Quick Cut: How to remove StazON from your hand-carved stamps

I'm trying out new ways of making videos, and in this short new video I show how to use StazOn remover to actually get the StazOn off of your stamps.

So I guess the maker of StazOn knows that its permanent ink can be difficult to remove, because of all of the brands of ink that they make, it's the only one that has its own specific remover.  While normally, I'm happy to stamp off my stamps to clean them ("stamp off" meaning to repeatedly stamp on scrap paper until the ink stops transferring), for StazOn ink, reinking the stamp causes the ink to revive and discolour the print.  In the case of the Opaque StazOn (as shown on the stamp in the video), it causes the next colour to bead up and not print properly.

Well, it's a pretty easy fix: the StazOn all purpose cleaner gets the reside off quite nicely and really does do a great job of cleaning up a hand-carved stamp.

I'm looking forward to making another Carve Along (CAL) video soon - so stay tuned!

Carve Along #2: the Holiday Edition

The second Carve Along is here!  The video is already up on YouTube, but if you’d like to join, you can join this free group by signing up here where you will also get access to the free (past and present) CAL sheets so you can carve right along!

In this video I used the sandwich carving material so I could get some gorgeous colour for the poinsettia, but you could use any carving material you like.

Man, I'd love to see your carvings!  Feel free to comment here or message me on on Instagram (you can find me here @cutsandscrapesetsyshop).

Happy carving!

Jo

The perils of Speedy Cut

Hello again everyone!   So it’s been a busy year and I’ve been working on a number of new projects, including another Etsy shop with my sister!  Head over to LatchkeySisters.Etsy.com if you’d like to check out our snarky medieval greeting cards and horrific holiday cards!

But I’ve also been back at filming videos and you can check those out over on my YouTube channel.  However, for the first one I did want to expand a litter on here because I’ve had a lot of public and private comments sent my way supporting the concern I had.  The summary: stay away from Speedy Cut!  So many established carvers I know have sad stories about their very first carving, how their very first attempt at carving had withered and died as a result of this crumbly rubber.  

Okay, so it doesn’t have zero uses, but pretty close.  The only thing I can think of that you might want to use this for is for a young person who needs the softest of soft carving rubbers for learning to carve with a gouge.  This material is so soft, a kitten could carve it with its claws, so this is one of the few uses it has.

Anyway, if you want to see what I’m talking about, check all that out in this video here:

What would I recommend using instead?  Well, Speedy CARVE (not cut), aka "pink stuff" is a great alternative or you could try some sandwich material if you want some better variety of colour.

Happy carving!

Jo