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I have a little stamper to be - he's 6 years old. Very creative and quite a perfectionist. He came over for a Christmas Crafting Party I had for my girlfriends and all their little kids. It was an amazing time!!!
He walked into my craft room and saw all the cardstock lined up and said - oh my goodness, do you have purplish/pink hue? He had me at "hue." Then as he looked around my craft room, he asked me if I was getting him a christmas present. And I said "Of course" - keep in mind I had just met him, but he immediately had my heart. He pointed to my little jars of Doodlebug SugarCoating glitter and he said "I would love those." Needless to say, they have already been delivered to me. And a whole lot more for him...
He saw my rubber stamps and asked what they do. I showed him. And he was hooked. Before the party ended, I snuck him a secret bag of stamps and an ink pad.
So for Christmas I'm upgrading his craft collection - construction paper to cardstock. Glue to mono tape. He loves painting so I found this huge watercoloring set. The big thing I'm looking for are ink pads with a wide range of colors.
This is not easy to find! Unless you want to invest per pad in big brands. I know you can buy these finger / medium size sets for $10 on amazon, but I think he's beyond that quality and size. My First Colorbox only has 8 colors. And honestly, the ink pads I use (and most of us probably!) are just too pricey per pad.
Have you seen any ink pad sets that would work for a 6 year old with an eye for colors? Back in the day when I first started stamping, I had this set / case / carrier thing of like 36 colors - the pads were probably 3x3, and it wold be perfect now!!! It was so cheap too. I have no idea who made it. Even if I found it on eBay, it's been sooo many years, I wouldn't trust the ink to work.
I think my new best friend is a 6 year old. I'm going to be arranging play dates with him instead of coffee with his mom! LOL.
Any suggestions for ink pads? Thanks so much!!!
Last edited by Catherine773; 12-10-2017 at 05:04 PM..
What you think about the mini cubes of ink? He can turn the stamp rubber side up and then tap the ink onto it. Maybe get a full sized water-safe black so he can use it for his watercoloring. ??
I think eight inkpads will be plenty-- you don't need to overwhelm him with choice. (I have eleventy billion ink pads. Do you know how many I use regularly? One. LOL.) If he sticks with it, you can always upgrade or add more pads for his birthday or next Christmas.
6 Year’s old?! That’s amazing! All the 6 year old boys I know— and I know a lot. I work in an Elementary school — are too busy laughing at bodily function sounds... or possibly playing soccer or hockey. That’s just fantastic that you have a young crafter friend!
Oh, I have no insight into ink, just had to share your pleasure
I am partial to the mini size Ranger Archival inks. They come in sets of 4. Four different sets of regular Ranger colors and 2 of Wendi Vecchi colors. Maybe set 1 and 4 because they give a good range of colors. Or the two Wendi Vecchi sets.
Skynacho, I'm totally with you! I know that no-one on earth has any need for the number of inkpads i have, but they keep bringing out such pretty colours, darn them.
Catherine, what about the Memento/Brilliance Dew drops- you can get sets of four colours on Amazon. It's a good ink, not sure if it works with watercolours-someone else will though.
Dianne's suggestion is great, I just bought a couple of packs of the mini archival pads. Then you have Distress Ink cubes too.
Maybe if you went with individual pads, you could get a Versafine/Archival black for basic stamping, and a couple of mini Archivals for different colours- maybe a brown and a blue? Then a couple of mini DI pads for techniques/play? How fantastic for you both to meet like this- you have the chance to spend time helping another young crafter learn, and he has someone who doesn't think what interests him is silly. Maybe you have another Tim Holtz on your hands!
i've found that whatever materials i present, as long as they're open-ended to a degree, kids are very intrigued by the possibilites of experimentation & creation. i showed 6 of my nieces & nephews (in 2 shifts) how to use a set of 3 cardboard layering stencils & i was amazed at the variations they came up with, from the 10 year old to the 2.5 year old!
I had decided to go with the My First ColorBox ink pads and it turns out there are 12 colors and I found them for $1.99 each! But then I stopped at Michael's after work today to pick up some gifts for some of my other of my friend's kids... and ink pads were on sale! They were all 50% off. So I picked up about 10 or 11 pads by the brand Craft Smart. I did no research or reviews on the brand, but I was happy with the sale price... $1.49 a pad. If his interest in stamping sticks around, I'll upgrade his inks later. Everyone had good advice - especially about possibly overwhelming him with too many colors and that I can always upgrade the quality later.
Quick question - for so many of the ink pads listed on amazon, they said water based but look like pigment ink pads. Or some are listed as craft inks. Which I know SU used for pigment inks, but is that a general term for pigment inks too? And could pigment be considered water based? I just think he's too young for pigment, it takes too long to dry and can smear. Thanks for all the suggestions and your help!! - Catherine
Last edited by Catherine773; 12-11-2017 at 06:23 PM..
Have you thought about washable kid friendly non toxic inks? I think even Hero Arts has some of those and I think I have seen kid friendly inks at Joann’s. Once the regular dye inks are flipped onto the carpet or on clothing they are pretty hard to get out. I send the washable inks to the little kids in my circle. Moms appreciate it. Just a thought.
One thing I used to do when my kids were little and liked to use my wood mounted stamps---before I let them use them, I would "paint" the wood portion with Clear Fingernail polish. And any ink that got on the wood would just wash right off. Kept them looking magically clean and the kids don't like the ones that have ink on the wood. (You and I know that it still stamps the same, but the kids like the "clean" ones!!)
__________________ We cannot do great things, only small things with great love.
The ink pads I picked up are washable and non toxic. Yay! But they only had 8 colors including the black I think, so I grabbed a few of the dye inks too of the brand and same price too. I may return those though now - that's a good point that once dye it hits the carpet or the clothes, it's not coming out! And he has a 4 year old sister who I'm sure will want to join in on the fun so that's even more a reason to give him just the washable ones!!!
I'd say a cheap black and a red ink pad, even from the office supply dept, and a set of Mr. Sketchy markers that he can use to ink his stamps as well as color with. The chisel tips are good on smaller stamps. Keep it simple. He's a tiny kid, whose tastes will probably change, and whose storage space is extremely limited. He may also enjoy Ed Emberle's finger print art books—your fingers as stamps.
He may also enjoy Ed Emberle's finger print art books�your fingers as stamps.
Oh, I LOVE the Ed Emberley finger print art books. I visit the local thrift stores and find them all the time. I grab them up and pass them along when I do. So much fun!
When he gets some stamping under his belt you MUST show him heat embossing. I was making a card with 8 yr old grandson...he chose the sentiment and stamped in Versamark. When I poured on black powder he thought I was crazy, then he watched as I held the gun and it melted into his words! He was fascinated. So now that he's 14 I often emboss on the cards I send him, bringing back that memory.
Your little guy will probably love the Stamp A Ma Jig, too.
If you have the time, I would recommend making a mini card kit - some pretty paper, cardstock, ribbon, a few die-cut panels/shapes, even stamped sentiments and embellishments (buttons, stickers, ribbons, enamel dots). One of the best things about a kit like that is that you could add a ton of things for him to sample, without spending too much (or any, if your stash is well-stocked) and that will help you both find what he really enjoys.
I think it's such a lovely gesture from you, but there's sooooooo much to stamping and cardmaking that it can get overwhelming. By sharing a smaller kit or things that are gently used (or well loved), you can help your new stamping buddy find his own interests and style. Then, when another holiday or a birthday rolls around, you can share some more goodies you're sure he'll love.
P.S. Send me a pm with your address. I may have a few fun goodies in my stash I'd be happy to send you to pass along to him.
I just had to share about my little crafting buddy...
I saw him on Friday night and gave him his gifts and he was ecstatic. His eyes kept getting bigger and bigger with each thing he unwrapped next. I admit I went a little overboard, but it was worth every penny. I did do a starter stamping kit that I put together which he loved. And going with the washable ink pads was definitely a great suggestion! Him mom did appreciate that big time I bought him upgrades to his crayola watercolors and I bought him metallic gel pens, a huge set of glitter, make your own slime, and so on. Well I was at Michaels and some of you may know what I'm talking about - they have these $5 Creatology Artist Sets which has about 100 items in it - crayons, markers, colored pencils, oil pastels, paper, etc. It's really inexpensive and I'm sure the quality is just fine for a little kid. Well it was a doorbuster for $2 so I bought a handful of them and tucked them in all the gift bags for the kids I bought gifts for. Including my new little crating buddy. I figured he would barely pay attention to it with all the other stuff and the quality wouldn't matter because he wouldn't really notice this $2 set. What are the chances of all the things i gave my little crafting buddy - the one thing makes him jump the most for the joy... was inside this kit!?!? Inside this $2 kit - are oil pastels. When he opened it up, he jumped up on the couch and said OH MY GOODNESS ARE THESE REAL OIL PASTELS? He said his art teacher has them and lets them use them on special occasions. He was so excited to have his own oil pastels. I will definitely upgrade those on his birthday because I'm not even confident they will work, and he's comparing them to his art teachers oil pastels! But it made me laugh. He did love absolutely everything. It's just those oil pastels that made up a very small part of this $2 art kit and this amazing 12x12 sheet of clear rhinestones I found at Walmart were the winners this year! I wonder if there's a way to combine stamping and oil pastels. Are they really any different than watercolor wonder crayons from SU? I'll have to do a little techqniue searching. If I can combine oil pastels with his new love of stamping, I would be probably become his favorite non-related aunt!
Hi Catherine, what a fab story! Love how it's worked out.
I've made backgrounds in the past using Oil Pastels, and you need Staz-on ink to stamp with. I tried Versafine, and it will work, but you need to seal it, either Artist sealant, or cheap hairspray. I did a bit of a feature on using them on my blog, here's the link in case there is anything useful for you there. You need to scroll a way down the page to the oil pastels bit.
Thank you Catherine 773 for letting us know how your little buddy liked his stamping/art things. Sounds like he is a budding artist!
When I was growing up, I did not want dolls for Christmas or at any time! I wanted any type of art project kit. I've always liked to use my hands to create. You were very nice to recognize his interest and help him with some supplies. Maybe you could post a few of his creations? That would be fun to see.
In need of suggestions for: LITTLE STAMPER TO BE
