It's clearly a swap!!



Phew, this one was close. The due date on my latest swap is Monday and I finally finished it and am shipping it off to Ohio today. As you know, I have been doing some card swapping lately and this is my latest creation. This is also the second time that I am using clear stamps. The first time I tried them at the convention and I was very impressed. This time, not so much. It could have something to do with the manufacturer, who in this case is Inkadinkado, so I will have to try different brands before I completely make up my mind.

The idea of clear stamps is great for a variety of reasons:

* The storage is a breeze because they come on thin, little sheets which you can file in a drawer.
* You will get by just fine with owning only two or three acrylic blocks for your entire stamp collection.
* You can also see exactly where you are stamping, thus you will be able to achieve accurate positioning without help from stamp-a-ma-jig.
* To top it off, you can place few images at one time on the acrylic block.
* Oh yeah, they are also rather cheap.

And cheap they are. One of the main disadvantages of clear stamps is that they just don't deliver that crisp image that I am looking for. You can immediately (at least in my case) tell a clear stamp image from a rubber stamp image. Also, since you constantly have to put the stamps on the blocks and then take them off, they do get dirty and need to be washed. Some companies, such as Stampin Up or The Greeting Farm have created rubber stamps with a foam backing which adhere to the acrylic block and can be repositioned, but they are not see thru. I can sort of understand where they are going with it but I am not sold on it either. They are trying to keep the crisp image of a rubber stamp and use the clear block with it. However, working with them, you will still need to use stamp-a-ma-jig.

Bottom line is that it doesn't matter what I think about the rubber or clear stamps. It totally depends on preference and I CLEARLY like the rubber stamps more.... at this point.

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