Simon’s is Hiring

Graphics, Production and Customer Service – Part Time (Turners Falls, MA)

compensation: $14.50 per hour to start
employment type: part-time (20-30 hours)

 

Part-time graphics/customer service person needed to help us produce great rubber stamps, embossing seals, signs, etc.

Typesetting, proofreading, image manipulation with CorelDraw and PhotoShop, laser engraving. Plenty of customer contact, by phone, email, and even in-person.

Different tasks every day.

We need a reliable, detail-oriented person, good with computers and good with people.

Simon’s Stamps, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer.
Please send us your resume!

Custom Address and Monogram Rubber Stamps

Simon’s Stamps now offers a way for you to design your own stamps easily, even with no design experience! You can choose from many different layouts and create your personal monogram, address, letterhead, and stationery stamps.

Head over to our online shop to see what you can design.

These stamps really make an impression (pun intended 😉 ) on your correspondences and also make a terrific housewarming gift.

Notary Seals

Are you a new Notary Public? or is your commission about to re-up? Simon’s Stamps offers notary seals, stamps and journals. We follow the International Marking & Identification Association’s guidelines for each state to ensure all stamps and seals meet the necessary size and format requirements.

We also offer other materials, such as foil stickers, journals and seal impression inkers. Check out our catalog @ Notary Public Supplies – simonstamp.com

Cute Teacher Desk or Door Sign

Teachers! School’s almost back in session. And we have a new, cute design to help your students get to know you this school year. Check out our 2″ x 8″ sign that you can customize with your own colors, mounting and name at our store here: https://goo.gl/mK2VSz.

For this special template, all you have to do is add in the “Special Instructions” box in the shopping cart, “Please use Template 464179,” and we will ship the name you typed on our Teacher Desk/Door Sign Template with the color and name you have chosen. Be aware that we will use the same graphics and font on the template, not what is chosen in the order, so you can just leave the font set to the default Arial.

Here’s a helpful graphic if you’ve never ordered a sign before:

Have a great school year!

Custom Rubber Stamp File Requirements

Here at Simon’s Stamps, we regularly receive emails about file requirements for custom art. It’s pretty simple: our laser engraver needs a file to be a 500 DPI monochrome bitmap. Below are the steps to get just that.

Before you get started, make sure your file has been cropped to eliminate any extra white space around the edges. You can crop right up to your art. This will ensure you get the correct size for your finished stamp.

First, in Photoshop or your image editor, click the “Image” menu option and scroll down to “Image Size…”

A new pop-up menu will appear. Make sure the “Resolution” option is set to 500. And also make sure your image dimensions are what you’d like your stamp size to be. Click “OK.”

Next, also under the “Image” menu option, click on “Mode” and choose “Grayscale.”

Then, again under the “Image” menu option, click on “Bitmap…”

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A new pop-up menu will appear. Make sure “Output” is set to 500 and the Method drop down option is set to “50% Threshold.” Click “OK.”

An that’s it! When you save the image, make sure to choose a BMP or TIFF file.

How to Ink Rubber Stamps

Believe it or not, there is a bit of a learning process with stamping rubber stamps, particularly if you are using them for a business purpose where consistency is key.

Before we talk about the how-to, let’s clear up what a rubber stamp can do. It can make impressions on flat surfaces best; think paper, glass, plastics. You can carefully use your rubber stamps to stamp on curved surfaces by rolling it from end to end (once) on similar flat surfaces. The more area on your art or copy the more the impression will come out with a distressed look (as seen in the image above), as the ink doesn’t get full coverage like a printer. Common text typically gets good full coverage.

It is hit or miss with alternative surfaces. Depending upon your needs, you may be able to use your stamp on wood, fabric, foam, etc.. However, keep in mind, the more porous a surface, the more the ink is like to spread, and any unevenness will shop on the impression.

Now, inking your wooden rubber stamps: the first step is pressing the stamp into the ink pad. To avoid any extra ink from getting onto unintended surfaces of the stamp, gently “kiss” the stamp to the ink pad a few times to ensure even coverage. Second, press, don’t smash, your stamp onto your flat surface (you may want to try different surfaces – often what we think is flat really isn’t). Do not rock it; just give it even, firm pressure.

We suggest practicing with each new stamp to get an idea of how much ink you need to pick up and how firmly you may need to stamp to get the desired effect.

Cleaning Your Rubber Stamps

Yes, it is important to clean off rubber stamps after use, particuarly when switching between colors.

Wood-Mounted Rubber Stamps
Do not use soap and water with wood-mounted rubber stamps, because it will loosen the adhesive and compress the cushion foam. The quickest and easiest way to clean your wood stamps is with a damp (not wet) towel.

Some inks can stain your stamps, StazOn ink, for example. It won’t ruin your stamp just stain it, and you can just clean off what you can and let the stamp dry. To get them really clean, you can use the StazOn cleaner.

Acrylic Stamps
The quickest and easiest way to clean your acrylic stamps is with warm water and a mild soap. For really stubborn ink, you can also take a soft, old toothbrush and gently scrub the crevices in the image.

Please don’t use acetone, bleach or any oil-based cleaner for either acrylic or wood-mounted stamps.