Interview with Martha Stewart Crafts

Megen Lee, deputy design director of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, talks to Rubber Stamping at About.com. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Lee started his career as a fashion designer before joining Martha Stewart Living in 1993.

What are the essential tools for beginners?

I would suggest some wood stamps with art that appeals to you, stamp pads and some stationary for creating personalized stationery right away.

If you had to recommend one 'luxury' tool what would it be?

I love our new glue stamp pad that we use to adhere glitter to our stamped shapes. We can use it with either wood mount stamps or the acrylic system. After stamping, we sprinkle with glitter and our stamped shape can then shine with the color of our glitter.

Our new glue stamp pad also works with our flocking powders, to be introduced soon, which adds a different texture to stamping projects.

What are your tips for buying stamps?

Depending on the interest of the crafter, I would suggest different products. For someone interested in just basic stamping, I would recommend any wood mount stamps, desired ink pad colors and some basic stationery. This will allow the crafter to test out the process and get some fun results that are also useful. For someone interested in a bit more experimenting, I would recommend our acrylic stamping system where you can also create personal messages. This will allow the crafter to create a composition of words and images on the acrylic mount first, then stamp.

What advice do you have for beginners?

I love stamping because it is an easy craft for anyone to pick up. All that is needed is some imagination and the willingness to try different combinations. Always try stamps and design ideas on a test sheet until the desired effect is achieved, then work on the final project. There are always things to learn about each stamp, how much to ink, how much pressure to apply, if a wood mounted stamp is applied onto the block straight, etc. Everyone will come up with their own set of techniques that work for them, but the most important thing is to test first.

What are your top tips?

There are a few basic techniques that we like to use. The first is the basic technique to create something with only images. We start by stamping once and have the artwork of the stamps be the focus. We can also overlap the same stamp design in different colors creating our own pattern as demonstrated in our food packaging project. Our leaf stamps are ideal for this technique. A variation on these techniques is to cut out the stamped artwork and use it as a sticker by mounting it with double sided foam adhesive for a dimensional look.

Another approach is to include personal messages along with the desired artwork. Our acrylic stamping system is designed with this purpose in mind.

You can include a personal message along with the image on the same acrylic stamp mount and stamp both at the same time. This is a great technique for creating multiples, such as sets of invitations, thank you cards, and holiday cards.

What are great projects for beginner stampers?

I love showing crafters how to use a basic stamp to create an entire party theme. For example, the themed party project really shows the flexibility of our 2 bird stamps, glitter, some paper, and stationery. Here, we have created an invitation, place cards, napkin ring and favor topper.

I think this is a great project because generally when we talk about stamping as a craft, party decorations do not come to mind.

Which single technique would give a project the wow factor?

I think that having the ability to create stamp art with glitter is the wow factor. This really brings stamping to another level. We start this process like any other stamping project, except that you will need a glue stamp pad instead of an ink stamp pad. And of course, you will also need glitter. We will ink the stamps as normal, but instead with the glue pad. Our technique for getting a thicker layer of glue on the stamp is to wait for a couple of minutes after the first inking and ink the stamp again. Then we can stamp as normal. Then, we will pour an even layer of glitter over the art and tap the extra glitter off. One tip is to work on lighter paper so that the glitter colors will really pop off the background.

What are the most popular Martha Stewart stamping supplies?

Some of our most popular rubber stamps are our fonts, such as: serif, sans serif, and ornamental bodoni, as well as our classic Martha designs such as our wooden bird stamps. Our most popular tools are essentials such as the hand punches, bone folder, craft knife, rotary cutter and cutting mats.

We introduce new lines throughout the year as we launch seasonal products for summer, Halloween, Holiday, Valentine's Day, Easter, and spring. In addition, we update our mainline every April to refresh our assortment.

We are launching our exciting Martha Stewart Occasions brand at Michaels, which will be an extension of the Martha Stewart Crafts brand. Martha Stewart Occasions is a line of beautiful and customizable products—including invitations, save-the-date cards, favors, decorations, and guest books—designed to make birthdays, weddings, and every celebration more personal and special.

For birthdays or weddings, anniversaries or showers, customizable stationery and decorations from Martha Stewart Occasions are versatile and remarkably affordable alternatives to traditional printed products. Using our helpful Print-It-Yourself templates at MarthaStewartCrafts.com, customers can design and print their materials easily from their home computers. Martha Stewart products will be available at Michaels stores nationwide, select independent retailers and our website.

What should stampers be watching out for in the future?

We are really interested in creating a cohesive system that can be used for paper crafting, scrapbooking, and card making. In addition, all of our cutting tools, stamping supplies, embossing supplies, and embellishments will be designed to function seamlessly and effortlessly, allowing the creativity of the crafter to shine through.

Thank you to Megen Lee from Martha Stewart Crafts.