You're going to need this if you want to stamp like a professional

The stamping technique may be one of the most repeated when doing our scrap projects. Whether we're making an album, a card or any other craft, stamps are very versatile. There are an infinite number of stamps' designs and types, which makes this product a very versatile product. With them, we can make, for example, personalized backgrounds, decorations, create our own phrases, or colour them with watercolours or markers. Most brands that market scrapbooking products have their own line of stamps. The designs are endless and there is something for everyone: floral designs, letters, and numbers to form our own messages, wedding themes, children, travel, Christmas... Moreover, the stamps are distinguished by the material in which they are made. In this way, we find the silicone stamps (also called acrylic or transparent), rubber stamps, or wooden stamps.

Silicone Stamps

These stamps are transparent, so we can easily see the exact spot where we are going to stamp, which makes the stamping technique much easier. Its flat design makes them very easy to store, they don't take up much space they're the most economical stamps. The silicone stamps are completely flexible, they bend when you take them, so to be able to use them you'll need a stamping block or platform.

Mama Elephant / Sweet Möma

Rubber Stamps

They're very similar to silicone stamps, they just differ in the material they're made of. Rubber stamps are high quality, withstand the passage of time better, and we can use stronger inks on them, their surface won't suffer as much as it does in silicone stamps. While silicone stamps are transparent, rubber stamps are not, which doesn't allow us to see clearly where we are stamping.

Ranger / Prima Marketing

Wooden Stamps

Wooden stamps are actually rubber seals attached to a wooden base. They're beautiful stamps that help us decorate our scrap room and many scrapers even collect them. However, they're a little less practical than the previous ones, it's more complicated to store them and, of course, to be precise with the place of stamping since the block of wood makes the task of stamping difficult.

Stamping Tools

As we have already seen, if we want to use silicone stamps, the most popular ones on the market today, or rubber stamps, we'll need a stamping block. There are different types of methacrylate bases and choosing one will depend on our needs. We can opt for the most basic ones, a simple block of transparent methacrylate to stick our stamps on them to help us stamp. There are other tools a little more complex that will allow us to stamp more easily. We're talking about stamping platforms. These platforms, formed by a base where we place the paper and a cover where we stick our stamps, allowing us to make repetitive stamps in the exact same point and it will always fit in that exact position. They're very useful to make layering or to stamp for a second time since it will be in the same position as before. Our favorites are the following. None of them is better than the other, choosing one of them will depend on your necessities and preferences, we're just going to show you what their differences and strengths are, so that you can choose the one that suits you the better:

Tim Holtz Stamp Platform, from Tonic Studios

Tim Holtz, the famous designer, collaborated with Tonic Studios to bring us his own version of the stamping platform, the Stamp Platform. It's a platform whose transparent cover can be easily removed from the hinge to be able to place it in different ways depending on the type of stamp we are working with, rubber or silicone. The upper corner of the methacrylate cover indicates which side we should use for each type. It has a horizontal and vertical guide in centimetres and inches that will help us to place our stamp. It comes, also, with a magnetic base and two magnets to position the paper. In addition, the platform base is made of non-slip foam, so we can be sure that no unpleasant accidents will occur while we're stamping. The printing surface is open on two of the sides, so you can also insert your 30 × 30 cm sheets. We also have the platform in two sizes, 21, 5 × 21.5 cm the standard size and 16.5 × 16.5 cm the Travel size.

Misty, from My Sweet Petunia

This is one of the favourites by all the scrapers. In this case, it's a small, light, and very handy stamping platform. It's transparent with a grid to make it easier to place the stamps in the exact spot and a guide on the sides with measurements in inches. Misti platform includes two magnets to hold our papers and a pad to stamp the acrylic stamps that we have to remove to stamp the rubber stamps because you know they are thicker than the silicone ones. The plastic cap included is made of a flexible material, which allows us to exert pressure in certain areas. There are three different sizes to choose from and, in this case, the sizes on this platform are important because they have a void that limits the insertion of larger papers, we have to limit ourselves to the size of our platforms which are: 12 x 15 cm, 16.5 x 21.5 cm and 30.5 x 30, 5 cm.

Stamp Perfect, from Hampton Art

This base is very similar to those we've seen before. It includes two magnets and a foam pad that we must remove if we want to stamp with rubber stamps or leave on the platform if we work with acrylic stamps. The platform, this time, also has a grid with measurements in inches and centimetres. The Hampton Art Stamp Perfect is also available in two different sizes: 18.73 × 13.97 and 21, 27 × 21.27 cm.

@miventanafavorita

Precision Press, from We R Memory Keepers

This platform differs from the previous ones in that it doesn't exert precision in the form of angle and doesn't have a hinge. Precision Press exerts precision from above, distributing the pressure throughout the paper and thus, avoiding that areas of our designs are left without any ink. This allows the use of different thickness stamps, both thin silicone and rubber ones without having to change the position of the cover or use a foam pad. The Precision Press includes four rubber feet to exercise precision and two very strong magnets to be able to place our paper and keep it in the exact position during the printing process. The edges of the base are open on two sides, so we can use it with larger papers, even on our 30.5 × 30.5 cm scrapbooking papers. However, you can always choose between the two available sizes, the Mini, with a printing base of 7.62 × 12.7 cm and the Advanced, with 21.59 × 19.68 cm. What's your favourite stamping platform? Tell us your favourite techniques for stamping in the comments, you know that we are always aware of the things you tell us. We'll read each other in the comments! Until the next post!