Creative Inkling

I just got back from CKC Lancaster, where we had make-and-takes at our booth using Concord & 9th Turnabout stamps. These are just about my favourite product to work with, because they give you a beautiful result — essentially you're creating your own background paper, and you can customise it with different colours.

How a Turnabout works

A Turnabout needs a stamping platform, such as a Misti. The paper you stamp on should be square, so that each rotation lands in the same place. You rotate the paper ninety degrees, up to four times, inking a different colour each time, until you have full coverage.

The thing nobody tells you is that a photopolymer stamp is pliable, which means it moves. You have to be patient: adjust the cardstock, wait before you ink up the next colour, close the door of the Misti and look — do the gifts and the bows actually line up? — and only then stamp.

A slimline birthday card with a repeated pattern of balloons, gifts and bows stamped in blue and pink, with Happy Birthday in script.
Let's Party. This one was a challenge to line up — the gifts and bows have to meet across the rotations.
A birthday card with a purple and blue streamer pattern and a circle of confetti at the centre.
Celebrations, with the Confetti mini Turnabout inside the centre circle. A more forgiving pattern: more open space, and where the elements do overlap it doesn't hurt the design.
A birthday card covered edge to edge in a tight blue and purple pattern of party hats and gifts.
Birthday Basics. A fairly tight pattern, and still pretty easy to line up. I'm not sure this one is still available.

What to buy, if you're buying one

My advice when you're deciding: think about the difficulty of the pattern, and think about how versatile the stamp will be. A tight design looks impressive and will test your patience. An open one is more forgiving and you will use it more often.