Classic ink vs. Craft ink?

I felt it was time for a little Q&A session with 'Dear Jodie, the Stampin' Lady'. Not because I've gotten a lot of questions but because this was something that confused me for sometime when I first became a stamper and to make myself feel better I thought that maybe others were confused by this too. So the question I'm going to answer today is "What is the difference between classic and craft inks?"

Here is the low down straight from the souce (Stampin' Up! product guide for demonstrators)

Classic Ink - good for day to day stamping and the only ink most stampers will need (note: this is my comment).
■ Water-based dye ink
■ Basic Black and Basic Brown are made with waterproof dye ink and will not bleed on Stampin’ Up!’s card stock
■ Slightly raised fabric pad
■ Cannot be used on vellum or plastics

Craft Ink - takes longer to dry so more patience is needed. Craft ink does have its place but you will probably only ever need to get the stampin' spots to fulfill your needs (note: this is my comment).
■ Pigment ink
■ Slightly raised foam pad
■ For use in scrapbooks as well as on wood, fabric (see below), and other craft items (ie, plastics, vellum)
■ Opaque look on coloured card stocks
■ Great for embossing

This ink is thicker than our dye-based ink (classic ink), so you use more each time you stamp; we recommend keeping an ink refill handy so you can re-ink the pads.

Let Craft ink dry for a bit or heat set before adding photos or other embellishments.

You’ll get better results on fabric if the pad is well inked. Be sure to hold the inked stamp on the fabric for at least 30 seconds. For best results when stamping on fabric, use a tightly woven or smooth finished fabric and heat set. Line dry stamped fabrics to avoid fading. Always pretest the ink on a small swatch of fabric, as fabric finishes vary greatly. Be sure to prewash all of your fabrics before stamping.

The following colours do not work well on fabrics: Only Orange, Really Rust, More Mustard, and Whisper White.

We do not recommend Craft ink for stamping on walls; we recommend that you use acrylic paint.

Painting with Bleach

This is another card that uses the bleach technique but not one we did at club night. I thought that not pre-warning people about this card may be a bad idea. It is not that messy to do but there is the potential for disaster. To get the petals of the flower (from Doodle This) bleached you need a paint brush and some bleach in a bowl then you just paint the petal with bleach. To make this a little easier I embossed the petals with black embossing powder to make raised lines to paint inside, I was never very good at staying inside the lines so I thought I should give myself a little help. I finished the card off with some Twill Tape that I stamped the birthday greeting on with black craft ink. The craft ink takes awhile to dry so keep that in mind - I ended up with Birthday Celebrations on my hand by not waiting long enough.

We have decided on the next club date as well as a technique - Sunday March 29 at 1pm. There is still some room available so if anyone new wants to come out just let me know.

No better time to join!

If you had ever been thinking of signing up with Stampin' Up! there is no better time than now. They have a great promotion on the starter kit (which is a good deal anyways). You can get the kit for 15% off AND you get a free stamp set of your choice. That is basically a $100 value.

In the starter kit you get 5 classic ink pads (you can choose your colours) and a VersaMark pad, 4 stamp sets and the bonus free one (there is some choice in which stamps too), 3 packs of cardstock, stampin pastels, blender pens, stampin scrub and a variety of other goodies. It really is over a $400 value and until March 31 you can get it for $209. Check out the Stampin' Up! website for more details on this promotion or you can sign up using my recruiting password "Stampin' away".

If you want more information about this excellent opportunity just let me know.

Scrapbook Page #2

Here is my next scrapbook page. On this page I had more than just pictures to incorporate, I had 3 hospital bracelets and the tape measure that they used when she was born. I decided to split the page in two and put pictures on half of it and the bracelets on the other half. It was a bit of a challenge to get the tape measure on there with the little tears visible but I managed in the end. I love that this page has both yellow and pink, my two favourite colours. That makes it extra special :)

Inquisitive minds...

I had to show everyone this picture. My daughter has just perfected the art of pulling herself up to standing and will do it whenever the opportunity presents itself. She has recently realized that if she pulls herself up on my crafty bag there are goodies inside with which she can play. In this shot she got my Sweet Stems set and sat down to examine it. She has, on other occasions, found that if she throws a stamp pad on the floor it will open and also that the bag of sponges is a great thing to chew. I just thought this was the cutest and that everyone should see it.

Define Your Life

I got the Define your Life stamp set when I signed up to be a demonstrator because of the promotion at the time where you got a free set (same promotion on now too). I had coveted this set for some time but because of the price had never gotten it. But now that I have it I have yet to really use it. So sad really.

I decided to get some inspiration from my favourite source. I found this card and loved the simplicity of it, and the fact that it used embossing too. The flower and definition are embossed and then I used my blender pen and Pretty in Pink and Rose Red inks along with a little Kiwi Kiss to colour in the flower. I finished it off with a little Kiwi Kiss satin ribbon and a scallop edge. I absolutely love the way it turned out.

Upsy Daisy

I was playing around with the Upsy Daisy stamp set and I made this card. I found the inspiration from Splitcoast (surprised?) and changed the colours a bit. I used Chocolate chip and Bordering Blue.

The bordering blue gives it a bit of a sophisticated look since it isn't a bright as some of the other blues. I didn't have any wide ribbon so I used a strip of Bella Rose DSP and the dots are actually Pirouette Pink, but they are so light that you can't tell. As for the flowers I stamped them in Whisper White and embossed in clear.

I have just recently gotten my heat gun and I love it. It is so much easier than trying to emboss large areas on the stove or with an iron. It is one of my best purchases so far. You will be seeing a lot of embossing in the cards to come as I play with it.