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I love wild flowers silhouette stamps but for the life of me unable to capture a good presentable image. Is it because of the ink I use....I have no idea:confused:. Appreciate any advice given. Thank you
The first thing I'd do, if you haven't already done it, is condition the stamp; rub with an eraser or sand very lightly. If it's not grabbing the ink well it's going to be hard to get a good image. Clear stamps need this more, but I've done it with some Penny Black rubber silhouette stamps too.
Then on the ink front - the same brand of ink can vary according to how old it is, whether the pad is still juicy and so on. Personally I find I get the best results with Brilliance inks. If I'm using my Versafine Black, I'm more likely to use a stamp positioner and stamp twice, inking up each time, to get a good result.
If you could give more specific details about the brand of stamp you're using, what ink you use and even the paper, people will probably be able to give more detailed feedback.
I really like Ranger Archival Inks........ I also have started using the Speedball Press for most of stamping.......what a difference it has made! You can see the results here:
I love using wild flower silhouette stamps .In fact I use a lot of those solid stamps One of my best best BEST favourite stamp sets is Insightful Meadows. I love it so much I even bought the large size version.
Anyways, I almost always use dye inks. Namely SU! classic ink and Distress Ink. If I want a permanent ink I use Ranger Archival ink. But most inks should work fine.
If your not getting a nice crisp image you may have to conditon your stamp to give it some 'tooth' for the ink to hold on to. I personally use a sanding block, like the one SU! sells. I sand the surface of the rubber image in a couple of directions. I'm not shy to give it a good sanding if it needs it. I get very nice images when I do that. The paper you stamp onto may have a bearing on how the image turns out too.
There are other ways to get a nice image, but I'll let those who use those methods, explain how they work.
HTH.
Edit - I have to add I only use rubber stamps and have no experience with any clear stamps.
Hi Ladies, thank you very much for sharing..I'm not sure of the brand of clear stamps. I do know that some clear stamps are far superior than others as I know cheaper ones stain easily. I will have a go at conditioning the stamps...but before I do that I will try different inks first....I have an assortment of dye and pigment inks. It is certainly a good thing to condition the stamps as new stamps does not hold ink very well. Thank you all for sharing Hugs
I'm LOVING the new style of Stampin Up! Stamp pads for my silhouette stamps. They work great!
As for "conditioning" my stamps...I find that using the adhesive remover square works better than an eraser to get whatever film is on the surface of the stamp off of it and give the best ink retention. That's the case for both rubber and clear polymer stamps
Generally, the best inkpad I have ever found for Silhouette stamps is Versafine. I did some tryouts here on my blog with Versafine, a new pad called Clearly Better, and half a dozen other black inkpads, using a line stamp and a silhouette stamp. HTH.
Generally, the best ink pad I have ever found for Silhouette stamps is Versafine. I did some tryouts here on my blog with Versafine, a new pad called Clearly Better, and half a dozen other black ink pads, using a line stamp and a silhouette stamp. HTH.
Thank you for making the samples!! Those are a great help .I , like many others, struggle getting a crisp image with solid image stamps.
__________________ "I have not failed . I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work" --Thomas A. Edison
The best technique I've found is to ink up the stamp well with pigment ink. Stamp it out and clean the stamp with a good permanent stamp cleaner like Judikins'. I do find that ClearSnap pigment inks work better than their "chalk" inks even though (I think) both are pigment inks. Sometimes, just cleaning with the Judikins cleaner alone will work. Before I started "cleaning" my stamps like this, I used to not like stamping any stamp with dye ink unless I was using glossy paper. I haven't had to sand a stamp since. I think the problem is residue from the manufacturing process is keeping the ink from sticking to the stamp. No clue why the pigment ink acts as a cleaner.
Hi Ladies, thank you very much for sharing..I'm not sure of the brand of clear stamps. I do know that some clear stamps are far superior than others as I know cheaper ones stain easily. I will have a go at conditioning the stamps...but before I do that I will try different inks first....I have an assortment of dye and pigment inks. It is certainly a good thing to condition the stamps as new stamps does not hold ink very well. Thank you all for sharing Hugs
Ah, if the stamps are acrylic then it's quite usual to have problems with dye ink beading on the surface, conditioned or not. I've always had much better success sticking to a good juicy pigment ink pad or Versafine with acrylic stamps. If the clear stamps are made of photopolymer, though, they take dye ink or pigment ink pretty much equally well in my experience. The easiest way to tell which substance your clear stamps are made of is to smell them; acrylic stamps won't have a smell while photopolymer stamps have a distinct chemically odour to them (which I'm told is not harmful). Photopolymer seems to be the better material for stamping, both from what I've heard from other stampers and from what I've experienced myself, since they can take a greater variety of inks and give much clearer impressions with less 'smooshing'. Funnily enough though, they are also more prone to staining, so I wouldn't necessarily take that as a sign of lower quality. The staining, by the way, doesn't affect future impressions.
Happy stamping!
I'm LOVING the new style of Stampin Up! Stamp pads for my silhouette stamps. They work great!
As for "conditioning" my stamps...I find that using the adhesive remover square works better than an eraser to get whatever film is on the surface of the stamp off of it and give the best ink retention. That's the case for both rubber and clear polymer stamps
Generally, the best inkpad I have ever found for Silhouette stamps is Versafine. I did some tryouts here on my blog with Versafine, a new pad called Clearly Better, and half a dozen other black inkpads, using a line stamp and a silhouette stamp. HTH.
I've also had some good results applying VersaMark Ink first and then dye ink. The VersaMark ink makes the stamp more sticky and seems to hold more dye ink on the stamp and therefore gives a better impression.
I love using wild flower silhouette stamps .In fact I use a lot of those solid stamps One of my best best BEST favourite stamp sets is Insightful Meadows. I love it so much I even bought the large size version.
Anyways, I almost always use dye inks. Namely SU! classic ink and Distress Ink. If I want a permanent ink I use Ranger Archival ink. But most inks should work fine.
If your not getting a nice crisp image you may have to conditon your stamp to give it some 'tooth' for the ink to hold on to. I personally use a sanding block, like the one SU! sells. I sand the surface of the rubber image in a couple of directions. I'm not shy to give it a good sanding if it needs it. I get very nice images when I do that. The paper you stamp onto may have a bearing on how the image turns out too.
There are other ways to get a nice image, but I'll let those who use those methods, explain how they work.
HTH.
Edit - I have to add I only use rubber stamps and have no experience with any clear stamps.
We are sisters in craft. Love the stamp set you recommended as it is so like about 5 other stamp sets I have. Can you believe I'm considering another? I also only use rubber and have had my best success with Memories. I only have the black and white. Other than that I use SU inks (old style) and have no trouble with my silhouette stamps.
I discovered that in the winter I do not get as good a coverage, so I decided to huff on the rubber stamp (I use SU) really well before inking to warm them up. That really helps. Since it helped in the winter, I have also done it this summer and think the results are better than not huffing.
I find Archival by Ranger gives the most solid impression of any ink I've ever tried. It's oil based but pretty quick to dry and easy to clean up. My second choice would be chalk inks and my third choice is regular pigment ink. That being said, I often use dye ink with good results with rubber and good quality clear stamps.
__________________ RebeccaEdnie Mixed Media Artist, Paper Crafter, Jewelry Designer SCSDirtyDozenAlumni Www.Boxofchocolatescrafts.Com YouNeverKnowWhatI’mGoingtoMake
another vote for versafine!!! 'sticks' to stamps really well and is nice and easy to clean off. just a shame there isn't a wide range of colours. only about 10 colours i think.
I agree, pretty much any dye ink will give a good impression on real rubber. The problem only comes up with clear stamps. The quality of the stamp comes into the equation, as not all clear stamps are made the same, but even the best will rarely give a good impression with every type of ink. I also agree with the Versafine vote- its probably the best all-rounder for clear and real rubber.
Just a quick addition to my post above about the Clearly Better pad- I had an e-mail newsletter today from Chocolate Baroque (where I bought them) and these pads are now being discontinued. Just t save anyone looking for them.
A little something that I have found out with solid stamps... leave the stamp on the paper for a few seconds so that the ink has a chance to absorb into the paper. If you pick the stamp up too quickly it won't give as good image no matter what ink you use.
A little something that I have found out with solid stamps... leave the stamp on the paper for a few seconds so that the ink has a chance to absorb into the paper. If you pick the stamp up too quickly it won't give as good image no matter what ink you use.
What ink works best with silhouette stamps?
