about Memento inks, right now, is that they don't come in all of the colors that you would probably want to have eventually. I use these Memento pads in conjunction with my other pads.
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Hard to say. I'm sure there are a lot of nice brands out there. Personally, I've only used three brands in 20 years --Kromecote, King James, and another brand that I don't know the name of from Australia. They've all worked well especially if you spray your scenes as mentioned in the color fading comment. King James is no longer available and you would probably have to live overseas to have access to the Australian brand. So we're back to Kromecote. A place like Marco's Papers caters to the rubber stamp industry and they seem to be up on what the stamping public seems to prefer. There's a fairly new incarnation of Kromecote called Kromecote "Glass" that Marco's has been offering that you might look into. You can also look up the retailer Kelly Paper that I've bought a lot of paper from. Standard thickness of paper that we use is 10pt or 12pt.
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My favorite is the Uni-ball brand "Signo" pen. I've found it to be a very smooth ink and, after several years, still works well with no clogs. I bought mine at a craft store but have seen it online as well. www.jetpens.com has had it in the past but you'll have to log on to see the current availability. I've done search engine searches on these pens before and have come up with two or three other online retailers for the brand and pen.
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The building block of most of the Stampscapes® stamps is the "dot". In pen and ink illustration we call this method of drawing "stippling". The Tonal Applicator is an extension of this idea. If the stamps are built out of dots, then this stamp is using the same building block --the dots-- to merge them together by using it's design to apply tone. While this stamp is a rubber stamp it's important to see it as more of a tool than an image in itself.
The Tonal Applicator is the item in the Stampscapes line that tends to cause the most confusion as to it's method of use. It's an easy tool to master in a very short period of time but there are some specific things to avoid as well as specific things to make it's usage go smoothly.
Click here for a detailed TONAL APPLICATOR LESSON
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