Without a doubt, I inherited my mother’s love of crafting. She is a serial crafter, much like myself, meaning that she loves to try everything that’s out there in any way, shape or form when it is within the crafty vernacular. When I was about nine years old we went to our first rubber stamping convention. I remember being lost in a world of ink pads, wood mounted stamps (clings were JUST coming out at that time and most people turned their noses up to them) and embossing powders. Ever since, I’ve been hooked on stamping. One very frustrating thing that happens from time to time, is stamping in corners and doing borders. I can never seem to line up my stamp perfectly and my corners always end up crooked and not properly aligned with the corner of the paper.
Enter in the CraftGeek “Stamp It’ by Purple Cows! Some of the other Craft Test Dummies have reviewed the other CraftGeek products by Purple Cows here; I’ll post links to all of them at the bottom of the article. Be sure to check them out. According to Purple Cows, the Stamp It is,
“A 6 piece stamp sets are for use in the CraftGeek Stamp It Alignment Base for creating 3 step corner and border artwork. Â Each set includes 3 corner stamps and 3 border stamps of coordinating designs that when used with the Stamp It Base and Acrylic Block will create a 3 part design.”
Not only does the Stamp It create perfectly stamped borders and corners, it has the added bonus that these are layered stamps, creating depth, dimension and the opportunity to add different colors to your project. The alignment base itself is pure genius. It has paper guides on the side so that your paper doesn’t move around, but to go even farther it has magnets on the base and hinged top so that your paper or medium really won’t wiggle. It has marked corner and border guides as well. It’s very easy to use and the learning curve is short.
There is an acrylic block, that also has built-in magnets, that you load the stamps into. The stamps come in a set of six and there are four different sets available. Each set includes three corner stamps and three border stamps. All of the stamps are labeled with a letter, either “B” for “border,” or “C” for, “corner” and then a number, depending on the sequence of layers. So “B1” is going to be the first layer for your border and “C3” is going to be your third corner layer.
Another thing I found with these stamps is that they are very high-quality. The actual design of the rubber stamp is very raised from the background compared to other stamps I’ve used. This makes inking the stamps a little more worry-free.
Here I used distress inks (a dye-based ink) one white cardstock to show what the different layers look like:
Here I used some opaque pigment inks on kraft paper. I wouldn’t use any other medium thicker than a pigment ink with these stamps as they have fine details.
I really like the idea of the Stamp It tool for decorating and coordinating stationary cards and envelopes. It would be great for gifts. This would also be an excellent gift for the cardmaker in your family.
Again, there are four sets of stamps you can purchase; Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer. Don’t let the season names fool you, though. Here I used the Spring set of stamps, but just by being a little creative with the colors, I made this Christmas tag:
The Purple Cows CraftGeek Stamp It tool base and one full set of six corner and border stamps is sold for approximately $30.00 and can be found at many online retailers. Each additional set of stamps is about $20. This might seem a little expensive, but if you love rubber stamping this is a great buy. I also see this as a great tool for making quality stationary and invitations; especially since you can customize the colors with each layer. I can only hope and wish more designs are going to come soon! Happy Holidays, Crafters!!!
Here are the other CraftGeek product reviews on Craft Test Dummies:
If you are considering purchasing craft items from Purple Cows, I hope you’ll consider using my affiliate links:
- Brand New Tim Holtz & Ranger Ink Distress Oxide Review - April 12, 2017
- Rhonna Farrer Chalkboard Wall Art Tutorial – - December 15, 2016
- Make Distress Paints into MARKERS! - March 15, 2016
- CHA 2016 – Ranger Ink Designer Challenge – - January 16, 2016
- Craft Product Comparison and Overview: Ranger Ink Paints - November 11, 2015
- Product Review: Ranger Ink – Dina Wakley Media Paints and Fine Tip Applicator - August 16, 2015
- Product Review: Dyan Reaveley Dylusions Paints From Ranger Ink - June 9, 2015
- CHA 2015 – Tim Holtz Idea-ology Booth Tour - March 18, 2015
- CHA 2015 – Heidi Swapp Booth and Minc Video - March 13, 2015
- CHA 2015 – Beadalon 3D Bracelet Jig - March 12, 2015
Kat says
Many thanks for this review! I’ve been looking for something like this, if only for misc. tags and pictures.
debb says
I have never seen this product before but I am impressed! I think this is a great solution to a problem plaguing some stampers! I need to look into getting this for my mom (and maybe one for me too!)
Dee in N.H. says
Now that is pretty cool! I like that you can layer in colors too.