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When I got my first Photopolymer stamps several ages ago I looked far and wide for some information about how to use them but there wasn’t really very much except for the praise that you can place them accurately because they are clear, that you are not supposed to use alcohol-solvent inks on them (like stazon) and that you are supposed to store them away from light. That was about it. So lets see what I can write down from my own experience. And its just that, my own rambles, nothing written in stone, nothing that you could not do better or find some place else!
Lets see what these look like and then look at some different inks.
When you want to use your stamps, you need to peel them off the storage sheet that they come on. Put some pressure on a wider edge of the stamp and start rolling it off the sheet, when you have enough where you can grab it, do that and slowly peel the stamp off. The stamp can stretch terribly but this will not hurt it. Use common sense, if you have a stamp with a skinny part, don’t rip on it cause I’m sure you could rip it off! You can see here I am peeling off a fairly dirty stamp, I used this one so you can see it
Now place your stamp onto an acrylic block of the right size. Always use the smallest block that the stamp will fit on, this gives you more control when stamping! The first thing you’ll notice is that you got no cushion! Look how skinny this thing is compared to a regular rubber stamp with cling cushion!! This WILL influence on how your stamping goes. If you are very used to using wood-mounted or block mounted rubber stamps with cushion, this thing will feel very flat and you may be inclined to give it more pressure than it needs while you are stamping. Key word here is: be gentle!!
Because if you’re not, see what happens. On the left side I used a very gentle touch stamping, JUST so that I get an image. On the right side I used a heavier pressure and it gets all smudgy and the lines are a lot heavier than desired. And I don’t mean heavy as in whole body experience pushing down, just a bit stronger than my arthritic fingers like to do right now This of course, totally depends on the ink that you are using, how old your ink pad is, the surface you are stamping on and so on. I used ordinary cheap absorbent thin white card stock for my samples. Not my first choice for making cards, but great for showing samples!
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