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I use both. If a company sells unmounted stamps, I don't go through the trouble of finding wood blocks for them and wood-mounting them. I do have acrylic blocks for those situations.
I prefer wood-mounted. If I didn't have the storage space available, I'd consider switching, but as long as I have the space, I prefer to keep things wood-mounted.
I used to be only a wood gal and would have never changed to acrylic blocks� then I tried it and I found that I really like using the acrylic blocks, especially since I found the right blocks... that really made a huge difference.
The majority of my unmounted stamps are rubber, I only own a few sets of clear stamps. Thats only because I didn�t have the option to purchase the image in rubber. ;)
I prefer wood mounted if I have the choice, but I won't not buy unmounted just because they are unmounted. I buy stamps because I love the design primarily.
I have clear, unmounted and mounted but I find I forget about the unmounted and clear more and always go for the mounted. That might just be because I love SU more.
I could never bear to unmount them though, I love my wood way too much! I'd move to a bigger house before I unmounted!:mrgreen:
Are there for us all to use.No matter what you taste is!!!!
I do own many wood mounted stamps. from Stampin' up and other companines.
In fact I started out with Wood mounted stamps.
But a good friend introduce me to the world of Unmounted Rubber Stamps, That use a Acrylic Block instead of Wood block.
Yes I like them a lot!! 70 set's later. I should like them....lol! But I also continue to use my wood mounted Rubber stamps. Because I like the images from the companies that I have purchase them from.
I have not unmounted my wood mounted Rubber stamps. As I feel that it takes away from the current value of them. Resell Value!
Plus the fact that it cost more to unmount my wood mounted stamps. Time and use of Mircowave oven, and the cost of the Foam sheets.
So for now I am leaving them on wood blocks and use them as they were meant to.
When I joined The Angel Company (TAC) we had two choices of either wood mounted or unmounted Rubber stamps. That was back in 2004, Well when the New Catalog came out for the next year.(05) They did away with the Wood mounted stamps. Personally I LIKED the fact that we sold both styles of rubber stamps. It gave our customer a choice of what they could buy.
But I guess not everyone felt the same way. And since I demo for them. I am going to use the unmounted stamps.
They are growing on me.....by leaps and bounds. Since using them as just unmounted rubber stamps I have grown to love them!!!!!
Also I have found. That since my dh and I like to camp. I can take more Unmounted Rubber Stamps with them. Because they are stored Jewel CD cases. Our last vacation which was the first part of the Month (Sept) I took 16 stamp set's with me. In my Rolling tote. Filled with all my stamping goodies.
I do like the fact that the stamping world out there has opened the door to different choice ot Stamps!!!! Wood mounted Rubber stamps - Unmounted Rubber stamps -Which can be mounted on Wood blocks or Cling foam, hook and Loop, To be used with a Acrylic Block- Acrylic Stamps to be use with a Acrylic block only!
Choice the one you LOVE!
But if you get a chance to Try the other styles. To see which ones you LOVE the Best!!!!
I have lots of everything: wood, unmounted rubber and clear, if I like the image I buy it. If I have a choice I now buy unmounted because they usually cost so much less and for storage space.
btw someone mentioned not being able to use Staz-On on clear stamps, I do it all the time, have since I got my first clear stamps a few years ago and never have a problem except for some staining
Definitely wood. I had some acrylics when I first started stamping and couldn't hold them as well or something. Not sure if they weren't thick enough blocks or what, but they didn't work for me!
I've got 'em all and like 'em all. My kids prefer the poylmer stamps with acrylic blocks because they are hooked on the Inky Antics Turtle sets, they love dressing them up. I was a member of Club Scrap for 4 years so I got hooked on the unmounted rubber and used acrylic blocks and Aleene's Tack It Over to stick on the rubber (I used the HALOS system on one set and it definitely was not for me, I am a SU demo so I have a ton of wood mounted, and wood mounted from other stamp companies, I've gotton a few CTMH polymer sets, I am a member of Scraptivity (a Canadian company that specializes in monthly kits a their Gel-a-Tins line of stamps), they are polymer too. And just recently, you bad peoples have gotten me hooked on TAC and Missy B's rubber with foam and vinyl cling method. Now....what do I prefer......I honestly feel that I get the highest quality images from rubber stamps with a foam cushion: SU, TAC,Missy B etc.... Then the unmounted rubber with no foam, and then the polymer sets like CTMH. I will buy what all varietes of stamps as long as I like the image. It would not bother me one but if SU went with foam and vinyl cling. I'm running out of space and tose wood blocks take up alot of space!!!
The thing I like most about all of the above mention companies is that the stamps are sold in sets. From time to time I will venture out to buy individual stamps, but that is not vert often.
Happy Stamping with whatever method of mouting you prefer!!!!
mine are alll wood mounted, yes it takes up some space, but i have everything in a rubber maid container, organized surprisingly. I have used arylic letters to do titles etc, but it is so much easier for me to cut and mount once, especially with kids... sometimes it takes a bit of time to get my pages done with the kids runnign around, it would take me even longer to do so with having to mount and unmount etc... and at the moment my 4 yr old DS thinks when it is stamping time for mommy it is stamping time for him , so acrylics and remounting would not lost for very long in this house... LoL
but i have used them and can deal with them,
__________________ http://beingamom2.blogspot.com" Mommy of 3 in May 2010 Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons! For you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup"
I have wood no acrylic. I'm not saying that I wouldn't use acrylic but I've never seen any other catalog except for SU. I've heard of CTMH but the other ones you list, I don't know what they are.
I have wood no acrylic. I'm not saying that I wouldn't use acrylic but I've never seen any other catalog except for SU. I've heard of CTMH but the other ones you list, I don't know what they are.
The Angel Company Sells Unmounted Rubber stamps that uses a Ez-mount Foam. One side has a Sticky side that sticks to your rubber. and the other side has a clingy side that clings to any Smooth Surface Such as an Acrylic Block. Here is our Website: http://theangelcompany.net Check it out for yourself.
Our Rubber Stamps are deeply Etched stamps and make a Good impression.
Like others have already mentioned, I use both. I unmount my $1.00 stamps, but keep larger ones & other already mounted mounted. The only SU I mount are the background stamps. I need the space that unmounteds don't take up.
Jac-ee
Most of my stamps are unmounted. When I get a new SU set, I initially mount it on wood because I know I'll be playing with them a lot. Then, once the newness wears off (or I get a new order to play with!) I will unmount them for storage reasons. All of my backgrounds are wood mounted still. A few of my smaller stamps that I use frequently are still wood mounted. If it is a stamp that I only occasionally use though, it is unmounted.
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Rubber unmounted is my first choice. That being said as a SU demo, I obviously prefer SU images. I started unmounting my retired sets and now I really am considering just using all my SU unmounted on vinyl cling. I love the space savings, ease of placement and portability of unmounted. I cannot stand clear stamps. I have to have RUBBER.
__________________
Bridget
Proud to be a former SU Demo & forever USC Gamecock Fan!
The Angel Company Sells Unmounted Rubber stamps that uses a Ez-mount Foam. One side has a Sticky side that sticks to your rubber. and the other side has a clingy side that clings to any Smooth Surface Such as an Acrylic Block. Here is our Website: http://theangelcompany.net Check it out for yourself.
Our Rubber Stamps are deeply Etched stamps and make a Good impression.
Definitely wood. I had some acrylics when I first started stamping and couldn't hold them as well or something. Not sure if they weren't thick enough blocks or what, but they didn't work for me!
Sarah...When I switched to acrylic blocks (with my RUBBER stamps) I was sure I would not like the thin blocks with straight sides. So I ended up buying the CTMH blocks that are 3/4 inch thick with gripping slots down the sides. It is just like using wood as far as holding on to the block. I love them. But I would never buy one that is only 1/2 inch thick. I also have some cubes that are really nice to use.
I must admit, however, that I have a thin one for my backgrounds. But that is because I put the background on the table, rubber side up and inked, put the paper on top of it and brayer to ink the paper. Don't need to hold it!
I voted for wood mounted, which I prefer at this time, but I actually use both. If I see an image or set that I love, there's no sense in passing over it just because it's unmounted!!! Why discriminate??? I just love stamps!!!
__________________ Colee
My Blog: Right Here, Right Now "Come quickly! I am tasting stars!" - Dom Perignon (1638-1714) at his first sip of Champagne
I'm in the slow and sticky process of UNmounting everything. I'm organizing them in CD cases and stamping indexes for each case and sticking a label on the end. I'm storing them in IKEA CD boxes by category (flowers, words, nature, holiday, etc- each label is color coded (pink-flowers, purple words, etc). I don't keep my SU sets together if they belong in different categories (eg words go in one place, images go in proper category elsewhere).
I love SU stamps best- choice of images and quality. I don't like the clear (tried Stampendous so far). I prefer rubber for sure.
I actually went on Craig's List and found a woman giving away 80 CD cases for FREE... was a great find because the 70 cases I had bought at Fry's were fast being used!
I am at a half-way point, but I too hate having a big project that hangs over me so I am up at 1:24am tonight from indexing sets I UNmounted and Cling Mounted last week... so I am planning a big party when I am done.
I attached a couple of pics of the UM stamps in the Ikea boxes...
G'night now.... :(
Quote:
Originally Posted by AddictedScramper
I LOVE and ONLY use unmounted and almost exclusively rubber. I did give in to a few Heidi Swapp acrylic stamps. They were too awesome to pass up. But I can tell a big difference between my rubber and acrylic. Too bad rubber can't be clear. LOL!
I don't keep my SU sets together if they belong in different categories (eg words go in one place, images go in proper category elsewhere).
This is where I am divided about. Prior to unmounting, I stored my sets this way -- divided out based on their category. This worked great for me until I wanted to figure out which stamp goes with what set. My biggest problem for me was that I hadn't written down all of the sets I owned. Now I have the sets all complete now and have them stored in CD cases by set. I only had about 100 sets and the next several hundred are individual stamps from other companies (and those will be stored by category). It would then make MORE sense to split up the sets and also store them by category because otherwise how will I remember what is in each set? (I did stamp the index for the CD case and have a label on the end.) Someone else had written that they have larger index in a binder and each image was cross-referenced with what CD case that stamp was located in. So.. that works all fine and dandy too.. but that means going back and re-stamping the image for the binder. Although I suppose I could just scan the CD index and just divide the images in Photoshop Elements and digitally add them to the binder index. The binder index could be by category with a cross-reference to the actual stamp set CD. (I've just been thinking aloud on how I could do this with the least amount of extra work!)
On sorting by type- What I found is that I have a whole box of just flower sets and hearts sets! That's like 15 cd cases full! The different colored words on the labels helps a ton- so I have one set that's hearts and flowers so I wrote the name in pink + red (Simply Said is an example). Another is one CD case holds all my chocolate stamps (SU and TAC) label is teal for miscellaneous. Another CD case holds all my chocolate sayings/words stamps so the label is "Chocolate (teal) Words (purple)". Works great for a fast find approach. When I want backgrounds- I go for the light orange labels... and so on... Oh, and it's great to have the words separated out... so far 2 CD cases for Happy Birthday, 2 for Thanks, 1 for Thinking of you/best wishes, 2 for congratulations, 2 or 3 cases for nice sayings like "be happy" and "happy everything" and "celebrating you" etc...
On Indexes- My index page that is inserted into each CD case is two sided- I stamped the images on both sides of the white paper so I have an outer image index as well as a plan on how to fit all the stamps back into the CD case (it's sort of like a puzzle). I also have started taking digital pics of the index page that I made for each CD case full of stamps and plan on having a print out and a word document (or perhaps a database program like access) that I will be able to zoom through to see all my stamps in a jiffy. Still a work in progress at this point.
I use all the mini cattys and old cattys for SU as a reference as to which stamp set my stamps came from... Took an afternoon to go through all of the cattys and to stick a little sticky tab on everypage I had a stamp from as well as to write in a Word document a list of all those sets (including the years they were around!). The loose or single stamps were a bit of a bother... but I haven't tossed the two big brown paper grocery bags full of the wood yet (with the label still on them...) and today, in fact, I went back to the wood for many of my now unmounted single stamps and wrote in pencil on my inside CD label- the Stamp company and year for each stamp.
Just thought I'd ramble on some more on how I've been doing this... totally grateful to your outloud thinking... got me thinking to get back into taking those digital pics!:-D
....I should have stamped the images in Stazon on the cling side of the foam, ... I find that a problem. If I don't see the image I'm not inspired to use them as much.
I have eight really thick 3-ring binders filled with unmounted stamps -- hundreds and hundreds. Can't possibly look through all that rubber to find what I want.
HINT: I stamped each set (or 2) onto a plain paper. The paper pages are all in one binder. That's the one I flip through when deciding on a project.
HTH
I went unmounted this year due to space/weight issues. Dh and I live overseas but go home to America every few years (taking the essentials - like stamps - with us). Wood mounted stamps are really heavy, which means very expensive to ship - not to mention the space they take up! The mounted stamps I brought with me to China originally took up a whole action packer (similar to a large trunk or foot locker); now those same sets unmounted fit into two 5 1/2 x 8 x 5 1/2 rubbermaid boxes. I was a little wary of unmounting my stamps at first, but once I worked up the courage to finally take the plunge, I could have kicked myself for waiting so long! My craft area is much less cluttered, and, as a bonus, dh has a harder time figuring out just how many sets I actually own.
I went unmounted this year due to space/weight issues. Dh and I live overseas but go home to America every few years (taking the essentials - like stamps - with us). Wood mounted stamps are really heavy, which means very expensive to ship - not to mention the space they take up! The mounted stamps I brought with me to China originally took up a whole action packer (similar to a large trunk or foot locker); now those same sets unmounted fit into two 5 1/2 x 8 x 5 1/2 rubbermaid boxes. I was a little wary of unmounting my stamps at first, but once I worked up the courage to finally take the plunge, I could have kicked myself for waiting so long! My craft area is much less cluttered, and, as a bonus, dh has a harder time figuring out just how many sets I actually own.
Ha! I agree! Moving to Spain, so i originally started um'ing for the space, so i could take them with me. i love it so much that i don't like using my wm'ed anymore. i'm spoiled to being able to SEE where i'm stamping! I love that you can build a scene on one big block, ink em all at once, stamp em all at once, clean em all at once! So much FASTER really than my wm'ed! I was a little nervous at first! Now I LOVE IT! and yes...i still prefer rubber, and foam, but on an acrylic block! GO UM! you'll love it!
It's all about the WOOD baby!!!!! Just prefer the feel and have many sets out at once and stamping.......I'm fortunate enough to have enough room, so space just isn't an issue and I'm thankful for that!!!
I use only clear unmounted acrylix stamps! I love seeing where I stamp..being able to build words on my block and stamping it all at once...not having to cut our my stamps or anything...only buying my block once and using the same block over and over again...and so many of the other reasons that have been mentioned above! Also, I have never had a problem with the image not coming out crisp. If you are having this problem, try placing the foam like sheet that comes with your stamp set under the cs you are stamping on. That sometimes helps. Also, don't forget to season you brand new stamp set by stamping the first time it is used on a scrap sheet of paper and twisting...this gets off any residue left from manufacturing.
Hope this helps!
Thanks for starting this pole...such an interesting topic!
__________________ KAREN Close To My Heart Consultant
I've been bit by the Stampin' Bug!
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Also, someone asked me what my acrylic blocks looked like so I am going to post some pictures of them and my CD case with my stamps in them. All the Stamps are Stampin Up. The stamps shown are from the set called Do the Hula.
The Acrylic blocks I like have to have the smooth and beveled edge. I don't like the sharp edged TAC blocks. I got mine from a Rubber Stamping show from Rubbernecker. Their website is down, but they are great to work with... so it might be worth the time to find their phone number and call them.
Also- I have seen several threads on this UN mounted subject...
here is another one that is great: Forums at Splitcoaststampers
I like most of my stamps mounted on wood, but I did buy one alphabet stamp set (upper and lowercase) from my CTMH demo and one long acrylix block to mount names and titles on and I am liking that a lot! I like it that there are extra vowels to spell out my kids' names and I can line them up before stamping them. However, I am a very messy and disorganized stamper and don't like mounting my stamps every time, though! I have lost some very small SU WM stamps already, I am sure I would lose some of those tiny clingy stamps, too. If I had more space issues, I might consider the UM, but I am currently content with WM!
I use unmounted more than mounted as I can see where I am stamping without needing a stamp positioner. Also they are easier to clean, just scrub and run under the faucet. Take up much less space too so hubby doesn't know how many stamps I really own!
I wish I could have the guts to unmount a few and try.... I have sooooo many sets I really could use the space! Just can't bring myself to do it though.
I have all unmounted. I unmounted all my wood stamps a long time ago. I would never go back to wood. The space and time saving of using UM's is just wonderful. I hate having stuff all over my workspace and this is just the ticket! Currently I have all my winter and Christmas CD's on a little bookshelf right on my table. I can grab stamps and put them away at a record rate. I use many more of my older stamps once again.
I LOVE UM stamps! All my friends thought I was nuts when I started unmounting my wood-mounted stamps and using them as unmounted. The ease in positioning, the space it saves, the money you save (because you are not buying the wood) is enough for me!! I bought a large acrylic block at the Amish store, locally, and used a sharpie marker to mark off sections (that will fit the different size stamps that I own.) My daar hubby then cut off the marked blocks for me with his miter saw! He even "smoothed the edges" so they are not too sharp or rough! Now, every stamp size I have, I also have a slightly larger acrylic block for ease in stamping! I continue to buy wood, on occasion but usually unmount them after using them a few times. (Not everything you buy in wood mounts come in unmounted unfortunately, so I am "forced" to buy wood-mounts if I find a stamp I can't do without! lol As far as cleaning - I'm a bit "finatical" about keeping my stamps clean, even when they were mounted on the wood. But now, I just take an old toothbrush, dip into a jar of water, rub back and forth over my stamp and clean them on baby wipes! Works like a charm! The acrylic is easy to clean, and I like how close to the image you can cut (for the unmounteds) so you don't get any tiny lines of ink where you don't want it after stamping. Hope this helps!
I like the look and feel of the wood mounted but I am in the process of unmounting my stamps. It came down to a choice of not buying anymore stamps or reducing the amount of room they took. It was not a hard choice to make!
Why UNmounted for me and how I organized them
