Splitcoaststampers.com - the world's #1 papercrafting community
You're currently viewing Splitcoaststampers as a GUEST. We pride ourselves on being great hosts, but guests have limited access to some of our incredible artwork, our lively forums and other super cool features of the site! You can join our incredible papercrafting community at NO COST. So what are you waiting for?
I love sanded! However before I knew about the brayer deal-not very good info from demo person- I cut it up into 4 pieces and mounted it on smaller blocks. The good thing about sanded is it worked perfectly and maybe even better! I shared the others with my friends. I am buying a brayer today with a 50% coupon from Michaels-those thing are like $12 and I am a Cheap woman!
I love background stamps! Mine are all Cornish Heritage Farms and they the thing that drew me to the company in the first place.
I buy unmounted (cheaper and less storage issues). I store mine standing upright in a box designed for CD storage (I just don't put a lid on there). I use the packaging as dividers between the stamps.
I also stamp with the rubber face up on the table, just smooth over the cardstock with the flat of your hand.
Which design you want depends a bit on your stamping style. I love BGers that add texture but also ones that stand up as a pattern in their own right and let you sub a stamped panel for DP. I have lots of BGer projects in my gallery if you want to get some ideas of what might work for you.
I have unmounted most of my SU sets & store them in CD cased but I have not unmounted my background stamps. I'm not sure they would fit in a CD case.
To ink it I lay it rubber side up on the table and press the inkpad onto it over & over until I feel the coverage is even. Then to stamp I carefully lay my paper over the background and roll a brayer over it. You can also cover your paper to be stamped with a piece of scrap paper before your brayer if you are worried about keeping your brayer clean. This brayer method has given me very good images.
I have quite a few background stamps but the one I seem to reach for the most is the Canvas background. It's great for both masculine & feminine cards. You can also use it to create a tapestry look.
I have quite a few background stamps and the ones I use the most are the reverse polka dot from Cornish Heritage and the gingham from Stamp Camp (she does some really good backgrounders). I find just so many uses for these. For instance, today I made the little bird house on the PTI blog and made a polka dot roof for it. I also cut a lot of scalloped nestie shapes from the polka dots backround. The gingham makes nice frames for images and also makes great faux ribbon.
A brayer is good to use for inking stamps that have a lot of fine detail. Roll the brayer over and over on the ink pad to ink it up very well then run the bayer over and over the stamp which is laid rubber side up on the table. Keep brayering (and adding more ink if necessary) until you can see you have even coverage on the rubber. Lay you paper to be stamped on top of the rubber and a piece of scrap. Run the brayer over the top to get even coverage.
There are so many great BG's too choose from. I love the ones at CHF, but have never purchased from them. My fave SU background is Sanded or Print Pattern. I like that they can be used on masculine or feminine cards. (I love Floral too, but it's more limiting.) My other favorite BG is the music BG from Purple Onion Designs. Check it out here.
From SU, I use Linen a lot, used to use Print pattern all the time, and have just discovered Aida cloth again and have used it for several masculine themed cards.
__________________ My avatar is of our miracle baby Maddie, getting a bath in Grandma's kitchen sink!
I also love the backgrounders from CHF and they are great to order from. I get the unmounted from them and all I do is lay them on my table, no need for a block. I do the same with my mounted ones also. I get better transfer and it is hard for me to get my hand around them when they are that big.
background stamps - questions
