Something cool...

Since I got all my new stamps today, some of them needed some cleaning, like bad. Most of them were unused but some were very much loved by someone. I used to use just baby wipes for a while, but they didn't always get stains out. I came across this cleaner recipe a year ago and it's better than anything. I only use Staz on for Staz on inks now, I used to use it for everything except I don't like the idea that it says to avoid contact with skin(that's why it works so good) Here's the recipe:
You'll need: One spray bottle, water, baby soap, glycerin, Simple Green all purpose cleaner.
Fill bottle one quarter the way full with water, simple green, then put in a few little squeezes of baby soap and some glycerin.
This works wonders! I usually mess with the recipe a bit for what I need, for instance if I have some dirty stamps I use more simple green or I just spray some of the simple green onto the dirty stamp. When I get older, second hand stamps, I add more glycerin to moisturize the rubber stamps so they don't crack (believe me, cracked rubber is not good) For the really bad, old stamps that need more moisturizing, I spray some of the mixture with a higher concentration of glycerin on and let it sit all night, or over a week since I rarely craft during the week, it will soak into the really dry rubber and make it better than new. Except, you don't want to let it sit on your stamps too much, just do it when you first get a really old stamp and when you just clean it after use and wipe the solution off with a baby wipe, it will do maintinance with the moisture. If you let the solution sit too often, the stamp will feel kind of oily and greasy. I have used this for over a year and I love it. One thing though, there's another cleaner recipe that has all the same ingredients as this one but without the simple green and I tried it. It's terrible. It doesn't remove stains; it's no better than a baby wipe for what I was working with. Try this, it will save you money since the little staz on things are expensive and I don't like working with a chemical like that. You can go to simplegreen.com and send an E-mail telling them that you use simple green for stamp cleaner; they'll send you some good coupons. Just a tip, let me know if you like it as much as I do.