Anybody collect/use rubber stamps?

[MichiganWoods]

Just curious. I've been working on a line of characters and I've been debating on whether to utilize them as stamps, or whether I should put them in a coloring book.

If you do collect/use stamps, how much are you usually willing to spend on a larger stamp?

And for that matter, if you ever buy coloring books (for kids or whomever), how much would you spend on a nice book?

 

[Buff Hooligans]

Cass, I've been a rubber stamper for years, but more in relation to card-making than anything else.

Large stamps (4" x 5") are sometimes hard to work with because of the curvature of ink pads. (Hard to get the whole stamp fully inked reliably.)

Is that what you were thinking? Tell us more.

 

[MichiganWoods]

Yes that was sort of along the lines of what I had in mind. Let me share two of my designs with you.

My line of thought was that a savvy pre-school teacher, day care owner or parent could buy a stamp and then stamp a bunch of papers for their kids to color, rather than having to pay for a bunch of separate coloring books or find a copy machine.

^ Close-up on the details ^

I could make them smaller. And I have a bunch of generic images such as balloons, shamrocks, shells and the like that would make great small stamps.

 

[WriterofWords]

Beautiful work, I just heard all my 6th grade girls heart go "Bam!". I use stamps but not large ones, but on the ink pad situation I have an ink pad that is 4"x8" that I got from one of my science catalogs because I have a huge stamp of the human skeleton I use. I paid $20 for the stamp and $8 for the pad. The skeleton measures 3"x7" and I use it teaching the structure of the human and the various bones etc. I use smaller stamps on papers and cards on the kids desks for rewards when they volunteer information and such. They save the cards all week and when we have the treat sale on Friday they can trade their stamps in for points on a .50 coupon.

 

[Chicken Lil]

Wow these are great.

I have been a rubber stamper for years, even a Stampin' Up demonstrator for a couple of years.


I would have to agree with the other posters that this size would be difficult to properly ink and stamp. I have found anything larger that 4X8 to be really a pain. However, if you could do them in that size they would be awesome!

 

[MichiganWoods]

Thank you both.

For the mermaid, I was aiming for a stamp size of around 3x5. I printed it out at this size to see how the details show. It works nicely. However, I could shrink it down to around a 2.6 x 4.5 and it still prints out nicely. The princess though, her face loses some detail at that size. She'd make a better, larger stamp.

 

[newchickenfamily]

Beautiful work Cass! I'm not a stamper, so don't have much to contribute that topic...

 

[GardeNerd]

I occasionally download "coloring pages" or single pages from online coloring books for my classes. This way there are no extras I don't need, and I do it along with the other parts of the lesson and make them the exact size I need. Most are free, but there are a few subscription and pay per use ones. I never spend more than a couple dollars, and very rarely. I think they make the money off the ads on the websites, rather than the images themselves.

The most I have ever spent on a premium coloring book is $8.00, but then it was something really special, a souvenier type with works by Frieda Kahlo (my eight year old loves a few of her things and is an artist.) I have bought Dover ones for about $3.00 to $5.00.

We have lots and lots of stamps, but the biggest pad we own is 3 X 5.

 

[MichiganWoods]

Thank you, newchickenfamily.

GardeNerd, I can completely see the use for the free online downloads. I've used ad programs before on my sites but they've never really generate much money, unfortunately. Thanks for your input. Very helpful.