There are two different types of stamps that Stampin’ Up! offer, Cling Stamps, often called Red Rubber Stamps and Photopolymer, often called Clear Stamps.
These are two very different types of stamps but work rather similarly to create your crafting project. Both can be used with any ink, however if you used Stazon with Photopolymer, clean with the Stazon Cleaner and wash with water immediately as the cleaner can sometimes eat away at the stamp.
Under no circumstances use your Stampin’ Blends on the stamps, this will permanently discolour your stamp badly and will cause you issues when stamping. As Stampin’ Blends contain alcohol based ink and it will dry incredibly fast, however you can use Momento or any of the Classic Stampin’ Ink Pads on the stamp to create your image to then colour the image with the Stampin’ Blends.
Cling Stamps are made of a red rubber that, they are opaque rubber stamps which can be daunting to stampers because you cannot see the cardstock below what you are stamping. I recommend a Stamp Positioning tool (currently unavailable from Stampin’ Up! or to use the grid paper to align your stamps.
They do however give a nice, crisp, clean stamped image to your project. They come in all shapes and sizes and are still being used today, long time stampers may remember when these red rubber stamps mounted on wood blocks, they’re not much different today however they come with a Cling sticker. These stickers stick to the foam on the pad and then stick/cling to your clear blocks.
Photopolymer on the other hand are clear, very easy to align and because of this are what all two-step stamping sets come as. They can be easily lined up to create dimension to stamped images. Gone are the acrylic plastic stamps of the past that don’t give a crisp image and you get frustrated. Photopolymer stamps are much more superior than the old Acrylic stamps.
You just need to condition them a bit, this is because the come with a film over them which is left over from production. This is easy to do. You can rub your finger over the surface until it goes slightly cloudy. You can also stamp them with Versamark first to condition them.
Both types of stamps are widely used and work really well and most stampers don’t have a preference for which type of stamp the choose to work with.
Photopolymer stamps may become discoloured but if you clean them they will still work, this usually happens with Pink/Purple/Red colours more but as long as you wipe them off and clean them the stamp will still be see-through and work as normal.
To get any stamp set Cling or Photopolymer follow this link – www.thestampingsanctuary.stampinup.net or go to www.stampinup.uk and Find Demonstrator in top left corner and type Gavin Spence
