Product Review: Stazon Stamp Pad and Crafter's Companion Rock-A-Blocks

I have a new found love for stamping. I bought stamps ages ago because I thought they were cool and that I could use them in my scrapbooking. To accompany the stamps, I bought ink pads from HobbyCraft, their own brand. I couldn't achieve the quality of stamping that I was hoping for. It was really frustrating me that it wasn't working how I wanted to so I did some research and found that it matters what stamping ink pad you use. After looking at a lot of stamping blog posts and Instagram posts, I found that there were raving reviews of Stazon Solvent Ink Stamp Pad. The pictures that accompanied them had really high quality, high pigmented stamping and that was what I was looking for. The price that accompanies the Stazon inks is quite high, but I soon realised, you get what you pay for.

My mum was nice enough to buy me a set of 4 stamping blocks. I'd originally been looking at acrylic ones because that seemed to be what most people were using but these ones are so much better in my opinion!

Crafter's Companion Rock-A-Blocks are curved and have a raised edge on the sides. It enables a rocking motion when stamping so you get a nice even amount of pressure while stamping. It's ingenious really! It makes stamping so much easier. When inking up your stamp, it's also so much more handy because the edges of the block don't get ink on them.

 The first thing you need to do is place your stamp in the middle of the Rock-A-Block. Sometimes you need a spray mount adhesive to do this, but my stamps were sticky enough not to need any help. Good stamps!
Then you need to ink up the stamp. This is best achieved by dabbing the ink pad on the stamp until there's even coverage over the stamp. After this, place the bottom edge of the stamp on the paper and rock the stamp forward with a even pressure. ONLY push it forwards. Don't rock it back and forth, because it will let you have a shadow and no one wants that!

This first one I did, didn't have very good pressure so it's not a complete stamp, but keep going, I got better!

 

These ones are probably the best stamping I've ever done. This is the effect I was hoping for. It was so perfect, I had to take more than one picture. I'm feeling very proud of myself right now!

So good! I have to say that if you want good results, you'll have to spend money for quality, but it's well worth it. I see this stamp pad lasting longer than the Hobby Craft ones, so it was money well spent.

Excuse me while I go stamp everything now!