Archive for September, 2010
Made my first stamps
My Teresa Collins Stampmaker arrived late last week and I have been having a great time experimenting with it. I wasted 2 “Imagepacs” before getting it right, so read on for my tips to help you avoid the same fate.
Here was what my design looked like in Inkscape:
Here is what the stamps look like when they are finished and (temporarily) mounted:
Here is what the stamped images look like:
-Use the small imagepacs for your initial tries. That way if it doesn’t work you have less to lose.
-Proofread, proofread, proofread and be sure you have the image exactly the way you want it before you burn the stamp. I accidentally reversed the order in the faith Bible verse (Hebrews 11:1) when I made the stamp.
-Leave about a quarter of an inch between different designs on the same Imagepac. If you put them closer it will be really difficult to cut them apart and you may end up sacrificing some images.
-Avoid arranging images close to the corners as this is where the pouches tend to pucker. Also be sure that the plastic and gel is completely smooth and flat underneath your images. Any wrinkles, puckers or creases will ruin the stamp.
-When they say the image has to be really black, they aren’t kidding. It needs to be as black as the ones they send you. Use the film provided and follow the directions exactly and you should be fine. Do not try to burn the stamps with a light image or you will end up with a solid block of stamp material (my first try). If your image is not quite dark enough, your stamp will look OK, but your stamped image will be muddy since the stamp image will not be raised enough with respect to the surrounding area (my second try).
I’m giving away the corrected faith circle word art in case you want to make your own stamp or just use it as a digistamp. It is sized to use with a 2 inch circle punch at 300 dpi. Click on the image to see it full size and then right click and select Save Image As… to download. I’d love to see what you make with it.
More Doodlebats for diecutters
In my earlier post I gave ten Doodlebats I think are great for beginners. Here are ten more that I would call advanced beginner, because only some characters are ready to cut, there is detail such that you will need to cut in larger sizes or or you will want to use your software’s break apart function to separate layers for different colors on these:
DB Hello Cupcake (same images as Sweet Treats Cricut Cartridge)
