In late 2015 I decided that I would like to launch my own little range of clear stamps.

Well, I’ve been fiddling and sweating behind closed doors and have recently finalized the design for the first in the range and am super happy to be able to finally show you what I have been up to…

Here they are! *fanfare*

You’ve no idea the pitch at which the squeal emanated from me when these landed on my doorstep, lol!

But listen, you’re possibly looking at these and thinking that I have gone a little bonkers and are wondering what inspired me to create such a plethora of weird and wonderful textures.

Well my good friends I wanted to create something for me; something that I would regularly use. As you have probably gathered from this blog and my general ramblings I do like a bit of a dabble in all sorts. (don’t giggle).

As I designed them I began thinking of ways other people may use them too …

It occurred to me thatt they could be used with my existing stamp collection, be used on their own, be used for decorative effects, be used for livening up plain die cuts, be used for – well, I think that you get the idea – they can be used for allsorts!

So, if you have a mo, grab a cuppa and let me give you a little guided tour … let’s start with a closer look at the stamp sheet.

There are eleven stamps in total.

Three different sized stipplers, two rough shaders (circular and oval), a bitty blobber, an edger, a distresser, a veiner, a hatched strip and a finger print (my fingerprint!).

Here is a close up of the circular rough shader – don’t be fooled by the name though, just wait until I show you some of the experiments I’ve been doing.

And here is the oval one.

A little mish mash of the finger print, veiner, shader, distresser and edger.

A closer look at the veiner; are you thinking marbling, lightening or topography? We are clearly on the same wave-length.

Anyway, I obviously had a good old play (and made a good old mess too!). Some ideas were already forming …

I thought that it might be an idea though if I did a few examples of things to show you just some of the applications of these stamps and then you will get a better idea of what you could use them for too.

Ok, let’s take a look at plain die-cuts. What do you currently do to add interest and excitement to them? Nothing? Give them a flat colour with a pen?

Well with just one or two stamps from this set, you could make floral die cuts like these …

Aren’t they the brightest and most lively things you’ve seen? (possible over exaggeration there but they’re pretty awesome in my opinion).

Over time I will be adding ‘recipes’ to this blog with different combinations of the stamps for different effects but I think that you are already getting the idea aren’t you?

Oh, don’t forget, because they are standard photo-polymer clear stamps, you can do all of your regular stamping techniques such as heat embossing.

I used a white embossing powder here to give this purple and blue flower a rare species look.

Floral die cuts aren’t the only kids on the block though. What about the other staple of the craft room, the butterfly?

Well, as with the flowers, these stamps will help you create some unique and exciting looking embellishments for your projects; take a look!

Just a couple of colours and a couple of the stamps and bish bash bosh – BAM! A colourful and fiery butterfly. (The outer edge of the mat was also created with the stamps too).

Prefer the cooler end of the colour range? No problem. Check out this peacock butterfly!

Right. You know me. I like a challenge.

I therefore set myself the goal of creating a larger background using these stamps.

With the veiner and three sizes of stippler I managed to create a background that was almost A6 in size!

What do you mean what is it? Lol.

It could be a lava field where a dragon lives. Or a weird and wonderful agate rock … imagination is a wonderful thing isn’t it?

Taking the same concept and limiting myself to just the veiner I then created what will be (when I’ve finished it) a lovely marble-esque background … or is it rippling water … ?

We will see when it dries, eh?

Ok. One more go and then I must pack up the bits and bobs and get some tea.

This time I wanted to see if I could pick something from the sheet to match or create a themed background for one of my existing stamps.

I picked an elegant lady stamp (mostly because I did panic for a mo thinking that there might not be anything suitable on the sheet and this was a challenge after all).

Not sure that I should have worried though because as soon as I picked her up (saucy), I knew straight away what I was going to do.

This time it was the circular shader and stipplers to the rescue. I mixed up the colour range from pinks to purples to add a little character and depth and this is what I created.

Some creative techniques were used on the circular shader so that I didn’t get a sharp edge. I’ll share these with you in a future post.

You know, on closer inspection this really does have a Seurat/Pointillist feel to it, don’t you think?

Right. No tea yet. ONE MORE GO!

This time I hoped to be able to make an entire focal image just from the stamps on the sheet … aaaaaaand GO!

Bearing in mind what I had noticed in the last creation I thought that I would play on this and create some pom-pom flowers using the stippler stamps and then bring these down into a grassy meadow.

It seemed to work! What do you think?

I love these blooms! (It was simply a circular mask made from a sticky note and then different colours of ink used with the stipplers – love it).

The grass! Well, believe it or not, this was the oval rough shader!

Ok, seriously, that really is it – now, hopefully you would like a set of these to have a play with.

Well, the good news is that I am currently awaiting my first lot of stock but there won’t be a huge amount.

If you would therefore like to be the first to have a set, you can pre-order right now by clicking on the PayPal button below.

The price for this set is £5.99 (+£1.95 UK P&P). If you are overseas and would like a set, please get in touch and I will let you know how much the postage would be before ordering.

---

SORRY. THESE STAMPS ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE

---

Ok, well, I’m buzzing from excitement right now but a little light headed from postponing my tea so I’d best get on.

Many thanks for taking the time to read about my news and visiting the blog.

Look forward to sharing more ideas with these stamps in the near future!

Ciao for now …

J :)