Fiskars stamp press

Have had a fab day with a fair few of my buddies at the Sincerely Yours craft show in Taunton.

Spent a few pennies and did a couple of make and takes and came back knackered.  Not so knackered that I couldnt have a play with a few of my new toys even though I ought really to be tidying up ready to head out for an adults only holiday tomorrow.  Ooops lol.

I bought, the large fiskars stamp press, got to admit I've done a 180 turn on this little (or not so little treasure).  Not wishing to sound as though I'm blowing my own trumpet I consider myself a technically good stamper.. not the most imaginative, not the best with colours or originality but I rarely misstamp an image, or get smudges and even sentiments are rarely stamped wonky.. so I didnt see that I'd get much benefit from it.  I even said to Martine at Oyster that I couldnt find a reason to buy one... ok, fast forward an hour.. alchie ink tag make & take and out comes the glossy card and a warning from teach about being careful not to slide the stamp.  I stamped ok, I usually do on gloss card but  Ding, one excuse found.. that most evil of surfaces.. the one that can have even the most experienced stamper trembling in their boots... acetate!!  I'd hate to say how many times my stamps have skidded or I havent got a full impression because I've been worried about it slipping.  Cant see that happening with the stamp press, you're not touching the stamp or card and there's only one way the stamp can go.. down.  Sold, so I hurtled off to Oysters stand and got the large one, reason for the large one is those large 6*6 background stamps that I love but rarely use.  Pita getting out a big shot plate to use as a block and you have to be so careful to get all of the areas pressed down, I bought the special rocker mount but have never really got on with it.. wish I'd had the stamp press then.  Woohoo, talk about making it easy to use.  Impressed or what lol. I'm not going to get rid of my blocks and I doubt I'll use the press for tildas/bellas/kimmies but I can see it being used quite a bit for the really small stamps that are easy to catch the edge of the rubber.

I also bought the new envelope punch board, still cant see me using it to make envies because I find it easy enough to make boxes or for 6*6 a pack of 50 for a few quid at the range will suffice.  But going to find it really handy for making file tab pages for mini albums and I'm seriously thinking of making some desktop stamp storage for my most used sentiment & worker (grasses/flourishes etc) ums.

Also lurking in my shopping bags were a baby vest die from MFT, a really unusual congratulations background stamp from AnnaMarie.. it has gaps where you can then stamp words.. like new baby, on your special day, passing your exams etc.  Worked quite well to make a background panel for a baby card I made this evening, only gripe is it has a definite left margin but not a right one so it's not great for making full backgrounds.  Maybe I can convince Annamarie to make a much larger version lol.

I also got a woodware tag & sentiment set, it was in the reduced bin and had a couple of nice sentiments but nothing special.  As always a few more nestie dies, they werent all in stock so Oyster are going to post out the ones oos but I did manage to get the border one I've been after for ages, yay.  That naughty Tracey went on to show me a new sparkly ink paint that comes in a Koi waterbrush and dries pretty much instantly.   Oooh, really sparkly so just for the sake of my buddies I had to buy one so I could report back after my holiday ;o) 

Just heard Ade's car pull up so going to dash and start doing a bit of tidying,  ttfn