Finally I Can Announce The News!

Two posts in one day!  Well I was going to save this post until tomorrow but I have been waiting to officially announce this news for such a long time I could not wait so here goes….. I am now a stamp designer for Personal Impressions…yippee!!
I was approached at the end of November and submitted nine sets of designs at the beginning of January which were all excepted by both Personal Impressions and QVC.. I was so pleased but did not want to mention anything until I had a set of sample stamps in my hands ……Look what arrived yesterday!


The long awaited package full of my stamps!

The stamps are going to be launched at the Craft Hobby & Stitch Trade Show at the NEC on the 19/02 to 21/02 2011 So unfortunately I still cant show Images of them yet until that date but above is a little sneak peak!
I have now got just a week to make samples for the show but the great thing this year is that it will be using my designs.

Both myself and Lindsay Mason are running two workshops at Stitches working with our new sets and the remainder of the time I will be on the Decoart stand….Oh that reminds me I need to finish Sally!
Workshop 1
Workshop 2

Enjoy the rest of your weekend,
Andy

A New Arrival.. The Imagepac Stampmaker

The old Imagepac Stampmaker worked well but it took far too long for a man of my patience so I was excited to unpack the latest model which boasts to produce a stamp in 5 minutes….hmmm…really??
It comes with everything needed to make around 14 stamps along with the UV Stampmaker, software and all the accessories needed, after that all you need to do is replenish the negative film sheets and the imagepac gel to make more.

My first attempt was to produce a stamp of a child's handprint, reduce it in size and stamp into a silver clay pendant. As there were no children present I grabbed one of the girls from the office and took a print of her hand on paper which I scanned into the computer. I then used the software provided to print a negative black & white image to the size required. A stamp in less than five minutes?? you bet-cha!!  I was shocked at how quick the process was, the UV light box makes all the difference. Below is a silver heart pendant with the reduced handprint stamped into it, all it needs now is a polish.

Next I attempted a larger stamp which worked great with no problems.

On more experimentation however I found a few negatives.

• Very fine detail is not great, especially on smaller stamps.
• The software package works ok but I found I achieved far better results using Photoshop or Photoscape.
• The printed negative paper scratches very easily so be gentle with it.

On the whole this is a vast improvement on the old system and the positives far out way the negatives. I would suggest if using it for impressing baby prints into silver however,  you should get some training or it may cost you big-time in the long run.

Andy.