FINALLY! Some Stamped Images From Clear Stamps I Can Live With

I've never really gotten on board with clear stamps. I purchased some a while back ago and didn't really care for them. They were sticky, slimy, smelled funny, feel flimsy and ripable, didn't give particularly crisp images, and yellowed and became brittle in a short period of time.

I guess I've been spoiled by my Angel Company stamps because they're real rubber, and so give better, sharper and more detailed images; unmounted so I don't have to store and work around a wood block; I can cut them close so that I have no problem lining up an image or restamping something where I missed part; and I truly haven't found any clear stamps that cost less. I've been paying approximately the same, and sometimes even less for an unmounted rubber stamp that has better definition and in my opinion the same "pros" as a clear acrylic stamp.

But I've been reading Taylor's blog and seeing all her cute cupcake images that were made from clear stamps, so I thought I'd give them another try. I purchased two sets of cupcake stamps and one set of music themed stamps, and then felt like I threw my money away because the ink just wasn't sticking to them. I'd put stamp to ink pad and see near to no ink on the stamp. I'd MASH the stamp into the ink pad and get ink all over the edges of the acrylic block, and finally got some results, but then it was almost as if the ink were puddling up on the stamp and splattering on my paper and looked awful! I read the care for the stamps on the back of the package and searched the internet to see if I could find something about fixing the problem and came up empty. So now I've had these acrylic stamps in my collection for a few months and not been able to use them. Talk about disappointment! Craft-wise, there are few things worse than getting excited about some new supplies and then getting poor results.

I was finally at the point where I was going to put out a plea for help on my blog to see if I could get some advice back in the comments, when my friend Dawnmarie came to my rescue. We were at our DIA gathering and I was complaining about how I couldn't use these stamps when she told me that new acrylic stamps come with a coating on them and I needed to scrub the coating off before I could get the ink to adhere properly. She recommended cleaning them with the Staz On cleaner, scrubbing them really well, and then immediately washing them with soap and water and rinsing thoroughly. I didn't have any Staz On cleaner (or at least I'm not finding it) but I did find a stamp cleaner that had one of those spongy scrubbing caps and I scrubbed some of that on and then used a soft bristle toothbrush to wash them again with the soap and water and FINALLY I can get a decent image from my stamps.

NOW I can stamp cupcakes, after months of drooling over other people's cards with the cute images on them! And hopefully, this post will help some others that may have been having the same problem. I'm sure I'll always like my unmounted rubber stamps better, but at least now I have options, and can use the clear stamps with the images I wanted so badly.

Window Punch Tip

I figured out something amazing! O.K., well maybe not amazing, and really not even something new. It would be more appropriate to say I remembered an old tip and was able to apply it today. It always just *seems* amazing when you suddenly remember something you learned a long time ago, but haven't put into practice in a while. And I was able to combine it with another tip I learned from my friend Rita when we went to Ohio a few months ago.

So, here's the set up. Last night I had to give up some plans, but was then freed up to drop by for drinks for a friend's birthday. Since it was impromptu that I was going, I hadn't made a card and needed one. For the card I decided to make, I wanted to use my EK Success window punch. Unfortunately, the punch was just a tiny bit smaller than the words I wanted to use, so part of the H and they Y in Happy Birthday got cut off, along with the exclamation point at the end. I was pressed for time and I knew the person I was making the card for wouldn't care, so I'm ashamed to say that I went with what I had and didn't spend the time to try to figure out how to correct the problem. So of course, that would be on my mind this morning. It bothered me that the words were cut off.







This morning I remembered the tip that if you fold your paper in half and place it inside the punch so that the folded edge doesn't go to the end, you can make a shaped tag.





I applied this principal to my window punch. When I just folded the edge though, it wasn't clean enough to be unnoticeable under the stamped words. So I scored my paper with the Scor-Pal and folded it.





Then I punched it out with the window punch.



To make the scored line less noticeable, I used Rita's tip to turn the paper over and score the opposite side on the same line with the Scor Pal, which would help remove the original score.



Then I burnished the score line with the bone folder.



The original score line isn't completely gone, but it's much less noticeable, and now I have a larger window strip from my punch that fit the whole phrase perfectly!

Ten Minute Gift Bag

I've got an adult graduation party to go to this weekend. My friend Deb has been going to school for what seems like forever, and she's finally graduated and on her way to becoming a teacher. Way to go Deb! You've worked so hard for this and finally siezed the brass ring.

My husband and I bought Deb a bottle of wine for the occasion. I had trouble finding a wine bag that I really liked, so I went to Target and purchased a plain white one for 99 cents to decorate myself. Here are the supplies I used.


Plain white bag, 4 pieces of 4 1/2 x 6 black cardstock, Congratulations Cuttlebug embossing template and Cuttlebug, ribbon, Giga and Mega Scalloped Clever Lever punches, white paper, silver paper, adhesive, grey marker, pop-dots, and The Angel Company's Congrats Grad set stamped with Noir Palette ink.

This bag was very, very simple to make. I ran the 4 pieces of black cardstock through the Cuttlebug; adhered them to the bag; put adhesive on the ribbon and ran it around the middle of the bag to cover the seam from the paper; cut two scalloped squares with the punches and stamped the diploma on the white one; layered the two together and stuck them to the ribbon in the center of the bag with pop dots.

The only thing remotely challenging about this is that you have to push the bottom of the bag up into a "V" so that you have flat pannels to work with on both the front and the back of the bag.



Here's the final gift (card made using the Scor-Pal, a paper piercer, and the same Clever Lever scalloped punches and stamp set):



And here's a close up of the embossing detail:



Now you have a classy wine bag that cost maybe $2 and took only 10 minutes of your time. I have used this trick to cover a gift bag with wrapping paper to cover spots or designs that didn't go with the theme I was giving the gift for, and I always gets a lot of ooohs and aaahs. I've also taken bags that have patterns that I like and dressed them up by adhering ribbon and adding an embellished fabric flower.



These are all quick ways you can make a store bought bag into something more without taking much of your time.