Stamp Press Tutorial

I was asked about the stamp press. This is a wonderful tool by Fiskars for stamping with any acrylic stamps and even unmounted rubber stamps. It works the best with acrylic stamps because you can see exactly where you are stamping. The stamp press is clear and the stamps are clear. The Stamp Press comes in 2 sizes.

There are quite a few markings on the large one. You have lines , inch marks, bold lines and grid all to assist you in lining up where you want to stamp. The smaller one has markings too but just the grid. No inch marks. The smaller one was designed for card making. It is more portable and sized for cards.

The larger size has a removable plate in the center. You can use the stamp press with and without that plate. The plate is useful for when you are doing a lot of one design. Such as invitations, cards wedding etc. You can set up all the stamps you will be using on that plate for an invitation for example. You can put the Who , what, where plus a birthday cake for instance. Get all those stamps lined up on the press where you want them and then you can stamp over and over without having to re do the placement of the stamps. If you don't finish in one setting and need to stamp something else then you just remove that plate set it aside and use the press without the plate for your other projects. When you are ready to work on the invites again put the plate back in place and continue stamping. You can purchase extra of these plates also. It just snaps into place.

Here is a brief 1 2 3 on how to use either of the Stamp Presses.

Step1: Place your stamp on your project where you want it. I have placed this stamp in the bottom right corner of a 3x3 card. I am leaving my card open so my paper is flat when stamping.

Step 2: Using the grid and any of the lines on the stamp press and line up your press over your stamp on your card. In this view I ma using the top and right side bold lines and lining them up against my card top and right sides. Press down as if you were stamping. This will pick the stamp up onto the press. Now we will go ink it up.

Step 3: Ink up your stamp. This is my stamp inked and notice the ink on the plate along side the stamp. You will see that you can have ink on the plate itself and only the ink on the stamp will end up on your project.

Step 4: Turn your press over and re line up on your card base with the lines you used in Step 2. So I am moving the press to line up my bold lines with my top and right sides of the card

Now with your hands on both sides of the press push down evenly. The press has sponge feet and it will automatically go down evenly if you are pressing on both sides at once. Give it a firm press. Sometimes I will walk my fingers over top of the stamp while it is firmly pressed down to give it a little extra pressure. I do this especially for a large stamp and a solid style stamp. This is a little habit of mine. You might find you don't need to do this. Once you have pressed firmly now let go and let the stamp press rise back up. Your project may still be stuck to the stamp. That is OK. Just peel off the card carefully from the stamp.

Step 5: The finished stamped image. Notice all that extra ink that was on the plate is not on my project. Only the stamped image is here. You get a nice crisp stamped image each and every time. This tool has been a life saver to me and my stamping. I now can get perfect stamping all the time. I would not stamp without this tool. Also you don't need a number of different size blocks. The large one will accomodate quite a few stamps and large ones. This tool can be used if onky stamping 1 little stamp or mutiples.

Tip: one more tip and a very important tip. The stamp press is made with sponge feet. If you were to store this resting on it's feet that will crush and could even get distorted of not pressed evenly. You need to store your press either upside down so the feet are up or hang it. I have found I like to hang mine. Then I never have to worry about the feet getting ruined. I use my Fiskars Craft Drill with the largest bit and drill a hole in one side and hang it from that. One other way of storing would be to keep the package it came in and store it in that tray upside down with the feet sticking up. Here are pictures of my drilled holes. Actually there is a little bit of a funny story with that. I don't know if you will be able to see it but I have both sizes of the Stamp Press. I was going to drill the larger one first. My husband asked me what I was doing and he said that drill won't work. Give it to me and I will use my drill. I was worried it would splinter using his power drill. He said not to worry. Well guess what?! It splintered!!! So I let it go and didn't say anything about having a second one to do. I used my Fiskars craft drill on it and it worked just fine. If you haven't used the drill yet don't underestimate what it can do. It is a very easy to use and good drill.

This was my husbands drill. Notice the rough edges.This is the one done with my Fiskars Drill. I think it is a much cleaner hole. LOL
If you have any other questions post here and I will try and answer them. I hope you enjoy your Stamp Press as much as I do.