Stamping with ink pads.

I thought I would share some thoughts on acrylic blocks and ink pads. It is always good to share knowledge.

Stamping and Ink pads

• You need a verity of acrylic block sizes to accommodate your stamps. Choose an acrylic block for your stamp that is no more than an inch or so larger than the stamp.  If the block is too large there is more of a chance that you will get ink on the acrylic box and on the paper where you do not want it.
• When placing a polymer or rubber stamp on an acrylic block, line up the image with a flat edge. This is especially helpful with word stamps. If the word is lined up with the edge straight across, you can then use the top edge of the block to make sure you are stamping a straight image.
• To stamp an image, you need to ink the stamp with an up and down motion. Do not rub the pad across the stamp, as that will cause ink to collect in the crevices and cause smudged images.
• If the stamp has never been used before, it is a good habit to ink it up once or twice and test stamp it. This will remove any chemicals used in the stamp making process. Do not sand the stamp surface. Sanding the stamp surface will erode the stamp image.
• When you stamp the image, make sure you place the stamp directly up and down on the paper. Do not rock the stamp side to side or you will get a smudged image. Let the stamp set on the paper for a count of 10. This will let the ink soak into the paper. Press evenly on all areas of the stamp. This is especially important on large stamps to make sure all areas of the stamp touch the paper. Lift the stamp straight up when done.
• A stamp mat is a good investment. It helps make sure that the stamp touches all areas of the paper particularly on a table that is not smooth, such as a metal table. If a mat is not available, a magazine or a couple of layers of paper may help.
• If the stamp is large, it is sometimes easer to bring the ink pad to the stamp by turning the stamp face up and turn the stamp pad over to cover the stamp image.  Make sure to cover the stamp image completely with ink. Inking the stamp face up helps to make sure the stamp is completely covered with ink as you can see what area is being inked.
• If the stamp seems to stick to the paper, you need to re-ink the stamp pad. To re-ink the stamp pad, gently squeeze the re-inker over the pad and let it soak in. You can use an old credit card to spread the ink around on the pad. Do not over ink the pad. If it is over inked, you will get too much ink on the stamp and get a smudged image.
• If the image is light no matter how well you ink it, the pad needs to be re-inked. See above for re-inking.
• If you use the same stamp to stamp multiple ink colors, make sure to clean the stamp between the ink colors or it will stain the ink pad and you will have a mixed color image.
• Clean your stamps after stamping with them. Close to my heart has an all-purpose stamp cleaner.  StazOn is likely to stain stamps. Use the special StazOn cleaner to clean the stamp before the ink dies on it. Using a stamp scrubber will help to clean the stamps.

There are both regular medium size and mini ink pads.

• The mini ink pads are cheaper. You can therefore afford to buy more. They usually require you to pick up the ink pad and pat it on the stamp. The Close to my Heart mini pads are pigment ink and sold in sets. If you want to try different colors, the mini pigment ink pads are great. They give you many colors for less money.
• The regular sized ink pads from Close to my Heart are larger dye ink pads and are more expensive. The regular sized ink pads have re-inkers, which means you can re-ink them for a fraction of the price of a new ink pad. If you do a lot of stamping the regular dye ink pads will last longer with the re-inkers. If you have the re-inker it also means you will not run out of ink in the middle of a stamp session. I suggest that every time you buy a stamp pad you buy the re-inker.

   There are 9 major types of ink pads:

1. Dye Ink – Dye based ink pads are water based and good for most papers. Since it is not waterproof it should not be used with water coloring. It dries quickly and is translucent. If you stamp one color over another the base color will show through. Be careful not to stamp 2 colors across from one another on the color wheel as you will make the color brown. Dye ink can fade in bright light. Store dye ink pads upside so the ink rests on the surface.
2. Distress Ink- Distress inks are a dye based ink. It has special properties to keep the ink wet longer and blend. Distress ink is made to blend and spread when water is added.
3. Pigment ink – Pigment ink is thicker then dye ink and takes longer to dry. It is an opaque ink. If you stamp one color over another the bottom ink will show through less then with dye based inks and not blend to make another color. Close to My Heart White Daisy and Colonel White pads are pigment inks.  Pigment inks can be used to heat emboss as they take longer to dry. Setting pigment inks with heat is a good idea. Pigment ink does not soak into paper as dye ink does, but stays on top. Pigment ink is fade resistant.
4. Chalk ink – Chalk ink are pigment type inks that dry to a matte finish.
5. Embossing Ink – Embossing ink is a colorless ink similar to pigment ink. It is sometimes tinted pink but dries clear. It is used to stamp an image before heat-embossing. You can also find embossing pens, which make it easy to correct missed embossing details.
6. Memento™ - Memento ink is a pigment based ink that works especially well with alcohol markers such as ShinHan Touch Twin and Copic. Once dry it will not smudge when you use alcohol markers to color images stamped with it.
7. VersaMark - VersaMark is a pigment based clear ink pad.  It can be used for watermarking and stamping subtle tone-on-tone images on cardstock. The ink also acts as a “glue” for chalks and pigment powders. It is acid free.
8. StazOn® - StazOn is an alcohol bases ink. It can be used on paper as well as any non-porous surface, like metal, plastic, glossy paper, transparencies, leather, glass and ceramic. This is an acid-free, archival, fast-drying solvent ink. It should be used to stamp images that you want to water color as it will not smudge with water after it is dry.  It will stain your stamps. There is a stamp cleaner just for StazOn.