Black blotches in middle of SU stamps...

[KatydidAW]

Someone mentioned in another thread about a black blotch that she keeps getting in the middle with her SU! Pick a Petal set. I didn't want to highjack her thread (which is actually about Autumn Leaves stamps), so I'm starting a new one.

Is anyone else having problems with some of the newer SU! sets doing this? Several of the newer SU! sets I have used recently seem to be "bowed" out in the middle of larger images, causing ink to get on the stamp and hence, your image. Some examples are the rhino from Zoofari and the sentiment heart from Simply Said. What's up with that?

[RenT]

If you push in on the center (where it's bowed out) before you ink up the stamp sometimes that helps... the rubber seems to stay pushed in for long enough to stamp.

[momsquiltn]

I haven't had this trouble with any of the new stamps I've purchased so far... but there are more coming this week. :-) On a couple of other stamps with a large blank area on a stamp I have used an exacto knife to cut the center out. Then because the stamp was mounted and the wood was sticky I remove the rubber from the foam and just put the rubber back in the space. This has worked well and saved my sanity.

[amandaallison12345]

The only time I get a messy image like that is when I mount the foam badly (granted I'm talking about the TAC stamps, but the principal should be the same). If the foam gets "stretched" over the rubber, after you cut out your image it can kind of shrink back together which gives a slight bow or pucker to the rubber. I sometimes also manage to get the top and the bottom stuck on to the foam before the middle gets down and then I end up with a bow in the middle.

So, anyway, my advice is to try and remount it- just peel it of the foam and stick it back on to see if that fixes the problem. If not, you may just have a defective stamp :( HTH

[glenda s]

Whenever there is a large expanse of blank rubber, you can get a smudge in the middle of the image when pushing the image into an ink pad. For example, the old Frosty stamp set. You can do two things -- cut out the expanse with an exacto knife, or take your ink pad to the stamp and hit around the expanse. This is nothing new and will occur with any brand of stamp.

Glenda

[shell_scraps]

I just cut out the inside of the petals so this wouldn't happen...it gets aggravating otherwise...

[Wendybell]

After I ink up my stamps where that may be an issue I look at them before I stamp. I little swipe with a wet wipe solves the problem for me!