Those expensive stamp cleaners.....

We've all bought them- all the branded ones, especially the Staz-on cleaner, 'cos its the only one that removes Staz-on ink! And none of them are cheap, are they, no matter who makes it? When you look at what we pay, compared to the quantity in the bottle, its got to be one of the most expensive liquids on the planet. Actually I just did a little research- the bottle I had (Inkessentials, since you ask)  is an average of £3.50 a bottle, which contains 113ml. That works out to £29.70 a litre.And thats one of the cheaper brands. Staz-On is even worse,56ml for around £4.50- or £81 a litre. So whats all this leading up to, I hear you ask.
 Well, I've been seeing lots of recipes for homemade stamp cleaners around, and kept meaning to try one out. I even bought most of the ingredients, just not got round to doing it. By most of, I mean two, it only needs 3, or 4 if you want to perfume it.
Well, today I finished off my bottle of cleaner, so it seemed the ideal time to try it out.
What you need:
 A spray bottle
Baby Wash
Glycerine
Distilled Water
Optional: Rose Water
I admit right now that I never got around to buying the distilled water. Its available from chemists, by the way. I used water from my water filter jug, I figure thats taken all the nasties out of it, and I was only making up enough to fill my bottle, not  a huge amount to store.
 As well as regular stamp cleaner, this is my usual stamp cleaning kit:
Baby wipes for most ink removal, they deal with dye inks easily.
Staz-on cleaner, a toothbrush, a paint pad and an old towel.

 One thing the baby wipes don't work for, besides Staz-on, is Versafine.
Most of the recipes I found give quantities for making up at least a pint, and like I say, I only wanted enough for one bottle, so this recipe is winging it a bit- no exact quantities were used, but I don't think it really matters.
After I'd rinsed out the bottle, I added about half a teaspoon of glycerine. I think this was about 50p a bottle. This, and Rosewater can be found in the baking aisle in the supermarket, as well as chemists.
 Next I poured in about an inch of  Baby wash- mine came from Aldi, about 80p. Now I just topped it up with filtered water, put the lid back on and rolled it back & forth to mix. Don't shake it, you'll end up with a pressurised bottle of foam!
 And thats it. If you want to add rosewater to perfume it, do that just before you add the water, but I thought the Baby wash smell was perfectly acceptable.








 So, now the acid test. Is the mix any good, and does it work?
I inked up the stamp with Black Versafine.

Stamped the image off onto scrap, and gave it a spritzing with the cleaner, and went over it with the toothbrush.

Wiped it off with the towel, and...WOW! I think its cleaner than before I inked it!

So then I was curious- what was the likelihood of it removing Staz-on? Not very high, to be honest. Its a solvent based ink, right?

So, I inked it again, and I tried this twice, once stamping the image off first, and once with a full coat of  Staz-on on the stamp. Again, I gave it a scrub with the toothbrush, and I was amazed to see the Staz-on come off! Both times, no problem.













And of course, apart from how cheap this is, the real beauty is that it won't damage your acrylic blocks like Staz-on Cleaner does. This is the damage caused to acrylic blocks by Staz-on cleaner, before I knew about what it did. Now I save them for cleaning any stamps that needed Staz-on removed.

 So, my two ingredients cost me less than £1.50, and I'd say I will be able to refill my bottle dozens of times before either one runs out. I'm guessing my bottle of stamp cleaner just cost me less than 10p!

 Just a quick add-on, I've been calling it Baby Wash from all the recipes I read being almost entirely American! Its what we in the UK call Baby Bath. I did find a recipe or two that used Dove shower gel instead, I think the idea is that it needs to be a liquid soap that is as free from chemicals as possible, so there is actually quite a bit of scope for what you use.