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Another free Crafts article for you by Kathy Williams
Titled: Acrylic Stamps - Secrets Clean Them Perfectly?
Acrylic Stamps - Secrets Clean Them Perfectly?
Article Summary: Cleaning your stamps doesn't have to be difficult. In this how-to, you'll learn tips to clean your rubber stamps without costing a fortune...or hurting the stamp!
If you have been working with rubberstamps for any amount of time, you can remember when you forgot to clean a rubber stamp, the one you just inked with a dark blue stamp pad, and began inking it up on a nice light colored stamp pad...It's ruined! It only takes a mistake to completely ruin a light colored stamp pad, and the only way to cure it is to clean your stamps completely. But...what is THE best way to clean your art stamps?
Art stamps don't need to be cleaned between your stamping if you plan on using the same colorants with that craft stamp again before switching. Don't get so overworked with cleaning the art stamps that you don't love using them. You can always place a stamp face down on a wet paper towel to keep the ink, dye, or paint moist until you can clean the stamp when you are finished. Don't forget that some inks will permanently stain into the rubber texture and will not come out...no matter what kind of cleaner is used! Before reusing your craft stamp make sure you use a test paper to test stamp and ensure that the ink has dried out. Many a papercrafter has believed the stamp was simply stained only to realize that some ink or cleaner remained and inadvertently ended up ruining another ink pad.
To remove light colored inks (yellows, pink, light blue, white, etc.) you can simply tap the art stamp on a paper towel, then daub the towel into the grooves and let the ink dry. If you do decide to scrub the stamp with a commercial stamp cleaner using the scrubber on top, be sure not to scrub to hard or the felt will get into the cracks of the stamp and can make the images look fuzzy and streaked. Stamp cleaners work so well because they contain additives that dissolve the toughest inks like blacks and blues. In addition to using the scrubby top of a commercial craft stamp cleaner, you can use an old white sock.
Another way to clean craft stamps, and one of the fastest, is to use alcohol free baby wipes. Alcohol free baby wipes work great because they are disposable and just damp enough to clean off the pigment. Some stampers like to use a brush to get the grooves of the stamp die clean. Be careful if using a brush because you don't want to spray ink all over your clothes!Make sure the brush bristles are very flexible since you don't want to scar your craft stamp while cleaning it.
Everyone loves rubber stamping and cleaning your art stamps shouldn't be task! You may find you have to use a commercial cleaner every so often if your stamps start to get sticky after using any of the above mentioned cleaning solutions. Keeping your stamping supplies clean is a good idea and will make the stamps look much better and avoiding the problem of accidentally ruining another ink pad!
Article Source: http://www.upublish.info
About the Author:
Kathy Williams
Kathy Williams is a stamp art crafter and loves working withrubber art stamps.
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