I bought a sheet of the Martha Stewart acrylic stamps and have been playing with them. I’m finding them a huge disappointment… they don’t pick up ink well at all and the stamped images are blurry and ugly.
They’re so popular right now… surely I’m just doing something wrong. Can anyone give me some pointers and techniques?
You might try alcohol-based inks instead of water-based, or vice-versa. I’m far from a stamp expert, but there are differences.
I use an acrylic stamp for Where’s George with a red alcohol ink, and it works pretty well, even tho dollar bills aren’t the best kind of paper for stamps!
Did you wash the stamps before you started playing with them? The manufacturing process leaves behind a faint oily residue that needs to be removed before stamping.
Are you using a mount for the stamps? Some people take them out of the package and start using them without realizing that, for best results, they need to be mounted on a clear block first. You can use them on their own, but they stretch and are hard to control.
Most importantly, how hard are you pressing? Clear stamps require a fairly light touch, unlike rubber stamps. Pressing too hard is the most common problem people have when they’re first trying clear stamps. As someone with lots of experience with rubber stamps, I was accustomed to pressing very firmly to get a sharp impression, but pressing firmly with clear stamps produces blurry, smeared results. Pressing gently on both the ink pad as you’re inking your stamp, and on the paper as you’re stamping, yields a much, much sharper impression. You might need to practise a bit to get the right pressure.
Clear stamps should work with all types of high-quality inks, and even acrylic paint, but some inks will stain them, even if you wash them immediately (solvent, chalk, some darker pigment). They’re still perfectly usable when they’re stained, but just don’t look as perfect.
If the ink you’re using is beading on the surface on the stamp, you can use a very, very fine sandpaper on the stamp itself. Sanding it gently can provide a better surface, but I would only recommend this step if you’ve tried absolutely everything else first.
Keep trying, and good luck!
Sattua, if all else fails, call or email my friend Oscar at Door County Rubber Stamps. If she doesn’t have the answer, nobody does!
I pretty much use Stampin Up! and Palette inks exclusively. I’ve not had a problem with either on acrylic stamps, but I will say that images with acrylic stamps don’t come out as “solid” as with rubber stamps.
It does take a different touch to use clear stamps. It can be helpful to stamp on a mouse pad or piece of craft foam (that stuff that is cut into lots of kid junk).
If the washing doesn’t clean them enough, a white rubber art eraser can help remove the coating.
Tip of the day-when washing them, do it in a strainer–they go down the sink really easily!
Working for the USPS, I was going to advise you that you probably don’t need to lick the back, but now I think I’ll just sit here in the corner and watch the thread.
Palette ink pads work really well with acrylic stamps. I use them all the time. (throws secret WG? gang sign at Musicat) Some colors work better than others, though, and when the pads are overfilled will behave like you describe in the OP. Have you tried freezing the ink pads? People say that works.