Hello there! Thank you for joining us today at The Papercrafting Magazine for a picture heavy, yet very effective way how to clean your photopolymer stamps AKA clear stamps.
Photopolymer stamps stain easily, which is part of their chemical makeup. A lot of our stamp images on the market now involve line art, solid images, or multi-layered stamps … and this is why it’s important to keep them as clean as possible; the cleaner your images are, the easier is to align or realign your images for perfect placement.
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Fussy colors, such as red, blue, and purple with water-based ink is challenging to remove. Permanent, pigment, Distress, etc., have their own chemical properties, all of which require formulated ink removers.
I’ve found a way to work around that without damaging or breaking down the compound of your photopolymer stamps.
This is how clean I got my photopolymer stamp after stamping it for the first time in a berry color.
You have to work quick to make it work using one industry product and a household product + a sink.
The above is where I re-inked and stamped the clean image again onto 120 lb white cardstock.
This is what my image looked like after I stamped it. It’s a bit messy.
After I stamped the image, I immediately took it to my kitchen sink and lightly rubbed it over a bit of Staz-On remover for permanent ink, took my kitchen sponge to do a teensy scrub, then used household dish soap under a warm faucet to remove the rest of the ink.
And again, below is the end result.
In full disclosure, Staz-On is not recommended for photopolymer stamps; however, I have not experienced any stamp breakdown to date.
I hope you enjoyed today’s quick tip.
Cindy Coutts is from California, US. She has been writing for TPC since 2023. Cindy started paper crafting in 2007 and she mostly into cardmaking, scrapbooking, redesign and trying out new techniques. Her paper projects are often made in Clean and Simple style with a variety.