UM4U

by Judi Kauffman

A card created with unmounted rubber stamps by Dee Gruenig.

For many years all rubber stamps were wood mounted. But then something big happened: Stamp manufacturers began to sell stamps without wood or cushion, and the era of the UM began to change the entire landscape of the stamping world.

Then

Consumers who had previously shopped only at a local store began to order through the Internet as more and more manufacturers offered them the option of buying images either mounted or not, or unmounted only (singly or as entire sheets). Their justification: saving money, less storage space needed and more companies' images available. In other words, stampers wanted choices that their local stores were not offering.

Stamp stores I frequented over the years from 1995-2005 were almost without exception resistant to the whole idea of selling unmounted stamps. The few that did would usually toss some into a box and grumble that UMs were too difficult to display, that their customers wouldn't want them, and that they wouldn't be profitable.

Now

Unmounted word stamps from Quietfire Design.

Fast forward a bit and it's now almost the exact opposite. Every stamp store I've visited in the last two years has decided to include unmounted stamps as well as the supplies needed for temporarily mounting them and all kinds of storage options. The same stores that once had a small basket of $1 images tucked away in a corner now have racks and shelves filled with unmounted images, phrases and alphabets from a wide variety of companies. Now that stores have jumped on the bandwagon, customers can revel in the choices: unmounted rubber side by side with clear stamps, along with the wood mounted.

Floral-themed unmounted stamps by Georgana Hall.

It's simple: If you have lost sales to the Internet, one way to pull those dollars back to your cash drawer is to offer the kind of stamps that your customers are buying elsewhere. No experience beats hands-on. If you embrace a product, demonstrate how to use it, and include it in your classes and workshops your customers will continue to turn to you first and most often. Plus, if you now have or plan to add a website and sell via mail order, nothing is easier to pack and ship than unmounted stamps.

Bring in the Newbies

With unmounted stamps, beginning stampers can get their feet wet with less of an initial investment. Scrapbookers who do not identify themselves as stampers have taken the plunge and joined the fun.

Longtime Stampers Stock Up

An arctic-themed set of unmounted rubber stamps by Dee Gruenig.

Longtime stampers enjoy having more options and appreciate knowing that they don't have to add a wing to their house to store their collection. I have thousands of stamps, and yet on a recent shopping trip, I bought an unmounted alphabet sheet that cost just under $30—not a bad price point for me and a good profit for the store. My Internet stamping friends, without exception, buy on impulse, their decisions based on what they find and can't resist while out shopping. After all, we longtime stampers could make do with one alphabet (not a dozen or more), one flower (not a whole drawer full of roses and tulips), one stamp that says Happy Birthday (not one in script, one in block letters, and at least four or five others). But who would want to?

Cross-Selling

Undersea cards created with unmounted rubber stamps from Starving Artistamps.

Unmounted stamps cross-sell storage systems, both for the stamper working at home as well as the one who needs something portable. They cross-sell temporary mounting supplies including acrylic blocks and adhesives such as Tsukineko's Tack 'n Peel.

Then there's the intangible: the idea of saving space and money. My logic works like this: Any money saved on stamps I can spend on something else—and that includes embellishments, cardstock, stickers, blank journals and other surfaces, fibers and other treats. I know the logic is imperfect, but if I know that an unmounted stamp I've just purchased costs only $6, not $12, that gives me an extra $6 to spend. Economists probably have a name for the theory, but I derive it from Calvin Trillin's late wife Alice. He said, and I paraphrase loosely, that Alice figured money not spent on a particular item was available to spend on another.

What Manufacturers and Designers Have to Say

Debbie Raymond from Adornit-Carolee's Creations said that Carolee decided to start creating and selling clear rubber stamps because they are a natural extension of the company's line of scrapbook and cardmaking supplies. She feels that the quality and convenience were exactly what they wanted to offer their customers.

A fanciful unmounted stamp set from Artgirlz.

The Artgirlz, Tracy and Allison Stilwell, added rubber stamps to their product mix as a way of bringing a new dimension to their line of embellishments and collage supplies. Their stamps are sold pre-trimmed with cushion.

Designer and longtime leader in the stamping industry Dee Gruenig has been working with Sunday International to bring her vision to life in a brand new way. She said, "Because of its many superior features, I believe that unmounted rubber stamping using the EZ Mount system will be the preferred method (not the only method) of stamping." Her Clearly Posh clear stamps are "perfect for my Duets because the clear transparency ensures precise placement of a line art image over a solid one for some truly artistic effects."

A sheet of unmounted rubber stamps from Red Castle Inc.

Phil Schloss from Red Castle Inc. has been manufacturing deep-etched rubber stamps, sold by the sheet, for over nine years. He thinks high quality rubber stamps plus acrylic blocks and low-tack tape make an excellent combination. Customers can use deep stamps for clay, bringing in those who want to make jewelry and art pieces as well as those whose main interests are cards, tags and other paper projects. "Using low-tack tape on the blocks means your rubber stamps are truly unmounted and can be immersed in water for cleanup since there is nothing on the back of them. When customers don't need an elaborate mounting system, it gives them more money to buy additional stamps and supplies."

The list of companies that now sell unmounted stamps is long and getting longer. Check out what's new from designers such as Brenda Walton, Jo Rango, Claudine Hellmuth, Dee Gruenig line and companies both big and small, including Sunday International, Inkadinkado, Limited Edition, Hampton Arts, Movable Parts, Quietfire Design, Paper Artsy, Invoke Arts, Picture Show, Rubber Moon, Starving Artistamps, Lazar Studiowerx, Art Declassified, Stamping Sensations, Magenta and many others.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Judi Kauffman is a lifetime stamper and nationally known designer, writer and teacher. Her new book, By The Batch: Creative Cards, Postcards, Envelopes and More (Watson-Guptill), includes 13 foolproof layouts and a wealth of ideas for how to create one-of-a-kind cards in a series—a batch at a time! Contact her by e-mail: judineedle@aol.com

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