Do you enjoy the art of rubber stamping? Or is this something you are interested in learning more about? If you answered YES to either of those questions, you will surely want to check out Vamp Stamp News.
VSN is a monthly magazine which is really like no other in the industry. In fact, it is one of the few “stamping-only” publications still iin existence. The former Rubber Stamper magazine has been absorbed by Crafts & Things…it’s still a good magazine that has plenty of stamping projects…but it also features sewing, knitting, and crafts other than stamping. This might not be the magazine for you if you are not interested in any of that other stuff.
RubberStampMadness is still in existence, although I wasn’t sure about that for a while. I haven’t been able to find it at my local Michaels or A.C. Moore stores in quite some time now…in fact, I think Michaels quit carrying it, because it’s been well over a year since I have seen it there. RSM is still in existence, but they have dropped down from 6 issues per year to just 4. Is this a sign of the bad economy? Are people not stamping as much as they used to? I don’t know.
Then there are the Stampington magazines, such as “Stampers Sampler” and such. These are very nice, high-end looking publications, great for getting ideas for projects, but not as high on technique as I’d like.
Another one is Scrap & Stamp Arts. I personally like this one because I have been published in it a couple of times.  This one combines stamping and scrapbooking, and people who don’t scrap tend to be put off by articles on that hobby.
This leads me to Vamp Stamp News. It still comes out 12 times a year, and it’s 100% stamping…no scrapbooking, no knitting, no ads for wholesale products aimed at store owners; the ads are all for retail consumer stamping products that anyone can buy.
This is not a fancy, glossy magazine, and it’s not as thick as the others. But it is also not loaded down with pages and pages of nothing but ads. What it IS loaded with, though, is tons of useful information, product reviews, techniques, and more. What is even more amazing about this magazine is that it is owned and put together by one woman, Nancie Waterman. Of course, she publishes artwork and articles contributed by readers, but she does all of the work in putting it together each month, and writes a lot of the stuff herself.
Each issue has a primary technique theme; this month’s is Resist Techniques. Several months ahead of time, Nancie announces the techniques as “challenges”, challenging the readers to create and send in work with the chosen technique. She publishes the best of the work sent in the magazine, and it is accompanied by detailed articles about the technique for that month. Each issue also contains articles and tips about other techniques, as well.
You will NOT find VSN at Michaels, A.C. Moore, or any other chain craft store. Nancie sells only to independent stamp stores, and by mail order to individuals (single copies and subscriptions). There is exactly ONE stamp store in the entire state of Massachusetts that carries it, and it’s a pain in the butt to get to that store each month. There used to be another store that was much closer to me that had it, but they went out of business. So I decided to subscribe so that I’d never miss an issue!
You can visit their website to get an idea of what to expect from the magazine. If you want to see an actual issue and there is no store near you that has it, you can order a single copy for $4.00. A year’s subscription costs $36, two years is $62.
If you can only afford to get one stamping magazine, VSN is the one to get. It’s by far the best value for the money, given how much information is jam-packed into each and every issue!
