Playing with Digital Stamps

Hello there!

Happy Wednesday to you!  Today's tutorial may be a little outside of the box for some of our followers but I think you will like it and it just may turn you on to something new.  So don't go run and hide because I mentioned digital stamps.   They are really fun, easy, versatile and cheap.  Go ahead grab a coffee or a tea, I will wait!

You will notice a really varied quality in the art work of digital stamps, and sometimes the free ones can be a little meh.  But some are amazing.  Either way there is something for everyone and they are just perfect for those of us beginning with digital stamps.  As you get more experienced you will find yourself purchasing a few here or there. 

First off let me tell you why I love digital stamps, or digis, ....

-you usually purchase them individually, which means if you are paying for them you only buy what you need or want
-you can save them to your computer and use them over and over again, there are no restrictions
-they do not take up valuable storage space
-you can color them with a variety of mediums including your computer (and did you know you can buy some digis pre-coloured too)
-you do not need a special printer
-if you have little kiddies, you can print them out as coloring pages
-they take seconds to download and you can play with them immediately - you do not even need to get out of your jammies
-digis are a great way to personalize cards for your recipients

What you shouldn't do....

-share or give away digis, they are copyrighted (yes even the free ones) share the websites not the downloads
-that's it for the don'ts!

So let's get started...

Once you find a digital stamp you like, check out this site Dearie Dolls, I like it because they are cute, always free and come in both coloured and not coloured!  So if you go to the website, the screen will look like this ....

you can click on any of my images to enlarge them

.... you will then right click on the image and click 'save image as'  then choose a location on your computer to save it too.   I suggest creating a folder on your computer called "Digital Stamps" then you will have them all in one place.  When you save an image, usually the name of the image will be generated as the file name, I suggest modifying it to also incorporate the name of the website or artist for future reference.

Now for some fun ....

Now find the file in your computer and right click on the little thumbnail of the digi and choose "copy".  (This is a screen shot of my Dearie Dolls file on my computer.)

Now open up your 'Word" program and paste the image in there  (You will notice that I have 'x'd" out the images I am featuring, you can go and download them free for yourself.)

Now once the image is pasted onto a "Word Document" right click on it, you will see a resizing box pop up.... for most digis you can make it as big or as small as you like.  You only need to be mindful of where you will be using it, such as the front of a card.

And you can copy and paste your newly resized image, so that you can print several on one sheet.  I like to print a few of each one, partly to have on hand and partly to be prepared in case I make a mistake colouring.  I also like to leave room above and below as well as on either side in case I want to use a die to cut the image out into a specific shape for my card.  But you can also paste several different images onto one 'Word Document" to save on paper and printing time.

Now comes more fun!  How do you want to colour these?  Are you coloring with Copics or another 'wet' medium?  You will want to print the images onto paper appropriate for your colouring (ie. Copic paper) AND you will need to quickly heat set the images with your embossing gun.  Being careful not to burn the images, it only takes seconds.  If you are printing copies for your kiddies to colour you can print onto regular printer paper.  If you want to do some paper piecing you can print onto patterned paper that has been trimmed down to 8.5 x 11.  No heat setting required.

You can also use your computer's "Paint" program to colour them, by copying and pasting the image onto a blank "Paint" page, resize it to your desired size.....

....then use your paint bucket to drop colour into each area.  You can create some cool effects depending on the tool you choose to colour with.  Now print onto white card stock.

Another tip....  I like to pick out the patterned paper that I am going to use on my project, from my favourite scrappy store (you know which one!),  before I start colouring, this way I can colour the image to coordinate with my papers.  Oh and if you post a project with a digi on it onto your blog, remember to give the artist credit.

I hope I didn't lose you along the way!  Do I talk to much?  Did you learn something?  Will you try it?  If you do, leave me a comment to where your project is posted... I will come visit and leave you some love!

Thanks for visiting!
Laura
xoxo


ps. One more quick thing - as if this post isn't long enough!  Did you  notice we have a little treat for you, a new badge in our sidebar for you to add to your blogs!  As well, as newbadges for our challenge winners and one for anyone who has been or will be featured on our blog!  Fun!