Cleaning stamps

I have a little tip I'd like to share with my blog viewers. Now I'm quite sure that rubber stampers know this, but just in case they don't, I'd like to share a real money saver.

Here I've used Staz-on on both stamps, then stamped over a portion of the face using white pigment ink. Could it be any more disastrous for someone who likes to keep her rubber stamps pristine? Someone (can't remember the company) makes an expensive solvent cleaner (solvent cleaner is used when you stamp with Staz-on) that comes in a 2 oz bottle with a dauber on top. . I know because I have a bottle of it. Once the dauber gets dirty, you have to clean it on a paper towel, thus wasting more of the expensive cleaner. To save money, grab a paper towel and some 91% isopropyl alcohol. You can clean your stamps for less than a penny.


After a couple of minutes, my rubber stamps were back the way I liked them: pristine. Just to prove I didn't take the photo before I used the rubber stamps, I saved back one of the Christmas cards to prove it.

I like to leave my unmounted rubber on my clear acrylic blocks while I'm cleaning them, too. Since I use Wacky Tac (a product my neighbor gave me in 2004 that is a repositionable glue), I don't like to get any moisture on the glued side of the rubber. I also prefer this product to any double sided tape, repositionable or not, because when the tape stops being functional (which it will over time), it is nasty and glops up your acrylic block. It might not be so bad with red rubber, but those clear acrylic stamps would look pretty horrible, I suspect.

And now it's time for me to clean my teflon craft sheet while everyone goes back to making art!