Stampin' Up and Photopolymer Stamps

I must admit that I have been sadly unproductive in my craft cave this past week.  I had hoped to get lots of stamping done at night when the kids were in bed and be in a joyous, happy zone every night but the things I attempted to stamp did not always turn out as expected.  Plus I was sluggishly slow due in part to the gigantic mess in my craft cave.  (It was still reeling from the after effects of stamptacular and my coffee and card class last Friday).  Yesterday afternoon I sat down to be productive but got distracted by my brand new photopolymer stamps.  I had to try them.  I was shocked when I saw that Stampin' Up! is doing a trial of this type of stamp.  I love their rubber and I love the quality of the stamped image that I get.  "Why fix what ain't broke?" I thought to myself.  Here's their first photopolymer stamp set.  It's called Designer Type.  This is what it looks like.

I have several observations:

There is a stinky smell associated with them so if you have sensory issues, these are not the stamps for you.

The price is cheap!  This set of 57 stamps is $16.95. 

They are very sticky and cling to the clear block very well!  Yea for that!

Exact placement is possible since you can see through the stamp.  No need for a stamp-a-ma jig. 

You're supposed to clean them right away to prevent staining.  I did clean them right away but you can see that the red ink still stained the stamps.  This doesn't really bug me but it's an observation.

There is flexibility in the material so sometimes you can change the look of the stamp. For example, the banner was straight but when I put it on the block, I curved it so that it would look like it was hanging. 

I don't really have an opinion about them yet. I don't hate them which is a good thing because when I first started stamping many years ago, I tried these types of stamps but they must have been lower quality because I remember thinking that the image was not clear and I didn't like them. 

So, instead of crafting for upcoming classes and my tv spot, I started making a card for Kevin using my new photopolymer stamps.  Yes, I'm missing Kevin.  I know friends whose husbands are often away for work so I feel like a silly girl for missing him so much.  I guess I'm used to always having him around.  He's coming home tomorrow!  Okay, I digress.  Here's the card.

Not bad considering I din't use a stamp a ma jig and I wasn't caseing.  I finished it off by pouring crystal effects on each flag of the banner and on the heart. (I got a new bottle of crystal effects and the design of the cap is much better!)

 

I'm not sure whether it is just this particular set but there is not a lot of detail in the images.  It will be interesting to see if they release future photopolymer stamps whether the images will have more detail or whether it's not possible with this material. 

 

Here's a quick video from Brian Pilling at the home office about their photopolymer stamps.