How to Get the Most For Your Money When Buying Rubber Stamps
Walking in to a large rubber stamp store can be a traumatic experience when you are on a limited budget. You want it all! NOW! But there is a way to buy wisely and save money... Take a deep breath and let your inner self see things in a different light.
Pick up the stamp you are considering and turn it upside down and sideways. Do you see other possibilities in it? Cover parts of the stamp and what do you see? Anything else?
A hydrangea can be tree leaves, bushes or even a hydrangea. Stamp leaves, bushes, or pine boughs in a circle to make a wreath. A border around a card?
A bare tree can be covered with various items like dollar signs, tiny santas, leaves, anything. And it embosses nicely on a card. Stamp more than once for a forest.
A lightning image can be a scraggly tree, crack in a wall, a branch stamped off the edge of the paper, or lightning.
Single images, rather than combined, are more versatile. Once cloud stamped several times gives you a better looking picture than a stamp of three clouds stamped three times. Unless you can isolate parts of the combination stamps, single is better.
People and animals are more useful if they can be carrying something. With a hand or paw out, you can put things in them such as a balloon or birthday cake. You might even stamp only the hand or arm off the edge of your card.
Complete bodies are better than half. If you want part of a body, you can mask it. Half bodies are hard to place. You also want characters with an expression on their face. Sometimes a look can convey your message quickly.
You can take a large building such as the winter house from Personal Stamp Exchange and divide it. Stamp one side of the house off one side of the card and the other off the other side of the card. It will look like two houses with a road in between.
Holiday images like snowmen, skeletons, angels and some framed scenes may be used all year. With the framed scenes, you ink only the frame and put a different stamp in the center. Look at your Christmas verses closely, some may be used for other occasions.
There are many stamps that can be used for several occasions. Flowers, people, fish, animals, and seashells are just a few of the most useful images.
Many of the major manufacturers have produced rubber stamps sets that are very well done. They are not usually on wood mounts, but the foam mounts are thick enough that you shouldn't have any trouble holding them. This gives you many stamps for the price of one or two wood stamps.
In spite of the best intentions, you will still buy rubber stamps that you fall in love with. Strangely enough, they seem to work often and well. So, be practical, but do let your heart rule once in a while. Enjoy! - Claire