The Stamp Market A2 Rip Envelope

Those look like fun!

I am going to piggy-back on this thread because I have a question about Stamp Market Ink Cubes.

I have probably 15 of them. And also the inks' coordinating CS for when I want truly matchy-matchy. I went to use some of their inks during C+C and they are completely dried out. I have 7 that were unusable (3 of which I know I had never used before except for their swatches), the other 4 were not used often. I checked the other ones and they are all close to dried out too.

What is the deal with their ink cubes? I've never had this happen with other inks so quickly. I'd guess the first purchase I made was last summer, and the most recent at the end of the year so they are not old. Clearly it's not a one-off thing, but across the board. Right now I'm hanging onto the dried out cubes because I like the colors and am debating buying the re-inkers.

I store them (right side up) with the rest of my ink cubes, in drawers, with lids tightly closed. Am I doing something wrong?!? I haven't contacted TSM yet because I found them to be less than friendly when they sent me the wrong color ink in my first order from them, and I don't like to set myself up for potentially aggravating interactions. Thanks for any insight!

Interesting thought about the foam pads pinklady. I’ll try flipping the cubes over. And I won’t bother contacting TSM about them. That said, I haven't had any issues (knocks wood) with the C+9th cubes from the last C+C. Yet.

pinklady, that is a great die. I didn’t see the price, but I’m guessing it’s a bit more expensive, since it’s apparently a longer die and requires the longer plates.

I hope you don’t mind my mentioning a couple of alternatives, but for those of us on a tight budget, there are a couple of less expensive options. The first alternative is that My Favorite Things sells a die set with two Rip Strip borders. While the examples show a sentiment hidden behind the rip strip, the larger size looks like it could be used on an envelope flap, although it would obviously work better on some envelope styles than others.

For those who own electronic cutters, Silhouette sells a tear strip envelope cutting file, as well as another cutting file that you can add to an envelope cutting file or envelope of your choice. The tear strip file has 4 options and can be used for various sized cards, since you can enlarge or shrink the size to fit whatever envelope cutting file you plan to use. You don’t have to have a Silhouette. They offer an SVG version, so you can still use it if you have a Cricut or other electronic cutter that takes SVG files. You can search the Silhouette site using the design ID. For the envelope cutting file, the Design ID is 36176. For the 4 tear strip borders, the Design ID is 71115. Put either number in the Silhouette search option, and it will bring up the cutting file. They are hard to find, otherwise.

MichyM, sometimes you can salvage an ink pad with a re-inker, depending on what type ink it is. I use Momento ink pads, and have the Momento re-inkers for many of my favorite, most used colors. Amazon sells the re-inkers for Momento. Have you Googled re-inkers for your brand of ink pad?  A re-inker can refresh your ink pad for years. When I buy a new color of ink pad, I often buy a re-inker at the same time, since colors come and go, and I can’t always find a matching re-ink bottle later.