How Stamps are Made...

I've been asked many times how exactly stamps are made. Well, I know the design process and I leave the actual vulcanizing to my 'rubber guy'. As far as the design process, I come up with a design, pictures, etc., create the stamp set and lay it out on a predetermined sized canvas within Photoshop. I print out my 'canvas' into  black and white (or greyscale) and send the new design to my rubber manufacturer. He then sends it onto an engraver who creates a magnesium plate of the design. From there the magnesium plate is sent back to my 'rubber guy'. What happens next....

I found this video on You Tube: Making Art Stamps that shows how stamps are then created. It isn't the most exciting 7 minutes, but it is interesting! Jackson Marking Products created the video. They are manufacturers of rubber stamp equiptment and materials. I am not sure if my rubber manufacturer uses these exact machines or materials from JMP, but I am sure the process is similar!

Once the rubber sheets are created, they are sent to Art Declassified. We adhere the EZ Mount Foam to the rubber sheets and trim out the stamp sets. Larger sets are trimmed into one piece, so additional trimming is needed by you to seperate the stamps. (Sometimes you may find a large set that has all images trimmed out...over anxious trimmers get carried away sometimes!) For the most part, smaller sets and single stamps are trimmed to the image. We have tested all the ways to do the best trimming and cutting of sets and I am happy to say that the sets are currently being trimmed much better than they have been in the past. We thank you for being patient with us while we ironed out all the kinks! Every single stamp is looked at and inspected before it is packaged in a CD case and sent off to a store or to a customer. We are very proud of our quality control!

I couldn't post a blog entry without a picture. Here is a container that actually holds pens that say Art Declassified. These pens are suppose to make it into the wholesale orders, but sometimes they don't! The container is a paper mache box by Walnut Hollow. I used the "Fred Loves Lottie" stamp as well as a few stamps from the Beautiful Bisous collection. The redish color is a "tintz" from Fiber Scraps. I love that stuff!

Ok, I stated a newsletter would come on the first...it didn't happen. Stay tuned for a mid month newsletter with a big tax day sale announcement! Yes, a SALE!! WOO HOO!!

One more bit of business:

Any orders (retail or wholesale) that are received this week (April 7th-11th) WILL NOT SHIP UNTIL the week of APRIL 14th. The office will be closed so we can take a little vacation (YAY).  We will have some access to our email, but if we don't get back to you right away, don't worry - we'll respond next week! Thanks for all of our support!  ~Karen