If you have been experimenting with rubber stamps for awhile, you can remember when you forgot to clean a rubber stamp, the one you just stamped with a dark blue stamp pad, and began ink’n it up on a nice light colored stamp pad…It’s ruined! It only takes one mistake to ink a light colored stamp pad, and the only way to stop it is to clean your stamps completely. But…what ways are the best to make sure your stamps get clean?
Art rubber stamps don’t need to be cleaned between your stamping if you plan on using the same dyes with that rubber stamp again before switching. Don’t get so overworked with cleaning the stamps that you don’t enjoy using them. You can always place a stamp face down on a damp 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 seep 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 white paper towel to test stamp and ensure that the ink has dried. Many a stamper has believed the art rubber stamp was simply stained by the ink only to discover that some ink or cleaner remained .
The fastest solution to get off dyes or colorants is to use a commercial rubber stamp cleaner available at your local craft store. These can be a bit expensive and if you run out while still stamping projects, you’ll want to use one of these other methods to keep your rubber stamps clear of any ink.
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 ink. Some stampers like to use a paint cleaner to get the deep places of the stamp die clean. Be careful if using a brush because you don’t want to spatter ink all over your clothes!Make sure the brush bristles are very flexible since you don’t want to scratch your art stamp while cleaning it.
Rubber stamping is a blast 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 tacky after using any of the above mentioned cleaning solutions. Keeping your stamping supplies clean serves many purposes and will make the stamps look much better and avoiding the issue of accidentally ruining another ink pad!
Nice work