HomeValentines DayMartha Stewart Crafts Your Own Stamp Set |
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8 of 8 found the following review helpful:
 NOT missing "1" and much better than the other reviewers thought Jul 28, 2011
By T. Wright
I had to jump in and give my opinion when I saw all of the bad reviews this product has gotten.
First of all, I'd like to say that I have a full, undetached, set of the stamps in front of me and all of the letter sets DO contain the number 1, contrary to what another reviewer had reported. The 1, however, in the middle size looks like a Roman numeral 1 (all the other numerals are the standard 2,3,4, etc so not sure why they chose to do the 1 differently). Perhaps the other reviewer just wasn't looking for the correct style of 1? It is devilishly hard to find the letter that you need once they're all pulled apart. The large size of stamp contains all the letters in attractive script caps, all numbers, and the symbols ?@#$%() The middle size contains two sets of capitals, three sets of lowercase letters, two sets of numbers, the above symbols plus !;:'*"" in something that looks like the Baskerville Old Face font on my computer, still an attractive font. The small letters have four sets of capitals in something like an Arial font, two sets of numbers, and generally the same type of punctuation including a period and comma. There are then two rectangluar and two circular setting blocks as well as tweezers and two ring stamps for around the circular blocks. The ring blocks have a groove around the outside so that you can set either one of the ring stamps or the smallest letters around in a circular pattern.
I liked this product a lot more than the other reviewers did. The key might have been that I don't have much use for the smaller size and I haven't tried letters around the outside of the circular block. There are two wreath-style circular stamps that also come with the set, though, that work just fine around the outside of the circle.
To agree with the other reviews, here are the bad things I've found with the set... The small letters are very difficult to place and extremely hard to ink and stamp properly. Cleaning the small letters can be a nightmare - the one time I tried them I wasn't thinking about what I was doing and washed several into the sink. I have no difficulty cleaning the larger ones with a stamp-cleaning spray. The one other reviewer was right about them being hard to get apart. After almost ripping through a letter, I had to take a paring knife to them and sit there very carefully cutting apart, what, a hundred letters?, a third of which were extremely small. The small letters are NOT recommended for anyone who doesn't have great manual dexterity. Sometimes if the letters are not all pushed in all the way, it won't stamp correctly for any size of letter. Test your block on something first before you go and ruin a good page or card with your setup. Also, several letters are almost indistinguishable top from bottom. Stamp first and make sure that all the letters of the same size line up along the bottom properly.
Now what I like about them/why I don't think they're so bad... To be fair to the set, it does come with a set of extremely small letters. Just because of the size they are going to be difficult to use and rather hard to get to stay in the stamping blocks. I did find that the small letters stayed in place quite well (until I went to clean them) as long as I took care to push them together in a straight row. I can see how they wouldn't stay in place well around the circle. The largest capitals are very attractive and I found that together with the medium capitals they make beautiful labels. I have used them a lot to put someone's name on the front of a card and I recently used them to make decorative labels for all of the glass jars of grains, beans, pastas, etc that I have sitting out on my baker's rack. Absolutely perfect for these uses (with some care taken so that you are using the stamps properly). I actually recently bought a second one for myself (the one I still haven't gotten around to taking apart that was referenced above) so that I could make a few more labels and names that required more than one of the same capital. Things like "Whole Wheat Flour" and some names that have first and last names beginning with the same first letter. I don't know that they're so great for putting a lot of text on anything, but I think they're wonderful for attractive labels. All in all, they can be a very nice addition to your papercrafting collection, but be forewarned that they might be a bit tempermental and they don't work well for all uses that you might expect them to work for.
6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
 What a pain May 14, 2011
By D. B.
"Dani"
I wish I read reviews first. I got this locally because I had a good coupon. I tried to use the circle stamp with letters & the border & I had to stamp them separately, but still couldn't get the border to stamp in full. Pain to use, doesn't fit many letters, the prettiest font is so big it hardly fits anything at all, it's messy because it's hard to clean. Could have been so cool, but such a let down. It takes forever to get a stamp all together & set up, just isn't worth it especially when you go to stamp it & it's not all flush so it comes out junk.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Not the Martha I Know and Love - Bad product Jan 31, 2011
By M. Painter
I had high hopes for this kit, but was greatly disappointed. The circle borders didn't stamp well at all, and I also had a very difficult time with the smallest letters staying in the circle. Once I got it to stamp, somewhat, I didn't like the font; it looks very cheap. I found them hard to tear apart and not the quality you'd expect from Martha. I took mine back. I'm a young-ish person, and I had problems; I could see the small letters posing a problem for older hands and eyes.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Don't Waste Your Time or Money Apr 01, 2012
By RichGirl
This is a great idea in theory, but in reality, it just doesn't work. The letters, once you spend time cutting them out when you first get the kit, are so tiny that they are nearly impossible to work with, even using the tiny tweezers provided in the kit. There is no storage for the letters once the kit is opened, and it's almost impossible to find the letter you're looking for once you start; especially for similar looking letters like b, d, p. when they are all spread out on the table, they all look the same. The letters do not stay nicely lined up in the stamping trays, so you have to constantly adjust them to get them properly aligned.
I returned this product the day after I bought it, very disappointed, because normally I think Martha Stewart makes the best quality, well thought out, and useful crafting products, but they certainly missed the mark on this one.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Absolutely useless Jan 29, 2012
By Buyer 25620119
I bought one of these sets today on sale to make some invitations. First of all, it is impossible to stamp cleanly so that you do not see the blocks that the letters are attached to, and second, there are only two of each letter which makes it sort of useless and overly time consuming to do anything other than just a monogram. This is going back tomorrow for sure. Don't be fooled by perfect stamping on the box examples-they must not have used this set, because these stamps are horrible.
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