Those who know me in person know that I thought the misti tool was a good enough idea but way too expensive for what it is and that as someone who rarely misstamps, doesn't want to stamp circular patterns or batch make it was £50 I wasn't going to spend.
Well Kay & Kelly nearly had wet knickers from laughing when I admitted to buying one at the Plymouth Sincerely Yours show a month or so ago. Even Tracey at Oysterstamps looked at me cockled when I handed over the cash as I'd told her that I wasn't going to get one (and why) when she first told me they were going to be stocking them and I'd repeated it on many occasions. So why did I buy it?? I'd bought one stamp at the craft show before that was a total and utter ******* (insert the worst swear words imaginable here) to ink. Versafine, archival, pigment you name it NOTHING would come close to even close to half way decent coverage and that was before stamping it, I tried the stamp press, inking with a brayer, stamping upside down (paper on top stamp) stamping mats, funky foam, more or less every trick I could think of from 20 years of stamping. So the thought was get a misti and a few duplicate impressions with a brand new sopping wringing juicy versafine. 4 impressions later it was just as cr*p an impression as always, albeit perfectly lined up rather than a few halos from not quite being square on with 2nd & 3rd impressions. I nearly threw the misti, complete with stupid bloody stamp still attached, through the window. Notamuseddotcom as we seem to say these days. Anyways I took misti (with stamp to friends a few days later to show her how bad it was) and the bloody thing stamped first time with a perfect image, with misti and with a bogstandard normal block. Turns out that being a dirty stamper (I don't clean my stamps unless I have to) worked and one *** stamp was now stamping perfectly.. even with distress ink which usually hates clear stamps let alone solid image clear stamps. Anyways back to the review (and of diy versions) as I got a bit sidetracked on why I bought one.
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This is an absolutely first class tool that really does do what it says on the tin, but, there are some againsts as well as the obvious fors.
Fors:
Perfect for people who can't hold or put enough pressure on a block.
Doesnt matter if you don't ink the stamp properly or dont press the stamp down all over to get a complete impression because closing the lid again will cover up all mistakes.
No more catching the ink on the edge of the stamp cushion and getting unintended lines. The misti has exactly the right depth and because you can't accidentally wobble the stamp from side to side there's no accidental smudge, specially handy when you've got a super thin long stem on a flower or a huge stamp that needs lots of pressure.
If you want to stamp a sentiment around the edge of a circle or corner there are templates which make this dead easy. Lots of guides and links on youtube.
Lining up is easier because you place the uninked stamp in place on your card and use the closing and opening action of the lid to get it in perfect place ready to ink up.
Mirrored stamping is the best I've ever done with misti, Oysterstamps can get their hands on an a6 blank clear stamp which if you follow some of the youtube vids allows you to get a mirrored image which has the same strength of ink as the original.
Batch making, using the corners it's possible to set your misti up so that your stamps are all in perfect position and you just move the card to different corners ready to ink up & close the lid.
It's great for repeat pattern stamping.
If your ink pad is drying or you want to get a deeper colour you can reink time after time to build up colour.
The grid on the lid lets you get sentiment stamps perfectly straight.
Perfect for stamping on glossy card/shrink plastic as you can't slip the image on it. Go very careful if using stazon though as Misti doesnt recommend harsh cleaners.
Againsts, for me anyway,
I'm a dirty stamper and having to either clean stamps before putting them into position or covering the card with a thin layer of acetate while position is not really for me. I find it a pita and have ruined a few things when I haven't cleaned/dried the stamps properly and I always get inky fingers when I use acetate as a shield.
I'm not overly a fan of having to place the stamp on the card first, it's a bit of a flaff compared to hovering an inked stamp over the card then deciding where you want it to go and misti is definitely not the tool to do lots of random stamping over a page, all that cleaning repositioning, closing/opening then reinking is a bloomin nightmare compared to a quick dab back onto the inkpad and stamp.
If you want to do a circle stamped sentiment direct on to a 6" square card you'll have to buy the 12" misti, the regular is far too small. 5" square is the largest size that works comfortably.
I don't like using it with the really large inkpads, anything su size or above can be fiddly. The small inkcubes are a lot easier to use with it, however, after knocking over 2 dl boxes (ok I admit they were balanced precariously on the edge of my side desk) filled with ink cubes then having to find let alone work out which lids went with which of about 30 pads (su & hero arts pads don't say underneath so it's a good job I swatched them last week) you can imagine why I prefer to buy full size inkpads.
It takes the ooh factor out of stamping and I have to admit I find using the tool makes stamping as boring as printing from the computer. It took me a lot of years, stamp & ink purchases to think of stamping as something more than a sometimes necessary evil and with a block I get a lot of excitement from taking the block away to see what it's stamped like. Fair enough 99 times out of 100 I've stamped perfectly but there's always a will it wont it moment that with misti turns into a so what it doesnt matter I can reink it. For me that loses some of the handcraftedness and I might just as well print from the computer, something I've never taken satisfaction from either as there's no challenge to using a printer even if I have made the graphic on the pc myself.
If I were to nitpick there are probably a few more I could come up with but I don't want to sound like too much of a whinger lol.
Conclusion, a definite must have for those who have dexterity issues or batch make. Worth it for those who struggle to stamp normally but it's still worth persevering with normal blocks as there are times Misti is as useless as an ashtray on a motorbike. For any other reasons really think hard about what you want it to do for you and what you expect from it then think is it going to do it, what size do you need and can you afford the cost. Me, I'm glad I have it as I've just swatched the inks that I keep on my desk (about 200 or so) and for that it was a blessing. Is it going to replace my blocks? Not a chance and will only be used for maybe 1 in 10 stamped cards at most but for those 1s I'll probably be glad I had it.
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For those thinking that £50 was a lot to spend for maybe only 1 in 10 cards and you've seen lots of different home made versions doing the rounds on youtube, blogs & facebook groups.. I've seen them too and I've actually made 2 of my own but just remember I'm as tight as the proverbial if I think something is gimmicky and there is a perfectly acceptable substitute... would I really have spent £50 on one, specially when I'm hankering after adding mft, hero arts and lawn fawn inks to my collection.. £50 would be a good chunk towards one of the sets...
Cd/dvd cases with an array of different sarnies of magnetic sheet, shims, funky foam and magnet strips are hugely limiting in the size of the card you can stamp on. They arent necessarily going to give you perfect 2nd impressions either because there is wiggle room in the fold over not hinged cases. I made mine up pretty much as soon as the Misti craze hit the groups and someone posted it as an idea. All in all it was a total waste of time & a few quid in magnetic sheets, magnets (that are useless compared to misti ones) and layers of foam and all to stamp images like tilda because it wasn't big enough to do a whole card! I didn't bother going to the expense that you'd need to for gridded acetate if you want to use it to line up sentiments. Mine went in the bin a couple of months later as only used it once and
thought it was a pita and wasn't all that and a bucket of chips iykwim.
Much better than a cd case is the large hinged photo frame from a certain Swedish store. Costs a few quid but it's big enough to fit an 8*8 piece so much better to start with but, and there are quite a few buts with this one, including the biggest which I shall leave to last.
The magnets on the side have to be removed otherwise you're forever fighting to get it open again.
The perspex is too thin and you'll be breaking it on a regular basis. I would recommend getting poly carbonate/perspex sheets cut to order from ebay, however those peg type thingies that you have to bend over the "glass" on the lid are one of the worse pitas I've come across. Best to remove them and use a combination of superglue & hot glue to weld the perspex/glass into place. Sticky tape wont do it, not even the redline tape.
You're going to need thin funky foam to use with um red rubber and a stronger magnetic sheet than the cheapie ones you bought at the last show. It has to be strong to attract the magnets, oh and the 2 normal well priced advertised as strong magnets are in actual fact useless and wouldn't hold even copy paper. Misti magnets are strong enough to jump 6" or so to grab on to an unsuspecting bracelet/watch and that's because they have to be strong to keep the card in place.
You've gone to the expense of strong magnetic sheets & magnets, you've replaced the glass and spent ages getting it glued into place, you've worked out what shims & foam is needed to stamp your unmounted red rubber or clear polymer stamps, you've even spend some dosh on gridded acetate because you were getting in a pickly lining up sentiments and all is working well for you then you decide that you want to use that really awkward cushion mounted stamp that you've never got on with because you keep catching ink on it's edge... here's the big but coming... the photo frame isn't as deep as it needs to be and that caught ink that you used to stamp every time is going to stamp every time with the photo frame as well. Almost all of my problematic stamps are cushion mounted and as much as I'd like to ditch the cushioning they do actually need it even when stamping on to cushion.
Yes, I've also got the photo frame version and even though it's large enough to pattern build easier it's going to be converted into an altered project not used to stamp with. Just too much hassle and when I'd use it is to avoid a problem and it's not really avoiding them all the time.
If money is a serious problem and you can't save the money/ask for Misti as a christmas/bday pressie then it's worth thinking about a diy version but please don't think that it compares to the Misti because unless you've gone to quite a hefty cost to custom build from scratch to the exact depth and copied it (you've basically broken patent laws when you copy the idea) the diy ones really are not a patch on using the real thing. It's a bit like buying a knock off handbag, it looks good initially but give it a few jaunts around the block and you'll start to notice the hems are fraying, there's holes in the lining, the zip has busted, the metalwork has tarnished and a few of the gems are missing.. actually it's fooling no one and goes in the bin lesson learned.
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