Stampin' Up! have had clear mount stamps available for quite a while now, but many people are still a bit uncertain about them or have had a few issues with them not sticking to the acrylic blocks etc. So I'd suggest taking 10 minutes to read this post, watch the video and if you are still having issues, contact me and we can talk through the issue(s).
Firstly I've used unmounted stamps for many, many years before I joined Stampin' Up! I love the less storage space aspect of unmounted stamps, the financial saving and the ability to create a custom collage on a large clear block, however I have to admit to having tried almost every method on the market for adhering the rubber to the blocks and I think I can say no one method works perfectly 100% of the time (I've had everything from EZ foam that slips off the block, on-off glue that wouldn't come off, glue stick that won't stick, clear film that won't cling......) so my biggest relief when Stampin' Up! said they were going to make clear mount stamps was the initial confusion some people had that they thought Stampin' Up! were going to make polymer (clear) stamps not clear mount stamps - so rest assured the Stampin' Up! stamps are still the very high quality red rubber product they always have been, they are used with clear blocks not the traditional wood ones – hence the name ‘clear mount’.
Being a very visual person, I'd recommend watching this video first, the presenter, Bonnie is such a wonderful lady who I've had the pleasure of meeting in person and knows SO much about stamping, enjoy!
Over time I have changed to suit myself the way I mount and store my Stampin' Up! clear-mount stamps though and it is just my personal preference, not a company recommendation so if you read on just remember this is me not the manufacturer!
I have found if I want to store my DVD cases upright that the rubber pieces all fall to the bottom of the case and in some cases the rubber bends slightly, so to stop this from happening I now leave the rubber surround in the cases. I peel off the paper backing from them and then just use them to keep the stamps in place so they don't warp on storage, with the added bonus of quickly being able to see if any of the stamps are missing from a set, so the cases minus the stamps look like this inside:
I have also found by trimming the label a few mm closer to the printed image before sticking the labels onto the stamps it helps the stamps cling a lot better to the blocks, as you can see below:
and then not sure if you can see because of the dodgy photography, the the stamps look exactly the same once the label is put on, it just clings better!
So did any of that help?? Of course Stampin' Up! are not going to stop making the beautiful wood mount stamps they always have, it's just a question of giving you more choice now.
