What is a Digital stamp... & how the heck do I use it ??

This is a guide on what exactly a digital stamp is & how to download, store, use, and color your images.
Digital stamps or "digi stamps" are black & white digital images (Digital image files - JPEG, PNG are the most common) that are downloaded onto a computer where they can be altered before printing. When they are printed out digital stamps are just like traditional rubber & clear stamped images with a few perks. The images can be re sized & flipped and merged or layered with other digital elements before printing & colored the same way a rubber stamped image is colored.

What is a JPEG? a JPEG is a digital Photo image file this is the simplest way to use the digital stamps. It has a white background.
What is a PNG image? PNG files have a transparent background (this is nice for layering images & for digital scrapbooking).
Digital Stamps come in a zip file (files grouped together) after you download them right click on the file and select “Extract files” and choose where you want the stamps to go, or “Extract Here” and the stamps will show up wherever you downloaded the zip file. Your computer may even unzip them automatically.
You can then simply print them using whatever photo editing or graphics program software you have . If you have programs like Photo shop, Photo shop Elements, Paint shop, Adobe Illustrator or any similar program. They will give you more of a choice on how to arrange , layer , color, & save your images as either a JPG or PNG file.
Coloring the Digital stamped image is just like coloring a rubber or acrylic stamped image. I use markers (Bic Mark-its, Prisma-color,Copic markers, colored pencils and chalk) depending on the look I want to achieve.

If you want to use water-base markers, watercolors or other wet media heat the printed images with a heat gun to set the printer ink so it won’t smear. You can also used your freshly printed image to heat emboss the image. You will have to sprinkle the heat embossing powder over the printed image as soon as it comes out of the printer then heat with the heat embossing tool.

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Benefits Of Using Digital Stamps:
Low cost -- Digital stamps cost a lot less than regular rubber stamps since you are just buying the right to use the image, instead of the actual stamp. Digital stamps can be bought online and downloaded to your computer -- which can save on shipping, gas, and even time since you don't have to wait for it to be delivered. and most digital stamp images are much lower in cost than their rubber and acrylic counterparts

Multi-use -- Digi-stamps can also be used as transferred images -- they can be applied to fabrics, glass, hard surfaces, canvas, etc.

Eco-friendly -- A digital stamp uses limited resources. If bought online, digital stamps save on wasted packaging materials and delivery for each stamp not to mention the ink and paper saved because you print the perfect stamped image every time and can squeeze as many on one sheet as you want.

More creative -- Unlike rubber stamps, digital stamps can be any size, flipped, mirrored, layered & printed in any color.

Easy to store -- The digital image is stored on your computer or put on a CD -- which saves space & time. The images can be easily organized into different files & folders.

Free to try -- many companies offer free digital images so you can try them out.

Lifelong use -- Unless you delete it, the digital stamp doesn't degrade and can't become damaged.

Mess free -- With digital stamps there is a quick and simple way to clean up, close the window your working in. (No more ink messes or scrubbing stamps.)

Instant gratification -- quickly print out and most companies offer instant downloads or will email the image withing 24 hours of purchase.

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You can use Microsoft Word to print or arrange the digital stamps in a grouping. Here’s how:
Open a new document in Word. Click insert, picture, from file. Find the folder where you have stored your digi-stamps (I have mine in a folder named Digital Stamps & then separated by Designer) and select the stamp you want.

The image will appear in the document. Click on it and drag the corner handles to re-size it ( only click on one of the 4 corners otherwise the image will be distorted , if this happens click undo to change it back ). Now print. I l use a smooth white cardstock for printing.

Using a Jpg file in Word means a little bit more work for you if you want them to be layered or merged. You will have to change they way your image appears in front of the text to have them layered ( this takes some work to figure out which one will work best for you & the image your working with)

If your using a Transparent PNG file things get much easier. You can get them to be close once you have added one behind the other in word.  The PNG file is what I like to use when I want to merge a few stamps (or Clip Art ) together .
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If you have any other photo editing and art program like the ones I mentioned previously. Your in luck they can make working in digital so much easier!  They also have many many tutorials available through their own sites and in the programs themselves you should have no problems at all... But if you hit a snag and need a hand just ask and I will see what I can do  for you.
Thanks for stopping by this tutorial.
I hope it helped you out if it did please leave a comment and let me know!