Splitcoaststampers.com - the world's #1 papercrafting community
You're currently viewing Splitcoaststampers as a GUEST. We pride ourselves on being great hosts, but guests have limited access to some of our incredible artwork, our lively forums and other super cool features of the site! You can join our incredible papercrafting community at NO COST. So what are you waiting for?
I bought this great maple leaf stamp at Michael's on sale this week. So last night I decided to try it with different Perfect Pearls to create a background for a fall card.
I took the small Perfect Medium pad and dabbed it onto the stamp like I would with a small cube stamp pad. Well, after the first leaf, the pad started disintegrating and leaving chunks of yellow foam on the stamp. :confused:
Is this normal? Did I do it wrong? Or do I have a defective Perfect Medium pad? I only bought these Perfect Pearls about 2 months ago; certainly not long enough to have gone bad, right?
Any suggestions? I really loved the final product, so I need to figure this out so that I can do more. TIA!
babydal57.......To use the Perfect Pearls, you would first stamp the image with the Perfect Medium ink pad. Then take the small paint brush included with the Perfect Pearls and gently dab on the Perfect Pearls powder to just the area that has the Perfect Medium ink on it. There should be nothing to blow away like you would with embossing powder. You only use the Perfect Pearls very sparingly.
It sounds like perhaps you may have used too much Perfect Pearls in the process. It's a very fine powder and a very little goes a very long way.
If I'm off base with my response, I'm sorry. I'm responding per my understanding of your post.
Patti
If by chance you are using Pearls Ex instead of the Perfect Pearls, that's a whole other issue and process.
babydal57.......To use the Perfect Pearls, you would first stamp the image with the Perfect Medium ink pad. Then take the small paint brush included with the Perfect Pearls and gently dab on the Perfect Pearls powder to just the area that has the Perfect Medium ink on it. There should be nothing to blow away like you would with embossing powder. You only use the Perfect Pearls very sparingly.
It sounds like perhaps you may have used too much Perfect Pearls in the process. It's a very fine powder and a very little goes a very long way.
If I'm off base with my response, I'm sorry. I'm responding per my understanding of your post.
Patti
If by chance you are using Pearls Ex instead of the Perfect Pearls, that's a whole other issue and process.
Thanks so much for your input! But I'm fine with the powder part. It's the Perfect Medium that is the problem. The "ink" pad is disintegrating on me and the foam is sticking to the stamp along with the gluey stuff, KWIM? The Perfect Medium pad is all icky now, not square, because so much of the foam has been torn off.
I had that same thing happen with one of my Perfect Medium pads, but I know that I had that pad opened for at least 2 years, and I was using it to stamp with a balloon filled with rice, so I thought that the rice might have been digging into the pad and ruined it. I didn't get too bent out of shape because it was also the small pad that came with the set, and I knew I wanted to get a full-size one.
There's no way your pad should have disintegrated when you've only had it for a couple of months (although it might have been on the store shelf a lot longer than that). I would try contacting the manufacturer and see what they have to say.
I'm wondering if, since the Perfect Medium is actually kind of sticky, that if the pad needs re-inking, the dry pad is too sticky and kind of glues the pad to the stamp (or whatever), so that it tears when you pull it back?
I had that same thing happen with one of my Perfect Medium pads, but I know that I had that pad opened for at least 2 years, and I was using it to stamp with a balloon filled with rice, so I thought that the rice might have been digging into the pad and ruined it. I didn't get too bent out of shape because it was also the small pad that came with the set, and I knew I wanted to get a full-size one.
There's no way your pad should have disintegrated when you've only had it for a couple of months (although it might have been on the store shelf a lot longer than that). I would try contacting the manufacturer and see what they have to say.
I'm wondering if, since the Perfect Medium is actually kind of sticky, that if the pad needs re-inking, the dry pad is too sticky and kind of glues the pad to the stamp (or whatever), so that it tears when you pull it back?
Thanks. I emailed Ranger explaining the issue. We'll see what they have to say... I guess I'll just use a coupon and buy a new, larger Perfect Medium pad 'cause I love the results that I got! :-D
I just had this happen to me last week too - brand new pad out of the packet and it disintegrated into a mush on inking up the second stamp I used it on. My seller replaced it for me but she sent me a Versamark one (which is fine by me - I use Versamark a lot and the PP sticks to it). I'd be interested to see what Ranger say, I have lots of Ranger products and the quality has always been excellent, this is the first time I've ever had any kind of issue.
i am an avid perfect pearls user and i definitely prefer to use them with versamark. as for sealing after they can be misted lightly with a mister of plain water.
If the Perfect Medium pad is crumbling, it could be that it's just dried out. There is no way to know how long it may have been sitting on the shelf in the store. I would just return it to the store for a new one. For that matter the pad is a milky white color and yellow.
I've never found the Perfect Pearls needing to be set after applying. I just let it be on it's own.
The Pearl Ex is the product that does need to be sealed in some way. I use hair spray. I feel water would just make the paper soggy, not make a protective coating on the product.
If the Perfect Medium pad is crumbling, it could be that it's just dried out. There is no way to know how long it may have been sitting on the shelf in the store. I would just return it to the store for a new one. For that matter the pad is a milky white color and yellow.
I've never found the Perfect Pearls needing to be set after applying. I just let it be on it's own.
The Pearl Ex is the product that does need to be sealed in some way. I use hair spray. I feel water would just make the paper soggy, not make a protective coating on the product.
Patti
I don't know about the OP but my pad didn't crumble - it collapsed into a sticky mush so I'm pretty sure drying out wasn't the problem.
The water doesn't make a protective coating - it bonds with the resins in the Perfect Pearls and makes it permanent. You don't need to soak the paper - just a light misting is enough. What it says on the packaging is:
Ink your rubber stamp with Perfect Medium and stamp onto cardstock. Dust on Perfect Pearls with the small brush and dust off excess with the larger brush. Set with a fine mist of water.
I don't know about the OP but my pad didn't crumble - it collapsed into a sticky mush so I'm pretty sure drying out wasn't the problem.
The water doesn't make a protective coating - it bonds with the resins in the Perfect Pearls and makes it permanent. You don't need to soak the paper - just a light misting is enough. What it says on the packaging is:
Ink your rubber stamp with Perfect Medium and stamp onto cardstock. Dust on Perfect Pearls with the small brush and dust off excess with the larger brush. Set with a fine mist of water.
HTH!
Yes, mine sort of collapsed too. Other than the piece that pulled off, of course. It's not spongy any more like ink pads usually are. And it's super sticky.
Still no reply from Ranger Inks to my email. :rolleyes:
I had the same thing happen to my small Perfect Medium pad. I tried to apply it to a stamp and it smooshed down to a blob of nothing and was unusable. I called Ranger and there were some defective pads. Have your package with you when you call them, as she needed some number that was supposed to be on the bottom of the pad (mine didn't have one). They sent me a replacement in the larger size pad. I've had nothing but praise for their customer service department.
Mine crumbled too, but they were old. When they were new, they worked fine. I use them mostly with acrylic floor finish to create backgrounds now. (Let me know if you'd like the directions.)
I heard from Ranger today. They said that they had some defective small pads and I must have gotten one. They are replacing both of the small pads that I have with one big one and a reinker.
Kudos to them for excellent customer service. I'll definitely be buying more Ranger products. I give my money to companies who stand behind their products and value my business.
Glad to know Ranger will stand behind the pads. I have several of the smaller ones that came with the PP powder, and also bought one of the large ones with a reinker. All have collapsed into a gooey mess, and some of the foam stuck to my stamp and came out of the stamp pad. I will contact Ranger for a replacement.
__________________ Linda E
Caution: You are entering an artistic zone. This is not clutter - this is creating. These are not pajamas - it's my work uniform.
I had the same problem with the ink pads and called them (I'm too impatient to wait for an email reply ) and they sent me new pads for each one that went bad. I was most impressed. I just checked my big pad that's probably 3-4 years old and it still works beautifully. It does look funny, but worked fine and cleaned off my stamp as well. Ditto for being a great company.
__________________ ShariW
Trust in the Lord with all thine Heart-Prov.3:5a
My Perfect Medium pad also fell apart. Although I had never opened it, it had been sitting for quite a while here plus who knows how long it sat in inventory at the store. I don't use that medium anymore. It is basically the same thing as the Versamark pad, works just as well AND you can get the reinkers at SU. I've never had problems with Versamark and if you are worried that it doesn't dry properly, just heat set it for a second and it has always worked great for me. Peggy
I bought this great maple leaf stamp at Michael's on sale this week. So last night I decided to try it with different Perfect Pearls to create a background for a fall card.
I took the small Perfect Medium pad and dabbed it onto the stamp like I would with a small cube stamp pad. Well, after the first leaf, the pad started disintegrating and leaving chunks of yellow foam on the stamp. :confused:
Is this normal? Did I do it wrong? Or do I have a defective Perfect Medium pad? I only bought these Perfect Pearls about 2 months ago; certainly not long enough to have gone bad, right?
Any suggestions? I really loved the final product, so I need to figure this out so that I can do more. TIA!
I am so glad that you asked this question! My Perfect Pearls Medium Pads are doing the exact same thing. I thought maybe it was because I had not used them for a long time, however even the sealed ones did this:confused:
Perfect Pearls/Perfect Medium
