How I clean my stamps

Following my recent embarrassment of unclean stamps which stamped purple instead of red. Although in my defence I realised later it was because I used a brush with purple on rather than red, always check your brushes before you use them! (so two crazy rookie mistakes in a short period, ooops.)

I use a number of different items depending on what I cleaning. The Stampin’ Shammy is something that works on Photopolymer and cling stamp sets. I have two, one I used for coloured inks and the other I use for Momento and Versafine. (I use Versafine for watercolouring and also Stampin’ Markers, I am not a fan of Stazon.) I store them in a storage case (is also use these to store my dimensionals and embellishments).

If my stamps aren’t sticking to the block anymore, I soak them in water and also add a bit of the Ranger water based stamp cleaner and leave them for a few hours, I then dry them off on a cloth. I also use a lawn fawn shammy as it is thinner and more maleable for cleaning around my blocks.

I use a Ranger Water based stamp cleaner for photopolymer stamps and then I use the Stampin’ Mist with my Stampin’ Scrub for cling stamps. One side is wet, which I add Stampin’ Mist and water on to before I start stamping and then a dry side to ensure that your stamps are dry.

Every now and again I remove the wet side for cleaning and soak it in washing up liquid, before leaving it to to dry. I know some people have multiple Stampin’ Scrubs, I don’t stamp enough to need lots, but it is an amazing tool to help keep your stamps clean.

If I do use Stazon I use the Stazon Cleaner with a Rub it Scrub it from Ranger, it is one side of the Stampin’ Scrub. I love it to get my stamps clean.

Hope this helps you not cause the chaos I have with different colour stamps! What tricks do you use to keep your stamps clean?

How to Make Snow Backgrounds

And now for something completely different….

Over the last few weeks I have been making Christmas cards for my Christmas Card challenge. I have been going through my piles of designer series paper to find paper that I could use for a snowy background. As there is no current June to December catalogue and no Christmassy DSP in the the catalogue, I have been using some random sheets and colours.

I found some in the Artistry Blooms DSP and also the Flowers for Every Season DSP. They are gorgeous patterns but I thought that I would make my own. I have identified a number of ways to create snowy backgrounds.

Some are very simple, some are very messy, some take a while to create, others are super super quick.

All the techniques have been add to card which is 10.5cm by 29cm

Technique 1

This uses a Stampin’ Chalk marker to create dots, you could also use a white gel pen or the Craft White ink and a blender pen

Technique 2

This uses ‘tone on tone stamping’ this can be seen better on lighter colours, for this technique you use the same coloured ink to add snowflakes to the card.

Technique 3

This uses Versamark ink and embossing powder to create the background. Simply stamp in Versamark, add the embossing powder and heat using your heat gun. Do not forget to use an embossing buddy first, I would suggest that you emboss bit by bit to ensure that the embossing powder stays in place. The added advantage to heat embossing is that you can use the emboss resist technique and use blending brushes to create gorgeous blending on your card.

Technique 4

This uses White Craft ink and the snowflake stamp to create a snowy background, this needs time to dry or the ink can smudge and the snowflakes will not be as defined.

Technique 5

This uses the craft ink refill, add one drop to a block and spritz with water and use a paintbrush to flick the white water. This technique can get very messy.

Technique 6

This uses the white frost shimmer paint, add one drop to a block and spritz with water and use a paintbrush to flick the shimmery . This technique can also get very messy. you can use the Shimmer paint on its own, it does not create as many spots and I think creates a more abstract background than Snowy background.

I love the ink splatter background the best, even if it the messiest. Which is your favourite?