Multi-Color Mint Stamps

Today I’m revisiting the Silhouette Mint machine. It’s a custom stamp maker that uses a thermal printing process to turn what you design in Mint Studio into a stamp. So very cool. The ability to make a stamp with multiple colors is even better.

Because it’s a re-inking stamp (you add ink once and stamp many times before adding more ink), you can add multiple colors. The first time I tried it, my stamp turned out great. The red and blue mixed and mingled and it was a look I wanted.

The next time I made a Mint stamp, I tried to add just a red heart to a lot of tiny print. Once the black ink touched the red ink, it all migrated and the black basically took over the whole stamp. My tiny red heart didn’t show until I used all that ink up and added the next batch of ink a different way. You can read more about that on my previous Mint post.

I tried the same technique again with my newest stamp, and it worked great.

My trick for adding multiple colors of ink to a Silhouette Mint stamp is to add a single color of ink, let it absorb, blot off most of the excess by stamping a few times on scratch paper, and then add the second color. Let that absorb and then blot off the excess until the whole thing stamps cleanly.

You do not want those wet inks to touch, or you can lose control of where they soak into the stamp. Your design should have a division in the design if you want distinct colors and no color migration. See how my words don’t touch the wreath?

I actually used a toothpick to help spread the color very carefully to the edges so it wouldn’t touch the other part of the stamp which was to be a different color. If you do that, though, be careful and don’t scratch your stamp.

I’m pretty tickled with this holiday stamp. I’ll have more details about this stamp and what I did with it on the blog this week. Consider this a sneak peek.