Guide to Scrapbooking Stamps

One popular scrapbooking technique is stamping. Stamping involves taking an image, applying ink and pressing it on a surface to create a picture. In order to stamp you will need two things: stamps and ink. There are many different types of stamps.

Clear stamps are a useful way to stamp. Because they are clear, you can place the stamp with more precision than a wooden stamp. Because of they way they are designed, you take the stamp and place it on a acrylic block. When you are done with the stamp you clean it and place it back on the page. This makes it very convenient for storage. They also will lay flat.

Wooden stamps are blocks of wood that have the stamped image permanently embedded on the block. The downside to using this type of stamp is that you are basically stamping blind. It is hard to get accurate placement because you can't see through the wood. The positive side to wooden stamps is that they create a sharp defined image. Another negative to this type of stamp is that because they are rather bulky, they take up a lot more room to store.

Foam Stamps as the name suggests, they are made of foam. The downside to foam stamps is that the image is not very defined. The positive is that they are relatively inexpensive and easy to store.

Roller Stamps are relatively knew in the scrapbooking industry. They are circular rollers so that you can apply a long string of a repeating image. They are particularly good for creating borders.

Miscellaneous Stamps don't necessarily even have to be stamps. You can take everyday household items such as buttons, keys, etc and apply ink and stamp them.

There are many different types of images that you can purchase. Some very useful stamps are alphabet stamps, number stamps, and journaling blocks. These are very useful staples for every scrapbooker's supplies. Some other useful images you can buy such as flowers, phrases, etc may be useful.

Because stamps can be costly, it is best to buy the staples such as alphabets and journaling blocks and purchase the rest on a project by project basis.

If you are planning on utilizing stamps in your scrapbooking, there are many advanced techniques that you can use to make decorative stamping images. Some examples of advanced stamping techniques are heat embossing, resist stamping, creating background images, and masking images.