Customer Reviews

Making Gifts with Rubber Stamps

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'll admit it. I'm prejudiced. I happen to think that Sandra McCall is one of the most creative people I've ever met and I've met quite a collection of wonderfully innovative minds since I started stamping.

"Making Gifts with Rubber Stamps" has pages and pages of detailed color photos of a variety of projects. The sequential photos, supplemented by clear descriptions, make the projects very easy to understand. There is even a set of drawings on making your own tassels. Helpful hints, such as how to remove acrylic paint from stamps and tips for cutting paper and chipboard, are scattered strategically throughout the book.

Sandra also includes several pages of tips at the beginning of the book, discussing the pros and cons of a variety of products. I know one of her favorite places to find art supplies is the hardware store; it leads to very interesting results! Patterns and basic diagrams with measurements are included, but Sandra is careful to explain that these measurements are guidelines, not edicts. A list of suppliers and an a reasonably complete index complete the book.

The list of projects includes fancy fan book, simple album, perfect presentation display box*, dowel-spined book, surprise jewelry box, small stationery folio, large portfolio, pocket portfolio, shadow box, pendant purse, burnished metal container, very velvet pouch, fabric pins, EnviroTex pins, clay works, PaperClay medallions, Poly dolly necklace, window to my art, "Light Up Your Life" lampshades, beautiful beads, shrink plastic basics, and shrink art push pins. Oh, and just to tantalize you, Sandra found the best use of H-O railroad scale people that I've ever seen!

(* I think that the perfect presentation box is either the same or very similar to something that won Sandra one of the top awards from the juried show at the second ArtFest in Seattle.)

I've had the privilege of taking several of Sandra's classes and this book is much like those classes ... you get much more than your money's worth!

This book is a must have for anyone who has an interest in rubber stamping! Using a variety of media and all of the supplies that stampers are familiar with, Sandra fashions one creative projects after the next. I have not been able to put the book down since it arrived last week. Good for all levels of stampers, but it will be especially appreciated by those of us who are looking for different and innovative ways to use our stamps. Sandra's ideas are terrific!

I'll keep this short. If you want to take rubber stamps to the next level and learn to make fabulous objects, buy this book and you won't regret it. It's a DEFINITE keeper!!!!

This book has become one of my favorites. It is packed full of wonderful ideas and easy to follow instructions. Sandra has gathered a book full of wonderful stamping projects that will make anyone a wonderful gift. Her jewlery ideas are tops. People will stop and wonder where you got some of these pieces. Her directions are easy to follow, and although the projects may look difficult they AREN'T. This book is also a wonderful idea book for stamping teachers. I love this book so much I gave it to my stamping friends as x-mas gifts. A MUST !!!!!!!

The absolute best in todays deludge market fru fru for rubber. Sandra starts out w/the basics, which the typical reader, no doubt doesn't require, BUT read them anyway. They are fresh, to the point and blessedly breif, not to mention informative for even the pro. Check out her honest reviews od products, and then dive into inspiration, admiration and appreciton of a very talentednm artist. The directions are detailed and filled with detailed photography. If you love rubber, collage, victorian, neuveau, empire, rubber stamps, clay, jewelry, stationary, home decore, boxes, colour and paper, you'll never put this book down. This book should have been titled: Sophisticated Creations for the Eclectic Stamper.

Sandra McCall has blurred the line between art and craft in this seminal work. By using rubber stamp techniques, the average crafter/stamper can create wonderful works approaching art. For the artist-reader, the projects would indeed soar. The directions are consise, photos clear and the templates are helpful to completing each project successfully. I also appreciated the various "tips" located throughout the book which provided additional advice on the subject project as well as other projects one might attempt. She is truly a talented artist and I believe this book will be the standard on which other books in this vein will be judged. Highly recommended and a "must have" for the art stamper who wants to go beyond greeting cards.

This is one of those books that I am soooo glad that I ordered, sight unseen, simply on a recommendation. I have not been able to put it down ever since I got it! Every project is one that I would not have thought that I could do by looking at the end result. What looks, at first, to be a complicated work of art is broken down by McCall into VERY easy step-by-step directions with excellent photos and descriptions. I could not be more pleased with my purchase of this book.

This is an excellent book for you rubber stampers that are ready to use your rubber stamps for more than just greeting cards. It is full of beautiful and fun projects, with detailed and easy to follow instructions as well as lots and lots of beautiful color pictures. A great book to give as a gift or buy for your self, you won't be disappointed!

The work of Sandra McCall has long been an inspiration to me, and to finally see it in print, and have such delicious photographs to keep in front of me is a real gift. The instructions are precise and easy to follow! And once again, Ms. McCall lends a new angle to the art and craft of stamping! Bravo!

Truly a well done book with superb ideas for people who can do all the basics with stamps and want to go further, making unique gifts that aren't crafty but artful! Techniques are ones you probably already know but are combined with others or used in ways you might not ordinarily think of. This book really stirs the imagination and the creative juices. Definitely a keeper!