Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Never Say Never

"Orangutans are skeptical of changes in their cages..." ~ Simon & Garfunkel
Do you know that song by Simon and Garfunkel, At the Zoo?  I love it, and the line above is my very favorite, probably because it describes me perfectly!  When I first heard about so-called digital stamps I was extremely skeptical.  How could images printed out from your computer be "stamps"?!  I was sure I wouldn't want to get anywhere near that whole new fasciation within the stamping community.

But, I was wrong (clearly it almost always takes me a while to warm up to new things; see lyric above).  I read a description of these digital images and I realized that there are several real advantages to them: they take up zero space in your craft room; you can adjust the size to make the image as big or small as you like; you can (I'm guessing) rotate and flip the images; and finally, a digital image costs much, much less than a stamp.  Oh, and of course there's the factor of not having an inky stamp to clean up, and eliminating the chance of stamping a blurry or incomplete image.  Pretty convincing reasons to give digital images a try, don't you think?

I made the card above using Operation Write Home's Sketch #127 and a free digi (as they are sometimes called) from Doodle Pantry.  I was very happy to be able to try out a free digi before deciding to re-adjust my thinking.  I'm a believer now.  I printed out four of the ducks onto a piece of cardstock - I realize now I made them a bit too big for a standard 4.25 x 5.5" (A2) card, but I'll manage.  Next time I can always make them smaller (wheee!).  I colored the duck with my Prismacolor pencils; not sure my printer toner would do well with a wet media like markers or paint.  That's okay with me.  The patterned papers are of course scraps from my stash.  Now that I can easily look through my scraps I am using them up quickly; I love it.

I'm sure I will continue to buy and enjoy regular stamps, but now I've got more options when I want a certain kind of image. I can't wait to go shopping for some digis!

But I'm still not calling calling them "digital stamps."

4 comments:

Joansie said...

Very nice, Amy!

Stefanie said...

What a neat concept, digital stamps? I am the same way. Something new must marinate w/me for awhile before I can embrace it. I like to have my own processing of it and not have others convince me.
Cute, happy card!

JoAnn Ross said...

That is so much fun!! The image is darling and the colors are so bright and cheery! Since I spend all day at a computer, I haven't been lured over to digital stamps, but I'll admit that as my shelves fill up, the idea can be tempting!

Linda said...

Cheery card! Woohoo on trying digital! You might want to check out the Free Digital Stamps blog...they post links daily. I often make cards using both types of stamps! TFS!!!