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Regular Contributor
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Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Has Anyone Ever Unmounted Their Wooden Stamps?

I don't have a lot of wooden stamps, but I do have enough to take up more room than I'd like! I've been watching Youtube videos on unmounting wooden stamps and then remounting them on EZMount Paper.

I guess my question is: Has anyone ever unmounted their wooden stamps and then regretted it?

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Re: Has Anyone Ever Unmounted Their Wooden Stamps?

I am one of those people who really like the wooden stamps so I have not done this though people have been doing it for a long time. If I were interested in unmounting my wooden stamps, I guess I would try one that wasn't a favorite and see how I liked using it. They do take up room, but they are so fast and easy to see and use.

I have plenty of the clear stamps and like them too since they are far cheaper and take up less room (a lot less room!), but I love looking at my wooden stamps. Of course, I have fewer than 75 wooden stamps, if I had hundreds I probably would be looking for an efficient way to store them (too many for your AG card boxes?Smile)

If you unmount them or even just one to start with, will you come back and tell us what you think? Thanks.

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Re: Has Anyone Ever Unmounted Their Wooden Stamps?

On 9/22/2014 mewsmomtoo said:
Of course, I have fewer than 75 wooden stamps, if I had hundreds I probably would be looking for an efficient way to store them (too many for your AG card boxes?Smile)

If you unmount them or even just one to start with, will you come back and tell us what you think? Thanks.

LOL mewsmomtoo! Your reply made me laugh! Well, there's certainly not enuf room for those AG card boxes and I could sure use the room those wooden stamps take up, even tho I have probably fewer than 25!

I'm going to ponder this more and if I decide to try it, I'll report back. It may be awhile tho cuz if I decide to try it I'll have to order the mounting paper first.

On another topic, I sure wish HSN & Anna Griffin would keep her embossing storage folders in stock. I could use another set!! (Can you tell I'm trying to optimally organize my office/craft room?)

(Do you have cats? We have 3.)

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Re: Has Anyone Ever Unmounted Their Wooden Stamps?

I DO have cats - the grand total now is 7, which is about 5 too many, but I only kept one intentionally, the rest are rescues and rejects. I was in cat rescue for a lot of years so the rejects are the ones I just could not find a home for, the rescues are my sister's cats - she passed away and caring for two cats proved to be too much for my BIL and my two nephews so they came to live with me just 4 weeks ago.

The one I kept intentionally was an orange tabby kitten who came to me shortly before I was moving out of state and I thought I would find a new home for him here. He just fit in so well and was so fun that I never seriously tried to find him a home. Seven years later he is still a character and is the only one who will play with my very active 1 1/2 year old

I now have 5 female black cats and 2 male tabbies (1 orange and 1 brown). I am getting ready to do what you are doing now, but I am waiting for a book to come out October 14 on "cattifying" one's house{#emotions_dlg.biggrin}

What are your kitties' stories?

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Re: Has Anyone Ever Unmounted Their Wooden Stamps?

On 9/22/2014 mewsmomtoo said:

I DO have cats

What are your kitties' stories?

You ARE a cat lover with all those kitties!!

Two of my cats I got as kittens from one of my sisters: one was a stray and one was orphaned. (By the way, she also has 7 cats; she got got hers by taking in strays in her small rural town.) Anyway, back to these 2 cats--they're both calico. The newest one, who is really more tortoiseshell, is only about 5 months old and very fluffy. We got her a week after DH's bowel resection this spring (he had diverticulitis) and we had to bottle feed her. It worked out well tho, cuz DH was home from work recuperating and he could participate in the late night feedings, too. (We LOVED those middle-of-the-night feedings! So sweet & such good bonding times with the new kitty!)

My 3rd cat (who is the oldest but is only 7 yrs old) is from a relative's farm outside my small home town. So I technically consider her a rescue, too, I guess! She's a short-haired tabby with black, gray, brown & red in her fur and is as sweet as they come. However, she's enjoying the kitten food entirely too much and has gotten very fat. The kitten food goes away tho in a week or two.....!

I'm very sorry to hear about your sister...

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Re: Has Anyone Ever Unmounted Their Wooden Stamps?

(I had a reply to you on this thread this afternoon and my computer had some sort of fit and erased it! Typing is difficult on this laptop because the cursor goes all over the place on its own. Have no idea why.)

Anyway, your kitties sound beautiful - I love torties and calicos. Geneticists say there are two fur patterns for cats - tabby and Abyssinian - and the rest are variation of those. Your older kitty sounds like a tabby with aby colors

I would call all your cats rescues - where would they have gone if you hadn't been there? Love the story of your husband doing the late night bottle feedings! Bottle feeding is a lot of work for both of you, but maybe the little ball of fur helped with his healing. Everyone likes to feel needed and there's nothing like a little kitten curled up asleep on your chest.

Your story about the kitten food reminds me of my sister's cat, Gracie. When she turned up at the barn everyone thought she was a kitten because she was so small and so they gave her kitten food. She grew fat on the kitten food and everyone thought she was pregnant. Off she went to the vet who confirmed that she was merely fat. They had her spayed and she came to live with my sister and now me. She's a very sweet, very quiet kitty.

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Re: Has Anyone Ever Unmounted Their Wooden Stamps?

I unmounted my wood mounted background and decorative stamps to make them easier to use, not because of storage issues (although that helped). I need to be able to use my stamp press and clear acrylic blocks for background and decorative stamps. I continue to buy focal stamps mounted, because I prefer them when I'm not stamping directly on a design, or when I don't care within fractions of inches where the stamp hits. But for lining up designs or getting a decorative element just right, I need to see clearly where I am. I keep my wood mounted stamps in hanging shoe bags the kind with transparent, plastic pockets. I have several of these hanging in my craft room.

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Re: Has Anyone Ever Unmounted Their Wooden Stamps?

On 9/24/2014 Louisa May said:

I keep my wood mounted stamps in hanging shoe bags the kind with transparent, plastic pockets. I have several of these hanging in my craft room.

I used to keep my Stickles & embossing powders in a hanging jewelry bag that also had clear pockets, but just recently transferred them to plastic paper cases.

You sound like you're a serious stamper.. I'm really not. Maybe that's why I wanna get rid of those bulky blocks so badly!

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Re: Has Anyone Ever Unmounted Their Wooden Stamps?

On 9/24/2014 mewsmomtoo said:
I love torties and calicos. Geneticists say there are two fur patterns for cats - tabby and Abyssinian - and the rest are variation of those. Your older kitty sounds like a tabby with aby colors

Your story about the kitten food reminds me of my sister's cat, Gracie....

I LOVE calicos!!! (And torties too!) My childhood cats were long-haired, GORGEOUS dilute calicos and just super sweet and smart. I miss them to this day. Because of them I definitely have a strong affinity towards calicos. (Especially long-haired dilutes.)

I didn't know that about the fur patterns of cats--that's very interesting!

Your story about Gracie is sweet. And what's interesting is that you have 7 cats with one named Gracie; and my sister, who also has 7 cats has one named Gracie! It's a sweet name.

Thought I'd let you know that I went ahead and unmounted my wooden stamps the other morning while watching Live! with Kelly & Michael. It took about 1-1/2 hrs and some of the glue was pretty hard to get off of the rubber. (I've still got a few that I need to work on more to get that glue off, but my fingernails are shot.) I must say though that the entire process was very liberating!

I then ordered a few sheets of EZMount mounting foam from 123stitch.com, and a Crafter's Companion mini storage binder w/some panels for it from Amazon.

I'll update this post on how it went when things arrive & I get around to doing it.

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Re: Has Anyone Ever Unmounted Their Wooden Stamps?

You just had to tell me the website name! Now I have gone over there and looked around and I am impressed. They have a lot of needlepoint kits at very reasonable prices. it is hard to find needlepoint anymore - I have had to rely on websites and ebay to find some I like.

They even have a message board, albeit an ancient design (still better than HSN!)

I will be interested to hear how you like the mounting foam. It if works well, that might be a good idea for some of the more detailed stamps I have (the website also had some great stamps!)Smile

ETA: Just wanted to say, I think torties and calicos are, as a rule, very smart cats. I've only had the privilege of living with one for about 5 years. She was a feral who bonded with my brown tabby and had no use for me whatsoever, which was fine. I loved her and respected her space and she agreed to let me be in the same house with her without deploying claws and teeth.{#emotions_dlg.laugh}