Tuesday’s Tip is an ‘outside of the box’ use for a VersaMark pad. I don’t recall where or exactly when I heard it but it works!
When you first use a new photopolymer stamp set, sometimes your image doesn’t print as sharply as you’d like it to despite how well you’ve inked it up. Sometimes there’s a bit of invisible residue from the production process that’s left on the stamp’s surface. Cleaning the stamp doesn’t seem to remove this residue. When one of my stampers was having trouble getting a greeting to stamp without some blank spots this little tip came to mind. I tried gently ‘inking’ the stamp on my VersaMark pad and then gently tapping it off several times on a piece of Grid Paper. Then we inked the stamp again with Classic Ink and test-stamped it on grid paper to hopefully see a better image. Voila! A nice clear fully inked stamped image.
Today I tried duplicating the class issue so I could share this tip. I pulled out two barely used stamp sets: the leaf from Planted Paradise and several images from Hooray for Surprises. Of course I couldn’t duplicate the problem. If you look VERY CLOSELY at my samples below you can see that the images with the arrows pointing at them are slightly more fully colored in. I think the first three leaves, were pretty much “operator error” but the image with the #2 arrow pointing at it is stronger than the first four. The two images on the left, just above the Stampin’ Up! logo, are weakly inked–little tiny dots of uninked area. The one on the right is richly inked although the stamper (that would be me) didn’t do a very good job stamping it on the paper! The HOORAY greeting inked up just fine. And finally the cake. The image on the left has little blank spots when you look closely, looking like the stamp pad needs to be reinked. A tap on the Versamark pad and then a normal tap of the Garden Green stamp pad worked perfectly.
Bottom line: if you can’t get a good strong image from a new photopolymer stamp try today’s trick. Clean the stamp with your Stampin’ Scrub and Stampin’ Mist or your Simply Shammy, tap it on a VersaMark pad (you can see those VersaMark images on the paper–they look like shadows), stamp gently on Grid Paper or scrap card stock and then ink it up (again) in the color you wanted to use in the first place. You should get a nice strong image. Can you notice the difference in quality and intensity on the words ‘you are simply amazing’? The second image is definitely sharper but you have to be looking hard to see it.
I hope this tip helps you when your new photopolymer stamps don’t ink up thoroughly. Taking a few minutes to get those images to stamp fully is time well spent.
Thank you so much for popping in today. Please leave a comment below if you’re looking for a specific project or technique. And don’t forget to make a card and then make someone’s day by sending it to them.
