Six new Stamparatus tips to try tonight

I am just loving my Stamparatus! Every time I sit down to play with it I seem to find some new technique it's just perfect for. Cracks me up how happy inking and pressing that clear plate makes me. The only problem is, it's so easy it almost feels like cheating!

I have some more tips for you from this week's endeavors in the stamp room. Enjoy! And don't miss the new blog category Stamparatus Tips and Tricks for previous posts with all sorts of little things that will make you feel like a pro when you use it.

My first tip today is stamping to imitate motion. We have a cute little bike stamp in the One For All set that is perfect for this technique. Actually, all the stamps used in today's tips come from the same set. It's just a random assortment of images that give you a big variety of styles to cover quite a lot of occasions. Check it out as we move through the post!

Motion is easy to express by stamping the bike image once, full strength, with the top plate in the "home" position on the hinges. When you move the plate over one hinge and stamp again, without reinking–and then do it once again, the ink gets progressively lighter as the image moves leftward. The result is a cool ombre look that draws the eye from left to right following the cyclist.

Moving the plate down one hinge at a time also works vertically as well as horizontally, with the full-strength image at the top, fading as it progresses down the card.

Isn't that fun? Now, the Happy Birthday image in the One for All set is just one stamp, but I cut mine apart (carefully!) so I can have two stamps instead of one. I love how they lined up here with this cool hinge trick.

While I had the happy stamp out, I used it with the birthday part for the next fun technique. They were easy to "reassemble" on the plate so they stamp together again as one image.

To get this really great image in four colors, I first inked the top work in Pumpkin Pie and the bottom word in Bermuda Bay, and stamped. Then, without moving the paper or the plates, I used my Poppy Parade and Pacific Point markers to color directly on the stamp, just the tops of the top letters and the bottoms of the bottom letters. When I stamped again with the Stamparatus, this was the result. SO cool!!!

While I had it out I wanted to try an old technique you can also use on any stamp–ombre inking. My ink pads are actually out of order in the photo above. You'll need three shades of the same color for this one to work–don't use different colors or it will muddy the ink pads. In the sample above, my colors were Petal Pink (lightest), Grapefruit Grove (medium) and Calypso Coral (darkest).

Ink stamp with the lightest color first, but don't stamp yet. Press the second color of ink on, starting about 1/3 of the way down the stamp. Don't stamp yet either! Then press the final color of ink on, catching just the lower 1/3 of the stamp. Stamp it with the Stamparatus all at once, and the result is an adorable, unique color gradient effect.

This is another adorable image from the One for All set, and one I know I'll be using a lot on my envelopes. It was perfect for the marker to stamp inking technique, which is perfect for the Stamparatus. Just add your colors to the image, then lift up the plate to "huff" on it and remoisten the inks with the warmth of your breath, before stamping.

And if you miss coloring in a line, like I did in the photo above? Just add marker to that line and stamp again. The Stamparatus has kept the paper in exactly the same position, so you can go back and fix an image that didn't stamp perfectly. This tool has already saved me SO much paper!

Are you going to give some of these techniques a try? I hope so! Leave me a comment and tell me which ones made your heart pitter patter. I'll finish up these cards I started and share those completed projects in another post. Thanks for making Song of My Heart a stop on your inspiration tour today!