Silhouette Stamping Kit Card

When I heard that Silhouette was coming out with a Stamping Kit, I was beyond excited…but, naturally, still a little skeptical.  I mean, how could I possibly get use out of a stamp that wasn’t “deeply-etched red rubber” or the “highest quality photopolymer”?  I got a pretty good deal on my kit from an online retailer, and when I opened the box I thought the acrylic blocks alone were worth the money I paid!  They are nice, heavy, smooth blocks with grids…and they will be a nice addition to my ever-growing collection.  The kit comes with 10 simple designs, but I wanted to really challenge my kit to impress me so I downloaded a nice, big background image from the Silhouette Online Store to use for my first stamp (listed below) and filled up my mat with a couple of other small shapes to play with later.  As with any new product, I found I had to experiment a little before finding the method that worked best for my style of stamping, but I did successfully use my new stamping kit to make the background for this card:

Pigment inks are recommended for this stamping material, so I figured using Versamark ink with white embossing powder would work just fine…and it really worked as well as any of my red rubber background stamps.  I colored in my background using distress inks and a Ranger Blending Tool and finished off the card with a sentiment embossed in black on vellum and a knot of gray and white baker’s twine (additional supply details below).

The stamping material is a thin, clearish rubbery material (probably acrylic?) that you load onto a special perforated mat (so that air bubbles don’t get trapped underneath and mess up the actual cutting).  I have a fairly dull blade that hasn’t been changed in over six months, but it still cut the material beautifully.  I decided to save the negative cut pieces from my background stamp on a piece of acetate for possible use later so removing the stamp from the mat took me a while, but the other shapes pulled right out of the material easily.  It turns out I don’t have an acrylic block large enough to fit an A2 background stamp, so I used my Cuttlebug C plate for stamping instead:

I tested several inks from my collection to see what would work best with this new material and pigment and chalk inks do work beautifully, so I would recommend starting with them.  The Silhouette brand ink pad that comes in the kit works great too…it appears to be a pigment ink but doesn’t come on a sponge-like pad like many pigment inks.  Interestingly, it was very similar to the new firm foam pads from Stampin’ Up…and out of all the dye inks I tested, the new SU pads worked the best for me on this material.  I guess this isn’t too surprising to me though because I’ve found the SU pads work the best on my cheaper acrylic stamps too.   Below is an ink comparison chart I started to make using the little dragonfly stamp I cut myself and hopefully it will help you out too:

Versafine didn’t provide a smooth image, but I actually really liked the perfect splotchiness it gave me…so I may actually use it that way on purpose.  Out of all the inks I tested, I think I like the $1 Studio G pigment pads the best overall and the new style Stampin’ Up pads out of the dye inks.  If Silhouette comes out with colored ink pads, I’d probably buy them all because their black ink was the best I tested.  I probably would not use the Hero Arts Shadow Inks or Memento Dye Inks with my homemade stamps again.

All in all, I am very happy with the new stamping kit and so excited about all of the new ways I can think of to use this in my card-making.  I am not affiliated with Silhouette in any way and was not provided a kit to try for free, so you can trust that these opinions are definitely my own…I am, however, a huge fan of my Cameo and love that it gets more useful every day.

Thanks for stopping by and please feel free to leave a comment or a question if you’re on the fence about purchasing the kit!

Designs (from the Silhouette Online Store)

     Hero Arts Large Lotus Background (#33930)

     Dragonfly – Bugs by Hero Arts (#33055)

     Banners – exclusive designs included in Stamping Kit

Inks

     Versamark

     Distress Inks – Wild Honey, Shaded Lilac, Peeled Paint, Worn Lipstick, and Peacock Feathers

Other

     Bazzill Turquoise Mist Cardstock

     80lb Vellum

     Black and white embossing powders from Recollections

     Gray and white baker’s twine from Two Berry Creative