September 13 South Stamp Show, Charmandean Center, Worthing, U.K. --Stampscapes U.K. distributor Serendipity
November 1-2 Mesa, AZ. Stamp Convention --booth run by Ken Pesho.
November 8-9 Carson, CA. Original Rubber Stamp Convention.
September 2008 News
Hello, and thanks for visiting the news section of the site! Thought I would do an end-of-summer update here. I'm shocked that my last update was before summer. Always happens every year -- I blink and the summer is over.
It's been a busy few months for me and Stampscapes. We worked on setting up our upcoming Australian distributor with inventory to assemble their own stamps in Australia. It was a pretty significant endeavor in that we've always supplied finished stamps but this time we've supplied the rubber and labels only. The Stamp Trap will be supplying the wood and mounting material and doing the assembly there. Shipping prices have become outrageous lately and Australia was already one of the most expensive places to ship to so the fact that they won't have to pay for the shipping on hundreds of pounds of heavy maple mounts will mean a greater savings for them and, thus, the end user. The Stamp Trap is an experienced rubber stamp producer and quality is paramount to them so one won't need to worry about quality. We had back-to-back conventions in July which was interesting. I usually don't schedule that way but I think the Grapevine, TX show was moved up a week for some reason. As always, I would like to thank everyone that dropped by the booth at the shows. The travel and set up grind of conventions is always tough but it's sure fun actually doing the shows and sitting and stamping with everyone at the make-and-take tables. Doesn't matter if it's someone that's well versed in the scenic stamping genre or someone that's never done scenic stamping --it's always fun.
Product update: We're really closing in on having the entire line available in unmounted form. There's about 3-5 stamps that aren't configured well on plates --in that we don't have enough of them-- that makes it difficult to add the UM option right now but I'll get new plates for those images before too long. Website update: The main thing I've been working on is trying to add more cross links from the stamp modules back to examples that utilize them in both my and other stampers galleries.
To close out the summer I had as great a time, stamping-wise, as I could have hoped for. I attended a scenic-stamping retreat in Chicago towards the end of August. Several scenic stampers --many from the Yahoo Stampscapes, Stampscapes II, and Scenic Stampers groups attended. From Thursday-Saturday night it was non stop stamping except for when we were taking a food break. I didn't get in until 5am on Friday morning and missed the Thursday afternoon and night session (which was a mistake as I should have just taken an earlier flight). To be able to stamp and learn from others in such a relaxing and creative environment was truly enjoyable. I've posted the scenes that I did while out there in the Gallery section under the Nakagawa Misc III gallery. The demonstrations were very informative and informal. We would just periodically crowd around someone at different times to check out different media and techniques as they were doing it. I learned a lot from the demonstrations and also from just walking around the tables and observing and asking quesitons as everyone worked. There's a lot of media that I'm not aware of in this industry that I was filled in on and came out of the weekend with a lot of new ideas. Karen Wallace was our leader and organized everything.
June 2008 News
We have been adding yet more unmounted stamp options to the line every week. I'm not sure where we're at but we'll keep at it until we get the entire line available in that format. New color inserts are being designed and printed for the Symmetry UM Sheets which include a lot of the samples that can be found in the galleries and lessons section.
I would like to thank everyone that dropped by the booths at the Akron, OH and the Puyallup, WA show. We had a fun time at both of those shows meeting and, with those that did the make-and-take, stamping with you. Also, thanks to those that visited Pretty In Ink running the Stampscapes booth at the MN Stamp and Scrap show. I had a great time at the demonstration at Art N' Soul in Olympia, WA before the Puyallup show. Thanks to all that made it to that.
Updates have been made to the Gallery section. A very long time in between those for me. I've been so busy that they had really backed up. Still some more to go such as the ones I'll need to scan myself but most of the email submissions are up.
Pretty soon we should have a new distributor in Australia. More news on that later.
April 2008 News
Four new sets of scenes have been released. As mentioned below in the Feb 2008 News, these sets are complete scenes and great for the new scenic stamper or those that don't have certain elements included with the sets. They're all available in unmounted sheet sets that come either with or w/o static cling foam and plastic sheet holders.
We've been slowly adding more unmounted options for our entire line each week. If a stamp is available in an UM version, there will be a note towards the bottom of the stamp modules.
The convention schedule is almost set for the year. We might be adding one or two more shows but the schedule above is most likely our final schedule.
I've been bolstering up the website here and there but haven't done my most common updates in a while which is to the gallery section. The Lessons section has been updated with a few new lessons. Some of them are from the inserts that we put into the new unmounted sheet products. These inserts have several scenes and examples of how the images in the sets can be used. On a few of those scenes, I broke them down into either before-and-after or step-by-step lessons. Another area of the site that I've updated is the Live Workshops area. We haven't always known when workshops were being offered around the world but I did a search on the web and found quite a few "classes" sections on various sites of clients that are offering Stampscapes classes. I'll be getting to those gallery updates pretty soon though.
For fans of Stampbord, keep in mind that Ampersand has discontinued all round and oval shapes. I don't know if they'll make them again in the future but I'm guessing that won't happen for a long time. The cost of cutting out these pieces was just too high and they couldn't find a economical method of doing them. We bought out Ampersands remaining stock of these shapes but they won't last forever.
February 2008 News
We're just putting together the convention schedule for the year. The dates above are all firm except for the Heirloom conventions. We've applied for them but will see if they're already filled. Ken Pesho will be running Stampscapes booths in AZ and NM and Pen Ventures runs the Stampscapes booth in MA.
Four new unmounted sets will be released shortly based around the reduced size images mentioned in my previous news blurb below. These sets are groupings of existing designs and are particularly good for those that are new to Stampscapes and wondering where to start. These sets will have main elements, filler stamps, subject matter, and a sky figure. I have color inserts for these sets with a variety of compositions stamped out with the elements that are included. Also, for those that use the acrylic block/static cling sheets style of stamping, we will include a sheet of the static cling sheet and a plastic sheet holder.
If anyone has tried to email me and didn't receive a response, I was having severe SPAM problems for a period of time until I figured out how to better filter the numbers. Currently, we must be getting 10,000 emails/day and 9,970 are usually junk/SPAM. It was crazy. Anyway, we're usually pretty good about getting back with people so if you've asked a question, submitted a scene for the gallery and if you didn't hear anything back, try again now. I haven't updated the site and site gallery in a while but those updates are coming.
I won't bore you with mentioning all the other things that I've been working on in detail but, in general, I've been trying to work on more printed materials. I've often been asked if we had various scenes in printed form and not just on the internet so I'm finally getting some of those types of things done. With all of these layouts and informational copy that I've been doing I decided to take a look into four color printing for a book project and I think the time is right to start working on something like this. It would be a Stampscaping-101-the-book version. 4 color printing with all the color separations, the production runs, costs, etc. used to make something like this out of the question but with digital printing these days it's so much easier for the kind of runs that we would be doing.
Anyway, I hope this note finds everyone well and that you're all finding time for some form of creative expression in your busy lives. Best wishes ~Kevin
November 2007 News
Hello Stampscapers,
I Hope this letter finds everyone up to their ears in ink, rubber, and paper having a great time.
Some quick notes here. We just relesed some old familiar stamps in reduced sizes in unmounted form. We used to do multiple sizes more often but stopped doing that for a while. We had so many requests for these five designs in particular that we just decided to go ahead and finally do it. I'm uncertain whether we will follow up and make them into full mounted stamps sometime in the future. http://stampscapes.com/catalogset.html
The three mounted stamp sets will soon be available in UM sheets including one additional one.
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Ken Pesho of AZ stamping/instructing, Stampscapes gallery, and Stampscapes Yahoo Group fame, has created his DVD "Stampscapes Made Easy". The video is a well produced vehicle for learning all the basics in scenic stamping. Pesho presents his method and techniques in a seamless performance and leaves no questions unanswered. Good teaching lies in the details and this video doesn't forget them each step of the way in the creation of the scene. Pesho has been teaching on a regular basis for many years and knows all questions students have and presents his points in easy to understand manner. The media for his DVD piece is glossy paper and dye based inks --the combination that is used on much of the scenes on the website, lessons section, and gallery. I highly recommended instructional tool. |
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Ria Vaneman of Home Impressions, the distributor of Stampscapes in The Netherlands, has also made a video. Ria has been a long time retailer and instructor of the Stampscapes line teaches how to use the Tonal Applicator. Ria is also the owner/creator of the Stampscapes Yahoo.com group. Click on the DVD for information. This is a dutch site. To translate the text you can go to: http://babelfish.altavista.com/ Then enter the address of: www.stampscapes.nl/nl/dept_10.html and then select your language such as "Dutch to English". |
Has anyone heard of the Copic brand of alcohol ink markers and airbrush system? I hadn't until I talked with Kellie Fortin and she directed me to her blog and lesson using Stampscapes and this system. You can see this in our lessons section. http://stampscapes.com/lessonset.html. Additional new lessons are up in the same section along with the Stampbord lessons.
The Yahoo Group stampers have two sets of 18 cards that will be out very soon. The first set is on the way consolidated and bagged and the second set has arrived from the printer and we'll be consolidating those this next week. 36 cards in total, diverse, well executed, and really nice references for any scenic stamper. We'll note when they're available on the site.
If you're in the San Diego area and free next week on the 17th, I'll be doing a demonstration over at The Stamp Addict at 6pm. 7151 El Cajon Bl. #K. San Diego CA 92115. (619) 667-5060. I'll be demonstrating as many techniques as I can get through in a few hours.
For all you scenic stampers out there, don't forget to submit your scenes to Rubberstampmadness for their book on scenic stamping. I think the deadline is Nov. 1. www.rsmadness.com
Best wishes ~Kevin Nakagawa