Last week I was gifted with clear acrylic stamps and an acrylic block. I had seen these before, but was unconvinced of the value compared to traditional stamp blocks. And had I not been gifted with these, I probably would have delayed trying them even longer.
This is cropped from my journal, an experiment with the clear stamps and traditional stamps. All but the wording was done with the clear stamps. This is also an experiment in building layers of colors.
Now that I’ve tried them, I have to admit, I am a convert! Yes, I will be purchasing my stamps in acrylic if at all possible from now on. They have several advantages, the first, in my eyes being that you can actually see where you are stamping at. No more guesswork, no more hoping it’s lined up where you want it, you look through the acrylic and place the stamp exactly where you want it.
The next advantage is storage. After you use the acrylic stamp on the block, you can peel it back off, place it back on the sheet it came on and store them taking up much less room than traditional stamps do. A definite advantage in a small house.
And the final advantage is cleanup. The ink washes off the acrylic so much easier than traditional rubber stamps. I was even able to clean them without using any stamp cleaning solution. YEAH! No more stamp solution smells!
There is a disadvantage, they are a bit pricey, or appear to be on first look. I’m actually not sure they are pricey the more I think about this. A sheet at the local stamp store was running in the $10-15 range, but that sheet had several stamps on it, so on second thought, perhaps they really aren’t that pricey. And I’m convinced the advantages outweigh that one possible disadvantage and I’ll be purchasing more of my stamps this way in the future.
Thanks to those friends whose gifts pushed me to try out the clear stamps………….want to go shopping you two? I know the perfect stamp shop!