Stampboard

Stampboard has been around for quite sometime in the crafting world, though surprisingly there are a lot of people out there who still haven't heard of it - maybe due to low marketing - who knows. When you do discover this product you'll be amazed at what you can do with this little bit of board that has a smooth clay finish to it. I'm not going to gush about its amazing qualities and multi-functional uses - tho I could very easily:-) I'll leave that for you to discover yourself at the end of this, where I've left a couple of links for you to go to and become acquainted with this product yourself.

The top image shows the front of the packaging. I bought this last year at a crafts supply show here in the UK but you can order it online and it's widely available in the USA - where it was brought over from anyway:-)

This is the back of the packet showing you the amazing uses of Stampboard and when you open this up there are more detailed instructions.

These are a few of the shapes that are available: 2" square, 2&1/2" x 1&1/4" rectangle, 2" x 1" rectangle, 2&1/2" diameter circle and 1" square.

Here are a few Stampboard pieces I created

The Eiffel Tower piece I turned into a brooch by simply gluing a brooch finding to the reverse. These have all been given a gloss finish with UTEE. It gives it that laminated finish which I feel really completes the pieces, but that's optional really and to everyones own preference.

Let me give you a short tutorial on how I made these. Greater detail and more info can be had from the links at the end. This was my first time try with Stampboard so I'm no expert, but I loved the results I got with my first attempt at working with this - so if it helps you in anyway I'll be glad:-)

The best ink to use for stamping on this is StazeOn as once dried you can ink and paint over without any smudging plus it gives a lovely crisp image.

Decide on your stamps for the different size Stampboard pieces and then colour the backgrounds with any waterbased ink colour including Marvy colour pens, inkpads, chalks, even silk paints and water colour inks. Use a variety of applications like sponging, painting on and wiping off, scrunching with cling wrap - anything to create a textured background. You can use alcohol ink to great effect on these also and Adirondak ink pads and Tim Holtz Distress inks applied and then sprayed with water give some amazing results - just keep playing around to get different finishes.

Ok, so you've got a bunch of coloured surfaces to stamp on now - so decide on your images and stamp your pieces and allow to dry thoroughly or speed up with a heat gun. Any mistakes in stamping or inking can easily be erased by either using a baby wipe to rub away or I find one of those jumbo nail files or emery boards rubbed over the top erases any mistakes cleanly away.

Once the image is dry using a sharp implement or pointy tool (you can buy specific tools for scratching Stampboard from the link at the end of this) scratch away at parts of the image that you want a different colour. I look at it as colouring in by scratching. But stay within the lines for this, as if you lose the outline it doesn't look as good. So work on a little bit at a time - for example if you want to put highlights into hair scratch away and then fill in colour afterwards.

Once you've scratched away parts now is the time to add colour. I find those water based markers are really good for this as you can just scribble some colour onto a plate or your non-stick mat and then using one of those water fillable paintbrushes just pick up the teensiest bit of colour and apply to where you need to fill in colour. Just be aware at this point you're filling in colour to parts of clay you've scratched away, so the surface will be very porous and the colour will just bleed into thoses areas - so you only need the tiniest amount of colour to get the full effect. Again, any mistakes can be rectified by using a wet cotton bud for small areas or baby wipes for larger areas.

So, now you've painted in all your areas of the image you can further scratch into it to add highlights here and there to give the impression of light hitting it or shining on it. For example, if you've stamped a face and then coloured it flesh colour or whatever, you can scratch into the whites of the eyes and scratch the tiniest dot into the pupil just to give the eyes definition - you'll be amazed at what a difference it makes:-)

You can further scratch squiggles, patterns or whatever you like into the background to give more effect. When you're finally satisfied with all the colouring, scratching and re-scratching you can either choose to leave it as it is and just outline the edges with a Krylon pen or you can edge with versamark and dip into embossing powder to get an embossed edge or you can apply versamark to the whole stampboard piece (I just stamp the whole piece into the Versamark pad) and then cover with UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) and heat with a heat gun and then outline with a Krylon pen to finish. When the UTEE is still molten that's the time you can drop seed beads or sequins or any flat tiny charm into it to embellish your piece. You end up with a highly glossed laminated piece that looks really beautiful.

You can turn these Stampboard pieces into jewellery, embellishments, mini works of art - the skys the limit really. You can even punch holes into stampboard with your Crop-o-Dial - just think what you can do with that - add brads, charms, danglies, threads, stitching - the possibilities are endless!

Look, I've gotta go now as just talking about all this has made me want to play with Stampboard again. Hope this gives you the urge to try Stampboard out for yourselves. I'll catch you next time! :-)

Click here and here for further info