If you don’t own a Stamparatus yet, you need one! When you are making a lot of Christmas cards, you definitely need a Stamparatus! I keep mine handy and use it often but using it at Christmas is really the big time!
I like to make many different card designs and make several cards of that design, maybe five, maybe 10, whatever I feel like at the time. When you are stamping the same greeting over and over again for the inside of the card, if you spend a moment getting it straight and centered or however you want it on the inside of the card, then the stamp stays in the same place and you get perfect stamping every time.
As you can see in the photo, up above the Stamparatus, you can see I stamped at least six inside card layers. Next, I worked on stamping on die cuts I had made for the front of the card. Instead of hoping I stamped the greeting on the die cut centered and straight, I used the Stamparatus PLUS the negative of the die cut. I placed the negative in the corner of the Stamparatus and then made sure the stamp was in the right place to stamp right in the center of that die cut. Then leaving the negative in place, I could place a new die cut into that negative and then stamp. That made it quicker and easier to stamp the die cuts rather than stamping all over the cardstock and trying to line up the die to fit the stamped greeting properly. It worked great!
In my messy, real-life stamping photo above, you can see the used Grid Paper inside the open Stamparatus and the messy stamped large Grid Paper on my kitchen table. You can see the Merry Christmas stamp stuck on the plastic plate of the Stamparatus, ready to be inked up on the right.
Usually, when I am trying to make sure I have the stamp lined up exactly where I want it, I place a window sheet over the card stock and stamp on that first to make sure the words are straight and everything is centered. That way I can alter the stamp position and just wipe off the window sheet until I have it just right and THEN I’m ready to stamp right on the cardstock.
The Stampin’ Up! Stamparatus has a lot of features that I don’t think others on the market have. If you mess up and your image doesn’t stamp as well as you want, just reink and stamp again because the paper hasn’t moved. Use one of the magnets to hold your paper in place. Just be careful not to get those two magnets anywhere near each other!! I found that out the first time I used my Stamparatus!
It might be a good gift to ask Santa for this year to use next year! But if you want it right away, use the Expedited 2-day shipping for an extra $20 and hopefully, that will do it!
