My Teresa Collins Stampmaker arrived late last week and I have been having a great time experimenting with it. I wasted 2 “Imagepacs” before getting it right, so read on for my tips to help you avoid the same fate.
Here was what my design looked like in Inkscape:
Here is what the stamps look like when they are finished and (temporarily) mounted:
Here is what the stamped images look like:
-Use the small imagepacs for your initial tries. That way if it doesn’t work you have less to lose.
-Proofread, proofread, proofread and be sure you have the image exactly the way you want it before you burn the stamp. I accidentally reversed the order in the faith Bible verse (Hebrews 11:1) when I made the stamp.
-Leave about a quarter of an inch between different designs on the same Imagepac. If you put them closer it will be really difficult to cut them apart and you may end up sacrificing some images.
-Avoid arranging images close to the corners as this is where the pouches tend to pucker. Also be sure that the plastic and gel is completely smooth and flat underneath your images. Any wrinkles, puckers or creases will ruin the stamp.
-When they say the image has to be really black, they aren’t kidding. It needs to be as black as the ones they send you. Use the film provided and follow the directions exactly and you should be fine. Do not try to burn the stamps with a light image or you will end up with a solid block of stamp material (my first try). If your image is not quite dark enough, your stamp will look OK, but your stamped image will be muddy since the stamp image will not be raised enough with respect to the surrounding area (my second try).
I’m giving away the corrected faith circle word art in case you want to make your own stamp or just use it as a digistamp. It is sized to use with a 2 inch circle punch at 300 dpi. Click on the image to see it full size and then right click and select Save Image As… to download. I’d love to see what you make with it.
Cool stamps! I have not tried this yet, although I have tried your cut and print method. Thanks so much for sharing all your knowledge and experience with us. I have pix on my blog today of what I’ve done with your tutorial.
Thanks, Amy. Love the journaling tag especially!
Very cool!
VERY cool! I had been wondering how well those worked–now I know! And that could be a bad thing for my checkbook . . .
Thanks for sharing!
So glad it worked for you-you do very nice work
That machine is on my Christmas wish list (and that’s a BIG WISH!!!) Yeah, one of those, “honey it will count for Christmas, Birthday, Anniversary, Easter and everything else in between for the next xxxx years!!! I am so glad I found your post so I could see evidence that it truly works! You are an awesome artist!!!
Oh now that is AWESOME!!!!!
It’s nice to not have to spend the money to find out if this machine works. Thanks so much for sharing your experience. Now I’ll have to have faith I’ll be able to purchase it someday! Thanks so much for the stamp, I love it.
Many thanks for the info – this kit is next on my list and it’s good to see that it really does make stamps. Have you tried making stencils or embossing plates yet? Knowing how these gel sachets work the most important thing is to make sure your black is black. I also read somewhere that for intricate designs( not great for alphas) instead of printing your stamp sheet you can cut your designs out of black card with a digital cutter ( like cutting a stencil in black card) and use that to make your stamp, so it’s one of the experiments I’ll be doing as soon as I get the kit.
That “solid block stamp” is your “mirror image” stamp… if you have a design you would like to have stamped in mirror image, stamp onto the solid block and then stamp your solid block onto the paper, fabric, etc…
Very clever! It wasn’t quite that flat but I probably should have kept it and used it for a background or something.
Do you have to use an inkjet printer for this? I’ve ordered this but I really don’t want to have to buy a new printer too.
According to their lit, some laser printers will print dark enough, but not all.
Thanks! I guess I’ll just have to experiment!
I love what you have done…I am trying to learn to use Inkscape. Can you do an something on that? Thanks Maile
How does this compare to the cricut’s ability to make stamps and stencils. What would make me spend almost $200. for another gadget and proprietary supplies. Thanks
Hi Evelyn, and good question! You can do very detailed images with the TC Stampmaker (pretty much anything you can print), whereas with the Cricut you can only do large images that are not very detailed (stamp material is hard to cut and can’t hold much detail). You can not really do sentiment stamps with the Cricut, for instance. Like the Cricut, the TCS is not for everybody, but for stampers who already spend a lot on stamps, this would pretty quickly pay for itself.
Oh, you mentioned stencils, too and I think for those I would use the Cricut.
If making a stamp with words, do you have to mirror image it before printing? I know on cricut, I have to mirror image for iron ons, so I was wondering if this worked the same. I don’t want a backward stamp. ^_^
Thanks in advance.
You do not have to mirror the image before printing but the stamp does end up mirrored. Make sure you follow the instructions carefully.
Thank you so much for responding! I just got it, so I wanted to make sure to lessen my chances of wasting materials. I’m sure I will, it’s inevitable, but one less chance.. heh Thanks again, greatly appreciated!!
is this image copyrighted?
Yes, but is free for personal use.