How Random is Random Stamping?

Good morning everyone!  I hope you had a very merry Christmas or holiday!  We have one more to get through and wowza - its going to be January 2009.  I am truly amazed at how quickly time passes - children and age don't seem to slow it down that's for sure.

Anyway, lets get started on today's tutorial.  Are you a random stamping queen or king or do you shy away because you just aren't sure how to go about it?  I'm going to put on my best Mom voice and say this, "Practice makes Perfect".  Well maybe not perfect, but definitely more enjoyable and less stressful.

I'm going to start by showing you my end result first and then laying out some guidelines for you to follow to get you going on the path of creating your own Designer Paper.

Note:  The stamp set I used is the August 2008 Stamp of the Month and is available right now for a mere $4.99.  Most of, soon to be last year's Stamp of the Month sets are now available for purchase.

Let me say here that I love stamping my own background.  I think for one, it allows me to use a lot of my stamps which in all honestly makes me feel better.  Secondly, I enjoy being able to customize my stamps to any color scheme that I want.

My ingredient list is very basic so I don't have a picture, but all you need are your stamps, your ink, and your choice of paper.  Remember to consider creating your own scrapbook paper backgrounds too!  This is not just a card makers technique.

Here are some Basic Guidelines to remember when you are creating your own Designer Paper.

• I generally use 3 different stamps in 3 different sizes
• Stamp your largest, middle, and then smallest in that order
• Turn you stamp or paper so your images are going in a variety of directions
• Stamp off the piece of paper you are stamping on (this makes it look more "natural" or "random")

Ok, now for the pictures of how I created the above paper.  Since I make a lot of cards, what I often do is cut my cardstock down to the standard A2 size (4 1/4" x 5 1/2")  I do this so that after I'm done creating my design, my sheet is large enough to trim to whatever size I need.  If you intend to use a different sized card then you would start with a coordinating size.

So, its pretty simple.  Take your stamp of choice and stamp!  I like to start towards the middle, but not dead center - remember its RANDOM.  Then pick the stamp up again and stamp another image.  Remember to leave yourself enough space between the two images if you plan on using other stamps to fill in.

Pick up and stamp once again.  As you can see you have 3 stamped images on your paper.  This is where the "randomness" isn't necessarily so random.  Take a look at the second picture.  This is THE MOST important concept in random stamping.  TRIANGLES.  Your images don't have to form a perfect equilateral triangle every time, but rather follow a 3 point concept.

So here we again. So in the left picture, you can see how I formed another triangle (the dashed lines).  In the next photo I added one more for another triangle (dashes and dots).  Then I just continued to build onto the main images until there is no more room.

Now its time to stamp your second image.  General rule of thumb here is to stamp your 2nd image inside those imaginary triangles that you created with your 1st stamp.  This is also where it starts get murky because since your triangles aren't necessarily the exact same size you will have to use your own judgment as to how full you want your paper to look.

Just keep stamping...

Now its time to add a 3rd image.  Same concept as before except now you can add that your goal is to basically fill in the empty spaces.  The last picture is my finished designer paper.

Creating your own designer paper is super easy and for me if almost therapeutic.  I love the calmness of the repetition of motion - ink to paper, ink to paper, ink to paper, etc.  I also like the fact that you don't have to be perfect or exact in your stamping.

And the guidelines that I listed above are just that.  They are just general rules of thumb to help you get started in creating your own paper.  The other key here is to just let loose and have fun. 

It's ok if some images overlap others or not, it's ok if you use 1,2,3,4, or 5 images, it's ok if you use as little or as many inks, it's ok if you like tightly packed images or widely spaced images.  The only thing that really matters is that you like what you see.

And finally, remember to do it!  The more you practice the better your eye will be and the more fun you will have doing it.  This is a basic stepping stone for creating your own designer paper. There are lots of additional techniques out there to change and/or enhance your stamping for limitless results.

Now, I've got some more examples of some spare sheets that I created.  I will set these aside and they will be ready to go next time I want to make a card, either with that color scheme or stamp image.

I chose to just use one image and color them in with Copics for my cheese background.

Again, I only used 1 image and used colored cardstock.  Another difference with this piece is that its very sequenced.  I stamped my image in a row and then just shifted the above and below images slightly.

And my last piece uses just 2 stamps and guess what?  I ended up stamping my smaller image which in this case was a sentiment first and then over stamped with my larger snowflake stamp.  See it all works.

So, I've shared what I know and I hope it helps you consider creating your own designer paper.  Clear Dollar Stamps are wonderful for this technique.  For those of you who are old hands at this, we'd love it if you shared any additional tips/tricks to "random" stamping.

Thank you so much for stopping by and visiting and I wish every one of you a very happy day.

Signing off for Clearly iStamp Blog,

-Katie

Recipe for Card #1

Cardstock: Ocean, Watermelon, Hydrangea (CTMH)

Ink: same as above

Stamps: August Stamp of the Month

Other: Nesties, scor-pal, sanding, SU! Ticket Punch, SU! Photo Corner Punch

Other Stamp Sets Used:  Charlie Snowhorse, Fanciful Flakes, Doggie Toys, Cheese Wedge

Comments

[paula e.]

will try this the next time i try to stamp background paper. the triangle concept intrigues me! thanks for your tutorial

[{pam}]

thanx so much for this AWESOME tutorial!!! i have tried to do my own backgrounds in the past and was never happy with the results . . . can't wait to try this technique! YOU ROCK!!!

[Carol W]

This triangle theory is SO helpful! Thanks very much for explaining. I will definitely be making use of this information!

[Nancy Grant]

AWESOME!!!

Thanks so much!

:-)

[Renée K]

Katie -

Thank you for this great tutorial. I have always struggled with getting my backgrounds to look random and now that I know the "triangle theory" I think I might have better luck!

[Candyf]

Great tutorial Katie! The triangle theory is a great tip to know.
Candy

[Chris Weiss]

This is an awesome tutorial - I have done similar but still doesn't turn out quite as nice as these. Thanks for the great tip!

[Joan Ervin]

This is a great tutorial, Lori!!! I had no idea there was a rhyme and reason to making a random background...no wonder mine look so wild!!!

[Anita]

TFS! Thanks so much for explaining how to make your own backgrounds