Wedding Blog

As I’ve alluded before, I’m not the craftiest of brides.

I’m pretty good with ideas, good with starting projects (especially the “buying supplies” phase), terrible with follow-through, and execution… well… let’s just say I should leave most stuff to the pros.

I’ve never been a big stamper. It always seemed like a really expensive craft — always buying new stamps and new inks. And I remember failing miserably at embossing when I was in the sixth grade. That demoralizing experience was enough to scare me away for quite a while.

Only my wedding and a deep fear of the complexities of Gocco machines could drive me to use stamps. And after using them… well, I remember why I gave them up. Eesh.

Not trusting my own handwriting, I used Martha Stewart’s Laurel Wreath acrylic stamp set to address my RSVPs (and, in the end, to decorate the outsides of the envelopes).

Clear acrylic stamps have several benefits over their old-school counterparts. First, they are generally cheaper to purchase and often come in large sheets with a variety of designs. The whole acrylic stamp set I used was about $14 (and with a Michaels 40% off coupon, significantly less).

Second, when working with letters, they give you the option of “setting” a whole word or phrase of your own as with letterpress or lead type, instead of stamping each letter individually.

It was this aspect of acrylic stamps that appealed to me for the RSVP project. I envisioned stamping the whole address with a single inking. The reality was much different for the simple reason that the set of letters I purchased only came with one of each letter.

It was the kind of mistake that made me slap my forehead and mutter “d’oh!” Homer Simpson style when I sat down to start stamping. Stamping a word such as “Powell”, the name of the town where my parents live, took two inkings instead of one. I spent a good 15 minutes stamping the extra “L” on each card.

As another example, “KINDLY RSVP BY” was stamped in one pass and “MAY 11″ was stamped in the second pass because I only had one “Y”. Honey Bunny patiently stamped all of these in the lower left-hand corner of the post cards.

The third benefit of acrylic stamps is being able to see their exact placement on the page.

For you expert crafters, I am certain the following tutorial will be of no interest. If you’re a stamp newbie like me, read on (and learn from my mistakes)!

First off, I tried to skimp by purchasing cheaper acrylic blocks instead of the pricey Martha Stewart brand. I bought one set of two blocks — one medium, one small — with guides. This is the medium block.

Even if you decide, like I did, to go the cheaper route and purchase off-brand blocks, make sure you pick ones with guides, like this one. Those guides allow you to align your letters and flourishes with much greater accuracy! I purchased a 5″ by 7″ block without guides and had trouble aligning the border design I used on the envelopes.

I wish now that I had sprung for the Martha Stewart block because it is 5 by 7 in size with guides and a detachable handle. The wavy edges of this block really cut down on the space I could use for words.

Next, cut the letters apart with scissors. At first I tried to tear them apart on the perforations, but broke one of the designs and found the letters were spaced too far apart.

“Set” the type backwards. Pretend you’re working in a dim, basement printing room like your grandfather did in 1952.

Ink and stamp. Press evenly on the block to get a good impression — just like you would with regular stamps.

Notice how my letters aren’t well aligned? Yeah, I kinda suck at that. I realized this after committing myself to this project. Instead of nitpicking every RSVP, I decided to give up and hope it gave the postcards and old-timey rustic look. Oh well.

To illustrate the “see-through” benefit of acrylic stamps, let’s put a flourish around “HOME”. With the acrylic block, I can line it up exactly where I want it. Apologies for the blurry photo.

Ta-da! Poorly aligned, but that’s operator error. Please don’t blame Martha and her sweet little acrylic stamps.

I didn’t take advantage of this benefit when I was stamping our RSVPs. I chose a traditional stamp flourish and tried to stamp it after I’d already stamped the word. How fast can you spell “disaster”? Yikes. If I were doing this over again, I’d use the traditional stamp FIRST and then the acrylics so I could align them exactly right.

To further demonstrate the flexibility and convenience of acrylic stamps, take these as a better example.

Each design was stamped in one pass. The one on the left I’m using on some of my thank you cards. I could use the one on the right for rehearsal dinner invites, perhaps.

Thus concludes this “acrylic stamping for dummies” tutorial. I’m sure anyone would do much better at this than I did. Even with all the mistakes I made, I’m glad I picked acrylics for my RSVPs. These new-fangled stamps really somehow gave the cards the right amount of old-timey charm.

Do you have experience with stamps? Do you like acrylic or rubber/wood better? What are your tips and tricks for alignment?