Stamps - Two Step Stampin'

Christina Crawford: Hi! I am Christina Crawford and I am a Stampin Up demonstrator and right now we are gong to be doing two-step Stamping and two-step Stamping means, it takes two-steps to complete an image. There is different ways you can you can do that.

First, there is stamp and you can stamp that and then put something next to it to complete an image and then there is another one called, overlay, where you stamp a base and you stamp the details right on top of that. I will be showing you how to do both of those. Some of the things that you need to get started, or anytime you start stamping, you need to have stamps of course, inkpads and paper. Now, there are some other tools that you will need to do some two-step stamping and that is a stamp positioner, which I will be demonstrating with you today. First, let me show you how to do a two-step stamping that is pretty easy where we are going to complete an image by doing things side-to-side. By taking these berry stamps, I am going to ink it up with my inkpad, stamp it on the paper and I have these pretty berries. Then the next image would be to take the small leaf and just stamp that leaf right next to it. You could stamp that out, so it looks like that you have two different color inkpads, but you only have one and just to fill up a bunch of leaves right around those berries, this is one form of two-step stamping.

This looks especially nice when you are dong a flower, you can do a different top color pink and then the second stamp would be to do the stem and the leaf and this is just one example of two-step stamping.

Another way to do two-step stamping is by doing an overlay stamp, so this is really interesting because you are going to have a hard time finding stamps like this. These stamps are by Stampin Up and they are specially designed to two-step stamping and these images look so similar, however, they are different and you are going to take the bolder stamp all the time and use the lighter color with it. This is going to be the base coat. We are going to do a little bit of side-to-side stamping first and so I am going to take a branch and just kind of stamp that right there on the center of my paper and next take that leaf, I want to dull out some of the color, I am just going to stamp it off, I am going to just fill this up. This is a little overlay here. Get rid of some of that green, let me do that one more time. So, thats a little bit of overlay stamping right now, but thats not a complete image thats just a branch right there. So, now let me go ahead and start showing you the overlay. I am going to take this stamp and ink it up, its a base stamp and this is the lighter color purple. I am going to stamp this beautiful wisteria side-to-side. Now, that image doesnt look finish, it looks like a big blob, maybe a purple blob if you will and now I am going to take a darker color and the detail stamp. Again, it is really kind of hard to find stamps like this, but you do need two images to complete and its going to give the detail of that. I am taking a darker purple, inking that up and there is two ways that I can do this right now, one is called the eyeball, method and the eyeball method means, you are just going to take a look at your stamp, tilt the paper just a little bit and say a little prayer like, I hope I get this right and then you stamp it and then you got it right, and that is called the eyeball method, is it perfect, rarely is it perfect. But sometimes its really fun to just do it, it is really fast and it is going save you a lot of time to do that eyeball method.

The second is using a stamp positioner. First, you need to get a stamp positioner, this is called the Stamp-a-ma-jig, and what you need to do is think of this as a T-bar and I like to lay the T-bar down this way and I am going to take -- let me put a white piece of paper underneath so you can see better. I am going to take this, its like a transparency paper, its an image sheet, and this goes right into the right angle corner of that. You could use this T-bar anyway that you want, if its on all the right angles of course of the square imaging sheet. Once you have that secure, just want you to be able to see, I will put it right there. You are going to take the stamp, the detail stamp, the stamp you want to make sure that youve got perfect, you are going to ink that up with the dark color, you are going to hold down the positioner, take the stamp and stamp it right down against that right angle and then lift up.

Now, its not going to be beautiful, its plastic, its just there temporary, you should be able to wash this off and use it again for something else, but you are going to take that imaging sheet and put that right on top of your stamped paper and line that up to where your heart is happy that that is where it should be and leave it right there. Hold on to it, take you T-bar once again and put that into the right angle and lift up that imaging sheet, just put it aside, ink it up the stamp one more time with the dark color, put it in that right angle and then stamp right down on it. That image should go exactly where you want it to be. Then you have your image.

So, the first one was an eyeball method and I do have to say that, that gets easier overtime. Start to get to know your stamps and where they are positioned on the block and so its very easy to do and the second image here is using the stamp positioner.

This is two-step stamping, this is the overlay method. So, your image is complete once you have