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I know there are several who have unmounted all of there wood mounted stamps & gone to using acrylic blocks.
1. Are you still glad that you did this & have no regrets?
2. Did you find it hard to change your mind set about using acrylic instead of wood?
I keep tossing around going this route. I have a ton of wood mount stamps & they take up so much room. When we moved I lost my craft room & have now been relegated to a corner of the family room so space is a big thing I don't have. One day I hope to have a craft room again, but that won't be until we move again and are able to build, but that could be a few years.
__________________ Suzanne "Wear fabulous underwear even if you are the only person that is going to see it"
1. Are you still glad that you did this & have no regrets?
I have absolutely no regrets. Mine was a space issue as well. Now all my stamp sets fit on a shelf in CD cases and they are so nice and neat and organized. I bought a labeler and labeled the spines of the CD cases and alphabetized them. So easy to get to now!
2. Did you find it hard to change your mind set about using acrylic instead of wood? I love the acrylic! I honestly don't know what the big deal is about wood. I prefer the acrylic...pulling the rubber on and off is not a biggie! You will love it.
I have no regrets. Now nearly 7 weeks later I am finding I am stamping more with less frustration (organization and space is a dream). I was worried about switching but now I cannot imagine why I stayed with the wood so very long. Also, I am now saving money buying from companies with the unmounted option and I love the companies that come with the cling (TAC, Cornish Heritage Farms, etc.). I not only don't regret it but I just am so much happier with my sets in CD cases all within reach of my table. I took 9 sets in my PURSE!!!! to stamp club last night.
Some Michael's have Grafix Cling Vinyl, but I have never heard of them having EZ Mount. I buy both the Grafix and the EZ Mount from www.wilde-ideas.com
1. Are you still glad that you did this & have no regrets?
I am so glad - I have absolutely no regrets. Keep in mind that I did not transfer all my wood mounts, only new items will not be mounted, and I now tend to buy unmounted stamps only.
2. Did you find it hard to change your mind set about using acrylic instead of wood?
I did not find this hard. I actually have more stamps at my disposal on my stamp table because I can bring a big 3 ring binder full of UM's to the table and have access to them. With my wood mounts, they are in drawers and I'd have to keep getting up and down to go thru them.
HI!
1. No regrets. Wishing I had done this alot sooner. Even our DD who just turned 9 has no trouble using the unmounteds
2. I found the task of unmounting and adding the tack it over and over a bit daunting. Felt like I'd never get it done, but I unmounted close to 6,000 stamps. I knew this was a long term project. They are all finally done, look and work great. I love the ease of grabbing a binder (all binders are labeled with the theme) and just stamping away. Clean up is a snap, storage space is a cabinet with shelves and a drawer, and all the binders are in one place. I can find my images a lot faster than digging through the Iris Cart drawers.
I have started and will probably keep going. I also have unmounted my wheels and stuck them on easy cling. I love some of the images and just wasn't using the wheels and cartridges. It was fun.
__________________ Kristina Wife, Mommy, Stamper, Nurse Laura 6yo Jack 5yo, James 4/20/08 Megan arrived 3/16/09
1. No regrets at all. So much more space, I like the folders with all my stamps on the same subject together so I mix and match more. Much easier to take with me. I got some black folders from Sunday Morning (Is that the name?) and it is so nice to carry that back and forth instead of a huge box of wooden mounts. Only bother to me is that the tack it over and over doesn't always hold that well and some stamps fall out of the binders. Don't want to switch everything to EZ mount right now.
2 I love the acrylic, especially those with grid marks. Look for acrylic with nicely finished edges since it does make a difference to the feel in your hand.
__________________ Pam
Ring the bell that still can ring, forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets through. Leonard Cohen
Positively no regrets! I store mine in CD cases in a revolving CD holder. I have them numbered by 100"S (Flowers are in the 100 side, Masculine in the 200,etc) I have them cataloged in a binder. It is the best move I could have made.
I love my unmounts!
I agree w/ Pam about getting nice blocks, the ones with the beveled edges make a big difference, I have a couple of flat edge ones and they are not as comfortable to use!
What is the best place to buy the acrylic blocks that are easy on the hands?
The Angel Company is now selling "block buddies" which are suction cup handles for acrylic blocks. There are two varieties. If you want any further info you can pm me.
HTH
I just recently decided to go unmounted. I do not have the ambition at this point to unmount all my previously mounted stamps.....but any new sets that I buy I am unmounting. I am trying a mix of graffix vinyl cling and ez-mount. I have not decided which I like better.....the vinyl cling seems to work great with the close to my heart acrylic blocks.... How do you unmount the wheels?
Location: In Utah, in a daydream about what new stamps could be coming!
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I've never done it because I love the wood so much. I would rather have shelves full of sets. I have had a couple of customers who tried doing the "unmounting" thing and were upset they did it. Their complaints were that the images didn't stamp as "clean" as they did when mounted to wood and that some of their images got lost. It looks like there's a few who have liked it though. I guess it's all in your own taste of how you like to do things.
I really hesitated to go unmounted, but have not looked back. I have twinges sometimes about the "re-sale" value of unmounting my stamps, but 1) I didn't have that many to begin with 2) I buy stamps not for an investment, but because I love to stamp! If I can't sell ones I've "outgrown" because they are unmounted, then I will give them to a good cause.
I have made two exceptions to unmounteds:
1) I mount all my BG stamps ( I only have about 5). With that much rubber, I'm afraid of them stretching out of shape after pulling them off the blocks over and over. I'm also a little leery of them getting mounted a little crooked (especially something with a "grain" like canvas and linen) and having it ruin the look of the card.
2) I have some very, very small stamps that came in sets. Each image is about the size of a dime. They come in handy for adding a little something to envelopes. They take up so little space that I just leave them in the cardboard box they came in and keep them on my desk.
The cling vinyl you add to the stamp with the original foam cushion - if it is a new set, you just peel off the paper backing and put the cling on that.
The ezmount you would use with rubber alone - either if you get truly unmounted (no foam) stamps from another company, or if you detach your SU rubber from the foam. The ezmount is a layer of foam that is sticky on one side and not sticky on the other, but it has sort of a static clingly feel to it. So that side will temporarily bond to the acrylic block - through static cling.
The cling vinyl does the same thing it temporarily bonds the rubber stamp image to the acrylic block through static cling.
I love unmounted, especially for alphabets - you can actually set up several letters on the block at one time - works great until you have to repeat a letter! Hey, it is still better than having to stamp each letter individually.
Location: East of the Rockys and West of the Rest Canada!
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I just started using TAC stamps, and now I have in my hot little hands some unmounteds from High Hopes. I am playing with all of them trying to come up with something I am happy with.
I don't plan on unmounting my mounted sets, but I am trying to come up with a way to use new ones without pulling the rubber from the foam. I may have a way to do it, but have to try it to see if it works.
Wonderful idea about leaving the backgrounds unmounted! I always 'turtle' my background stamps and use a brayer. The most frustration I have is the brayer rolling off. I think doing it unmounted would make it easier.
I just started unmounting my stamps. I love the feel of the wood so I applied Tack it over and over to one side of the wood block. On the rubber stamp I kept the rubber and grey cushion together and put the clear vinyl picture of the stamp (which usually would go on the wood ) on top of the grey cushion. When I want to stamp I just pick a wood block that will fit the stamp and slap on the rubber stamp. So far so good but I've only been doing this a few days. Not enough room was my reason for going unmounted.
I have not regretted it at all. I have about 200 CD cases full of stamps that take up about a square foot of floor space in a CD cabinet. Much nicer than the 8 Iris carts I used to have. I love how portable my stamps are. I can grab a few ink pads, some paper, and a few CDs of stamps and I'm good to go. I my invest in the SU spots to continue my downsizing.
The inky antics cubes are nice and if you want larger blocks, you can get nice ones from Prairie Stamper http://www.prairiestamper.8m.com/
I got the majority of my blocks from the Prairie Stamper as well. Rena is a gem to work with. Her blocks are truely beautiful too. They are thicker than TAC's and do not have the beveled edge, which I prefer. They just feel good in my hands. I also had her make a couple of custom blocks for me.
I get my EZMount from Sunday International. They have great prices. I prefer the EZMount over the vinyl cling (which they also carry) and I can't stand Alene's Tac it Over. It just grabs too much kitty hair and my kitties love to drag them off my stamping table.
__________________ ~Barbara
Wife to the most wonderful man in the world - he sits through all my "look what I made!" sessions!
I had been toying with the idea of going unmounted for more than a year. I finally decided to take the plunge- halfway. I decided to unmount all of my non-SU stamps ( the ones I've bought at stamp stores and Michaels, etc.). I thought I would try this for a while to see whether or not I wanted to continue with my SU! stamps. So far, I love it! I love being able to line up my images exactly. This really feeds my perfectionist tendencies!
I just bought one package of vinyl cling from Michaels, since it's really inexpensive and it goes a LOOOONNNGGG way. I haven't needed to buy EZ Mount yet since I haven't purchased "unmounted" stamps without foam on them yet.
I just wanted to add one thing that I do. If I'm in a hurry and want to use that new unmounted stamp and haven't put it on EZmount yet, I just slap a piece of double sided tape on it and stamp. Its a great quick fix. Plus, I do this when I get grab bags. It helps me decide if I like and want the image before I do all the mounting. HTH
__________________ ~Barbara
Wife to the most wonderful man in the world - he sits through all my "look what I made!" sessions!
I know I am probably the opposite of everyone -- a lot of people say they find it great to have them for storage, but I find I work with them so much less --I am a very visual person and I find this harder to work with -- I like having the picture on the top of the stamp and having the stamp already set on something. I have a hard time looking upside down and backwards and stamps to see what they are to stamp with them. Even having a sheet in the box to show what is supposed to be it really slows me down so I am finding I prefer the wood mounted, regardless of the space issue.
I just got my TAC order and I think I am going to get some of my kids' old wooden blocks and mount them so I can use them.
I used unmounted stamps a lot before I became a demo and love that they take up much less room and you can see where you are stamping much easier than with wood. My question is...is there anything within SU policy that prohibits us from using their stamps unmounted with acrylic instead of mounting on their wood? I have been hesitant to violate any rules but would much prefer keeping them unmounted.
okey well i have both some acrylic and mostly wood mount and I have to say on the go Acrylic's are nice for the less room they take however I don't fine it much of a time saver when it comes to stamping, to srtick them on to the acrylic block each time you want to stamp then to change the stamp to diffrent on you have to remove the first stamp and then again stick the next on to your acrylic block this for me is tedious, pherhaps if you have many acrylic blocks and can stick all the stamps you plan to use to each acrylic block them you wouldn't need to remove them each time to stamp another one, well then is it really saving space? since you need so many acrylic blocks, doing it that way, then not really any more than a wood mounted set. I guess it you are planing on only stamping it once or twice and don't have to change to another stamp in the set the removing it isn't a big deal but for me when I was in a card swap I was making 10 cards of diffrent themes and it became a issue, with my wood mount ones i can just have them all out no worry on mounting them each use and I don't have to wash them untill i'm compleatly done using them.
Maybe I'm just to picky when i mount and perfer to do it only once. Not that i don't like them but I don't really see the space saving point and the mounting over and over and over is just not for me, so I see no specail quality they have in comparing them to wood ones, A stamp is a stamp
I have 300 sets and they take up about 5-10% of what they used to. My 8 acrylic blocks are in a cute little box on my table top. They save so much space it is amazing.
All of my TAC stamps are on EZmount. I found some old window cling holiday decorations that I no longer used and have used that on my other stamps that used to be on wood blocks!
__________________ Sally Taylor, Fun Stampers Journey Coach #1118
I've never seen a written policy that specifically addresses using SU stamps UM -- but that doesn't mean there isn't one! ;) If you're talking about your *personal* stamping use, I can't imagine why SU would care. I don't think it's a good idea to try *demo-ing* them UM, though -- because that isn't how they are sold. That would be closely akin to demonstrating a non-SU product at a workshop, I'd think. When in doubt, go to the source -- SU itself.
I used all my SU stamps UM until I became a demo -- since then, I've mounted them on the wood. (I don't do workshops per se, but I've taught people to stamp and how to assemble and mount the SU stamps.) If they're already familiar with the concept of UM stamps, they can decide for themselves what they want to do. If not, I don't suggest the UM alternative -- but if they ask, I'll show them how I store and use my UM stamps. If you're in a position where you'd have to re-mount some of your SU sets in order to demo them at a workshop, I'd definitely check with SU first. I'm pretty sure they're going to tell you all stamps you demo need to be wood-mounted, but I could certainly be wrong. Give it a shot -- it never hurts to ask!
I do know from direct experience that it's a LOT harder to sell retired UM sets than the wood-mounted ones. If you're considering selling your retireds, you might want to keep that in mind.
Happy trails....
Sue
Quote:
Originally Posted by stampinsandyaz
Maybe someone could answer a question I have...
I used unmounted stamps a lot before I became a demo and love that they take up much less room and you can see where you are stamping much easier than with wood. My question is...is there anything within SU policy that prohibits us from using their stamps unmounted with acrylic instead of mounting on their wood? I have been hesitant to violate any rules but would much prefer keeping them unmounted.
? for those who have gone from wood to unmounted
