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This blog is dedicated to stamping, tips, musings, and whatever I want to post. I want my cards to make you smile. You may copy, post, pin, anything you want. To me this is a sharing hobby.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Sympathetic to the Just Rite Phobias!

It took me awhile, and the help of several friends until I was willing to wade on in with the Just Rite Stamps (special thanks to Elaine who helped so much). I do not think the ads and the site really give enough information so I am going to try to help here. I am skipping discussing the plastic auto-stampers they supply as I don't have them and I really don't know anyone who likes them as they are too limiting.

Best prices I found were at stampingcottage.com but I also bought some individual pieces at All That Scraps and Jacksonbelle.

Initially I saw the 1 5/8 circle stamps that really appealed to me. Sometimes I saw letters in the center of the circle with a pretty border around and other times I saw letters around the circular border with an image in the middle. In order to do any of these at this size, you need a round wood 1 5/8 wood stampers. Some sets come with them and some do not. You can buy the stamper individually in a blister pack too. Since I bought 2 sets without the stamper (10 Designer Centers and Borders and Desk, Library, and Kitchen Borders) I had to buy a 1 5/8 wood stamper individually. You can also use the little letters set (costs about $5.95) and use these letters around the edges with this wood stamper. Additionally, any of the font sets can be used in the middle to make words in the middle. Also, some of the premade borders can easily be attached to a clear block and stamped and then you can use a little image stamp of any brand in the middle.

The tiny letters are a trial. I will just tell you that up front. Both the very little letters and the smallest letters in the font sets are hard to handle, easily lost, and can take a couple of tries to get into the stamper. Have your area scrupulously clean so you can find any little piece that zings off into space. I have even had to lay my head down on my desk top with a flashlight to do a scan of the surface. If I had carpet, I would buy 2 sets of the little letters because I cannot imagine finding them once they hit the carpet. A tweezers is a big help for positioning and a tweezers came with the little set (if I remember correctly). All that being said, they are still worth it because of all the options they provide you.

The rectangular blocks are a must, in my opinion, as you can do horizontal sentiments with ease, if you have purchased a font. If you want the full range of possibilities, the blocks in addition to several sizes of circle stampers are very useful.

Fonts: I purchased the Trompe one and sold it. It was just too hard for me to read the swirly letters and some looked so much alike that I just did not cope well. As I read blogs I noticed that the Times New Roman was the easiest to read, seemed to go with all styles of art, and I just found that font appealing. After I sold the Trompe, I bought a second set of Times New Roman--very good move because now I have enough of each letter to do an entire sentiment on a rectangle block. These letters are also great for using in the center of a round stamping block as a Monogram. Each set contains three sizes of that font, giving you everything I can imagine needing.

The Harmony Classic Circle Stamper ll comes WITH the 2 5/16 wood stamper and the borders and the pre-made centers. It is pretty basic, but I have not used it a lot. I am planning to use it more as there are some cute Valentine possibilities. By the way, all the borders and centers can be mixed and matched when they are the same size. Everything made to fit on the 2 5/16 round stamper can be mixed and matched. This is true of the other sets too. Just match the size and be creative.

The Christmas Stamp Ensemble is a lot of fun, but the borders and centers are quite large and fit on a 3 1/4" circle stamper that you must purchase separately. I did enjoy using the borders by attaching to a clear block, stamping, and then putting other Christmas images inside. I did one with a little penguin inside that you can see on this blog, also a gingerbread boy inside one of the borders too.

What I own:

Christmas Ensemble 3 1/4" set
Circle Stamper 3 1/4" (purchased alone)
Harmony Rectangular Set (which consists only of 2 rectangle blocks)
Harmony Classic ll 2 5/16" set that INCLUDED the 2 5/16" wood circular stamper
10 Designer Centers and Borders 1 5/8"
Circle Stamper 1 5/8" (purchased alone)
2 Sets of Times New Roman Font
Just Rite Small Letter Set
Desk/Library/Kitchen Borders that go on the 1 5/8" circle stamper

I got some of these through Stamping Cottage at their good prices, others I found at online sales and couple of things I got as trades/gifts.

Overall I am very happy with the stamps. The Christmas set took a bit of erasing to condition the stamps and all of them work best with chalk inks or Palette inks, but they will work with other inks too. Pigment inks also give good coverage. The more I use them, the better they take ink.

If I can answer any questions, feel free to email me at the address listed to the left.

For some great ideas, click the title of this post and it will take you to Embellished Dreams where you will find so many wonderful ideas for using Just Rite products.

An additional tip: If you want to leave letters on a block or circle base, put the whole thing in a Ziplock to store so you don't lose any letters.

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