Paint can be used to paint boarders around pages and you could even make your own patterned paper. Paint can also be used on foam stamps to make quick titles or interesting patterns. Making Memories and Heidi Swapp carry come great fonts and designs in foam stamps. One of the best things about foam stamps it that they are very affordable. The Making Memories alphabets retail for $9.99 and the shape sets retail for $5.99. The Heidi Swapp alphabets retail for $18.99 and the shape sets retail for $4.99. This is far less expensive than traditional wood mounted or acrylic type stamps.
I would like to share a couple of layout I have done recently where I used both paint and the foam stamps.
The “S” chipboard shape is from Making Memories and I painted it. I then used the Making Memories Philadelphia Foam Alphabet stamps to create the rest of the title “Sedona.”
This layout was fun to complete. I started by cutting strips of Basic Grey’s Sweet Pea Alyssa paper and arranging it on the page. I then used a Basic Grey monogram for the large “H” and stamped the words with brown stamping ink. Then I got to do some painting! I used Making Memories foam stamps from the floral/dingbat set and created some accents to the outer edges of the page. I also stamped an image under the H monogram. I mixed two colors of the Making Memories paints to achieve my desired color.
The best technique I have found for putting paint on to the stamp is using a foam brush to apply a thin layer of paint across the surface of the stamp. If you were to place the stamp directly into the paint, the paint would be too thick and unevenly distributed. Try placing your stamps onto a damp paper towel or into a shallow plastic container with some water after stamping so that the paint does not dry on the stamps. This will make it easier to clean the stamps. If the paint dries on the stamps, it can wash off, but it will take some scrubbing.
I hope that you will give foam stamps a try if you haven’t before. They are a simple way to make our craft of scrapbooking even more enjoyable!