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I am a SU demo, but really like much of the Close To My Heart sets (and own a few too).
I am a firm believer and I tell all my customers this--buy what you like. And if that means buying non-SU, then go for it. This is a fun hobby and you need to find what's your style.
I like Hero Arts. They have some fun sets, too, that are really easy to work with. What I don't like about HA is that their rubber isn't trimmed very well and sometimes I get rubber shadows when I'm not careful. When I was fairly new to stamping, I tried to remove the excess rubber with an exacto knife and ended up getting 3 stitches! I like that I can trim my images my own way with SU. Another company that I like is Paper Inspirations. The stamps are nice and I like a lot of their images, but they don't come in sets.
I don't think this is a taboo topic. There are other stamps out there.
I love Hero Arts and Magenta.
Each company has their own unique characteristics. I love SU for their paper and ribbon more than anything else.
I shop and buy anywhere i find great stamps!!! My favorite is SU, but love TAC also. I have never seen CTMH. I used to get any and all stamps i loved, but now i am looking for themes, and others that compliment each other well. Which is why i am making a HUGE SU soon!!! lol :lol:
I think that "Close to My Heart" offers a great variety of stamps and scrapbooking materials too. The only thing that sets "SU" apart from "CTMH" is a difference in style. I do tell my customer once in a while is all a matter of "preference" and I compliment CTMH if necessary. I have a friend who is a CTMH consultant and she was very supportive of me doing Stampin Up. It was really nice to see that she also enjoyed SU products as well.
Penny Black, Hero Arts, Acey Ducey (for my crazy artsy side!) :shock: Stampington, Magenta, there are also a few others that I have made purchases from. I think the bottom line is that I love rubber stamps and can't limit myself to one company. That would be like enjoying candy but only allowing yourself one kind---no can do! :lol:
Other than Stampin Up my current favorite is Outlines - I love their mandalas and graphic square stamps.
I also really like Hero Arts, The Stamping Studio, Holly Berry House, Art Impressions watercolor series, and Stampscapes and The Angel Company although I don't own a lot of the last two.
The Angel Company. The Cat's Pajamas, Sideshow Stamps, Cat's Life Press, Sunday International, Designs Ink'd. Stampola, Claudia Rose ... umm, can you tell I love stamps, all kinds of them??!!!
Penny Black Brushstrokes is probably one of my absolute favorites. I agree with one of the posters who complained about the quality of Hero Arts. I will not buy that company online because too many of the stamps are crooked, or not trimmed properly. For those prices, they should have better quality control!!
I love Magenta stamps but can't get a good impression. The quality of the rubber is too stiff for me, although they are beautifully trimmed!
__________________ Dear Paperlicious is my blog...with a series on how I'm learning to improve my cardmaking by studying others.
I was a SU! demo for almost a year, then a friend told me about The Angel Company. I absolutly love the way they use the acrylic mounts and the storage of the stamp sets, and amazingly enough, if you look through both catty you will see an amazing similarity.So now I'm a TAC demo. Don't get me wrong, I still love SU! and there are still a couple more stamp sets I would like to get, but someone said it well in a post before mine, go with what you like and makes you happy. That way you can never go wrong! I also have things from CTMH and CM. I love it all!!!
The brand name doesn't mean too much to me, it just helps me remember where I bought that cool stamp! I'm a SU! demo, but I encourage my friends and customers to buy what they really love. That's what I do myself! And I love CTMH, TAC, Hero Arts, Impress, Magenta. As long as it appeals to my sense of style and my taste, I'll buy it!
I wish I had at least 10, maybe 20 stamp catalogs to drool over!
Let's see... design-wise I really like A Muse Artstamps. There are a few terrific brush-stroke styles from Dolphin Song. Terrific words/alphabets from Purple Onion Designs. Claudia Rose has really sweet cat stamps.
My current favorite is Maryse Carrier (at http://www.marysecarrier.com/). She used to design for Magenta but now makes her own stamps. I bought a bunch (my very favorite is the fish in the shower...heheh!) and the quality is great! I wish she'd offer mounted, but I make do.
I could go on and on for days. I'm a stampophile.
Kim R.
A Muse
Impress
Savvy
DeNami
Memory Box
Hero
Magenta
PSX
Impression Obsession
The Stampin Place
The Cat's Pajamas
Stampington
Stampendous
Claudia Rose
Come Clean Designs
I could go on and on but these are some of my very favorites!
Great Impressions is another one I like...they offer a stamp of the month each month for 50% off...some of their designs are very similar to SU...they also show card samples/recipes that feature the stamp of the month and related stamps...www.greatimpressionsstamps.com
you cannot purchase on their site but you can purchase their stamps in stamp stores and online at www.sierraenterprises.com
Cathy
I really wish Stampin Up would take a look at some of the Magenta/Ouline stamps that you can cut and layer.
I totally agree! I just love to see how many different ways you can use just one stamp. My LSS recently did a special order of the Outlines stamps with a 10% discount so I am waiting for several to arrive. Love, love, love them.
Magenta and Wordsworth, are two of my absolute favorites....
Magenta stamps are like artwork, I have several out on display...When my customers start talking about cost, I tell them how expensive the Magenta stamps are compared to SU
I only got into stamping through SU, so I'm not really familiar with any other companies. I just recently saw a CTMH catalog, though, and I was really interested to see what else was out there, but I thought a LOT of their stamp sets were very similar to SU. Although they had several sets I liked, they were all really close to ones I already owned, so I didn't see the point in buying them. Has anyone else noticed this?
Great Impressions is my favorite. You can check them out at www.greatimpressionsstamps.com They do a Stamp of the Month and they send the stores boards with card samples using the monthly stamp and coordinating stamps. You can view the past months on above site.
I love Penny Black, hero, Stampin Up, Stampendous, Inky Antics, [url]Elzybells http://www.elzybells.co.uk
Stamps by Judith and loads more.
I love so many designs, I would have to have to choose from one, and seeing that SU arent over here I would say PB are my favs, that said I would be signing up like a shot if they came over here, BUT I will always use others as well.
Great questions and I've found companies I never heard of before
Caz
x
Although SU is by far my favorite, I have a number of others I really like: CTMH, Penny Black Brushstrokes, Hero Arts, My Sentiments Exactly (beautiful word stamps!), Wordsworth, River City Rubber Works and, although I don't usually stamp "cutsie" stuff, my most recent find is Rosie's Roadshow (www.rosiesroadshow.com). To appreciate her stamps, you just have to visit her gallery. The cards are adorably simple.
Carol
SU is also my favorite, but runners-up include Hero Arts, Denami, Judith, Penny Black, The Angel Company...just started getting into UM's and they are fun! Want to try Purple Onion and Eat Cake Graphics...I have heard they are awesome!
I just purged my collection, so it's mainly SU and TAC, with a few HA!
Eureka Stamps has some great Christian stamps and others. Also if anyone likes Texas related stamps try www.jamnstamps.com. She is an artist out of Austin who has Texas Flag, Barbed Wire and Texas Wildflower stamps. Very unique.
I have lots of stamps from many different companies.
I really like TAC (The Angel Company), Art Impressions, SU, CTMH, PSX, Penny Black, Stampendous and Hero Arts.
I like HA images, but have had more problems with Hero Arts stamps than anyone else. Their quality isn't very good. Many of the stamps are undercut and I had to unmount them, put new cushion on and recut in order to get them to work. Also, the surface doesn't seem to hold dye based ink very well on some of their stamps. Particularly the greetings and solid type stamps.
Only had problems with 2 stamps from SU so far and they replaced them very quickly.
Taboo topic: What other stamp companies do you like?
