Clearly iStamp: What are the ins and outs of being Clearly inspired?

Hi Everyone! I want to introduce myself since I am not Lori. My name is Katie and I am lucky enough to be one of a fabulous group of Design Team Members for Clear Dollar Stamps. She has graciously asked me to help with the Clear Dollar Stamps blog aka Clearly iStamp. I will be contributing to Lori's wonderful blog here and there and I can only hope I do it and her justice.

Today, I want to focus on you, the stamper that maybe be new or curious about the world of Clear Stamps. I want to share some pictures of exactly what you get and what you should do with your Clear Dollar Stamps when you receive them.

The stamp set that I will be focusing on today is the FREE set with any $50 purchase at CDStamps for the rest of this month. Next month will be another great set - trust me I've seen it and its 33% larger than the past sets, but don't miss out on this month's set. It's so cute and would work perfectly for your holiday cards.

Here is a picture of the way you will receive your free set or any larger set from CD Stamps. You will receive a printed version of what the stamp set looks like, a cling sheet with your clear stamps on it, all enclosed in a zip lock bag.

This next picture contains everything that you will need to make a custom holiday card handmade by you!

Ingredients:

Stamp set
acrylic block
ink
Stamp cleaner or Non alcoholic baby wipes
Cardstock for card base (cut your own or buy pre-cut)
Additional cardstock for image and mat
An eraser for "conditioning"
Thin foam mat if necessary

The first thing you want to do is remove those beautiful stamps and peel away the thin protective plastic covering the stamps. I personally don't keep that and just chuck it. Next, all you need to do is gently peel your choice of stamp right off the plastic. When you first peel a brand new stamp from the plastic its best to gently bend the plastic sheet and again gently peel the stamp upward.

The next step is to grab your acrylic block and place your stamped image right on it. It will stick to the surface like magic. You can find any size you need at Clear Dollar. If you are on a budget, try to find a size that will accommodate several size stamps, but for ease of stamping you will want to eventually get a variety of sizes. If your block is too large for your image it is more difficult to create the right pressure for a perfectly stamped image.

Some questions that tend to surface have to do with a solid stamped image. All clear stamps (at least with all the brands that I have personally purchased need to be "conditioned" before stamping that perfect image on your work.

Conditioning just means that you are getting your clear stamps ready to stamp nice crisp images.

The way I generally condition my stamps is to literally just stamp several times on scratch paper. This has worked for me with all my Clear Dollar Stamps. The lesser quality clear stamps definitely need more conditioning which might even mean getting your sanding paper out. But no worries, not with Clear Dollar!

Another way to "condition" your clear stamps is to run an eraser across your stamps before stamping. In my case, I use the eraser on the end of my mechanical pencil. I only use the white eraser because they seem less gritty in my opinion. You can purchase large white block erasers at your office supply store or you can find white erasers in the pencil form which just means that they are the same shape as the one in my mechanical pencil, but with no pencil part.

All you do is gently run the eraser over the stamp and then gently wipe away any excess eraser either with a baby wipe or on your stamp scrubber. What you are doing is literally "dirtying" or "roughening" your stamp surface so ink will "stick" better to the stamp.

Now you are ready to stamp. Many of the stamp sets are perfect for coloring in with markers, colored pencils, or watercolor pencils, but as I stated above, I want to focus on the beginner stamper so I've chosen some colored cardstock and ink instead. I chose brown ink for my stamp and stamped it on brown cardstock. My piece of brown cardstock is exactly 2"x2". The wonderful component of clear stamps is that you are able to see exactly where you are stamping.

Another item I would like to mention that may help with achieving a nice clean crisp image is something you probably have lying around your house which means its free. It is the foam layer that you are seeing under my cardstock. It often comes in packaging and if you've been good and not purchased anything recently, head on over to your local grocery store to the floral department and they just might have some extra foam for you.

So your question - why? Well, if you noticed, wood mounted stamps come with cushion attached to the wood, but clear stamps do not. The foam acts as that cushion when necessary. The extra foam is something that I like to have on hand, but isn't something that I use all the time. It just depends on the stamp and the surface I'm working on.

In the case of this card, since it is pretty simple I decided to stamp my own background with one of the stamps in this set. Again, due to the "clear" factor I was able to see my spacing and exactly where to put the snow on my card.

Next I adhered my stamped mailbox onto my card and got ready for the finishing touch - the sentiment. Sentiments have got to be the hardest stamps to keep straight and aligned on your card. Again, the "clear" factor comes in. Just ink up, see the placement, and stamp.

So here you have it. It is possible to create your own hand made creations without a lot of expense. This is a great way to start your stamping adventure with Clear Dollar Stamps.

Last but not least is clean up. As you might have noticed in the very beginning, I used baby wipes. Non-alcoholic wipes work well, but I prefer using a stamp scrubber. Don't forget a nice cleaning solution to spray onto your scrubber. Since I added it to my stamping collection I wouldn't give it up.

And finally, clear stamps can lose their cling for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, they loose cling from the very oils in our skins as we are handling them, or just from frequent use, or even a drop onto the floor where our favorite pet resides. Restoring cling is so simple - warm water and if necessary just a pinch of liquid soap. Just gently wash and let air dry. If this does not return the cling, you will need to put a little rubbing alcohol on a paper towel and wipe the back of your stamp. Make sure to rewash your stamp with soap and water to remove the alcohol. Simple as that!

So that's it for my contribution to Clearly iStamp. I hope you learned something informative whether you are a new or old stamper.

If you have any questions regarding Clear Dollar Stamps please ask away.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Katie
for Clearly iStamp Blog