Super-cute Stamping

My workspace:

I know, it's a complete tip! You can tell I'm just an amateur crafter... but one day I will have my very own craft room, with cupboards, shelves and boxes crammed full of pretty things oh display and within easy access. But until then I'm having to do my favourite hobby on the floor, so I've taken over the mat as my base. You can see the space in which I sit crossed legged right in the middle, surrounded by all these things that make me happy. :)

Now, most of these items and products are from Hobbycraft - I have shopped at their store in Nottingham but currently the nearest store to me is in Havant. I make my poor boyfriend drive me there every few weeks because I prefer buying items that I can physically touch and see rather than ordering them from websites online. However, hypocritically I will attempt to post the links to these items; but only because I have already bought and tried them out and feel as though they are awesome enough to mention in this blog.



Using the Habico clear alphabet stamp

So, on my last visit to Hobbycraft I bought some clear alphabet stamps to use on my stamp block (I'll come back to this in a moment.) I've just checked their website and found that the stamps I bought are out of stock! Oh no! Hopefully they'll be back soon but I've left you the link anyway so you can see the type of stamps I've been using. These are £3.79 and I think well worth the money because I've been using them over and over again to create my own greetings. Obviously my creativity has been stifled by the lack of ink colours I own, which presently is limited to gold, metallic green, pink and metallic purple. (I think I'll get away with using green for Father's day though.) 
To get the most of out these tiny stamps (because they are all individual so you have to be careful not to lose any!) ideally you should use a stamp block, which is literally a see - through plastic block. 

There are many different sized ones out there but I own a Papermania 10cm by 7cm block. I actually found one in Hobbycraft a few days after I'd bought it from an independent craft store. I was relieved to see that mine was a whole pound cheaper from the little retailer - so I'll definitely shopping there again in future.


So, the point of these plastic blocks is for you to line up and see exactly where you want to place your stamped image. This is a problem I had with my wooden stamps, you can't tell exactly where the image will be. Obviously you have a general idea but when you want a card or scrapbook page to be perfect you need to be able to see with complete accuracy where each line will end up.

In the end, my new stamping kit cost me £3.79 for the alphabet stamps, £2.99 for the stamp block and £1.99 for each colour of ink. But I feel as though this is an investment, unlike when I buy card stock and papers, because they are gone within days of being purchased. These stamps will still be around for months, provided I don't leave the lid off my ink!