On the 3rd Day of Stamps-Mas, my true love gave to me…..Stamps!!! There are different styles of stamps – Photopolymer, Clear Mount, and Wood Mount and that’s what we are talking about today!
Wood Mount Stamps come un-assembled and in the wider box to fit the stamps. You will mount the stamps onto the wooden blocks and add the sticker to the front side of the stamp. Each stamp has a provided wooden block. The benefits to this style is that the stamps are ready to go when you pull them out, you don’t need to find a block. The downfall is you can’t see where you are stamping like you can when using the clear blocks.
Clear Mount Stamps are the tricky ones. They have clear in the name but they are not the clear images; that is photopolymer. Clear Mount Stamps have the rubber and foam backing like the Wood Mount Stamps but they attach to a clear block. These stamps arrive un-assembled in the fact that you have to place the clear backing image sticker to each of the stamps. Be sure to peel off the back of the stamp AND the back of the clear sticker. You should be placing the clear sticker onto a gray foam piece, not the white backing. When you want to use these stamps, you will just pull out the set, match it up with a coordinating clear block, stick it on and you are ready to go. The benefits to this style are that you can see where you are stamping through the clear block and they are cheaper than the Wood Mount Stamps. Yes, you do need to purchase the clear blocks but once you have them, you are saving with each set! They are also in the slimmer case so you can fit twice as many stamps into your storage area. The downfall to this style is that you still can’t see all the way through the stamp to line things up and sometimes it is hard to keep the stamp on the clear block. Some tips to help with that are you add a small dab of adhesive to your clear block and then stick it on. You can always clean up the block later with some rubbing alcohol. Another option is to clean the block and the sticker. Since the sticker is the same as a window cling, when they get dusty and dirty, they lose their stickiness so just wipe it off with a paper towel (or your shirt like me) and this should help!
Photopolymer Stamps are my favorites. They are the cheapest of all and come in a slim class and they are ready to use when they arrive. SOLD! I love that. These stamps are completely clear rubbery images that mount onto a clear block. They stick to the block very well and you can even bend or curve the image to fit in a punch or give a different look. You can also wrap part of the image around the edge to omit part of it. The downfall to this style is they stain and then become red. Why does red seem to be the main color they pick up??? Black can be pretty staining as well. A tip for this is to pre-stain the stamps in a light color first. What you would do is stamp them into a light shade of pink or yellow and then stamp, stamp, stamp on paper. Ink up again and stamp, stamp, stamp. Then clean it off and it is now pre-stained in that light shade which you probably can’t even tell but when you go to use a darker color it won’t stain in that color. 🙂 This has totally worked for me but I tend to forget to do it usually. I typically use Pink Pirouette Ink for my pre-staining.
You can check out a Video Tutorial I did showcasing each style of stamp here! If you would like to see a little trick on storing your Clear Mount Stamps, check out my Video Tutorial here or click below! Don’t forget to give them a thumbs up if you liked them and be sure to subscribe if you are new!!!
What is your favorite type of Stamp Set – wood, clear, photopolymer? Let me know in the comments below!!!
I hope you didn’t miss Day 1 and Day 2 of Stamps-Mas!!! Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss out on the rest of the days!
Happy Stampin’
~Laura
