Storing and Using Clear Stamps


Santa brought me some crafting supplies this Christmas. I received a lovely craft mat from my hubby and my sister gave me a bunch of clear stamps. I've never worked with these stamps before, so I thought I'd document my first attempts. Luckily I had picked up a set of sticky unmounted stamps and a handled acrylic mount for them from a Fiskar's Kids Craft liquidation at TJ Maxx (not someplace you usually find discounted craft supplies).  So I had a basic block to put them on to try some of my new stamps out.



The coolest things about the unmounted clear stamps is that you can place them wherever you'd like on your block, you can leave room for layers of other stamps or embellishments, and you can see through the stamps and the block for better placement.  The stamps themselves are also cheaper to purchase.


After I tried my stamps out, I washed them off with some warm water and a little soap and put them back on their plastic sheet.  I figured now would be a great time to whip up a storage device for these new stamps.  I grabbed a 1 inch binder, some sheet protectors, and some card stock (all readily on hand in my teaching/office supply stash).


I put a piece of cardstock in each sleeve and stuck my stamp sheets in on either side.  I read a tutorial where someone had used double stick tape to keep the sheets from sliding out of the protectors, when I tried it, it created more problems than it was worth.  The slick sheets they put the stamps on are not conducive to sticky tape, so they came free, and the side with the outline should be facing out so that you can read what the worded stamps say and really see what's in the binder.  A couple of my stamp sets didn't come with sticky sheets for both sides, so there was no way to tape them down anyway....so in the end, I just slid them in there loose; it works great as long as I don't tip the binder over.


Next, I printed up a sheet for the front of the binder so I know what's in it.  When I was all organized, I whipped up a couple of winter cards (perhaps thank you cards for the great gifts I received) with my new stamps.


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