Andrea's Review	Catherine' Review	Chris's Review	Terri's Review	Rebecca's Review

Review by Andrea

Rubber stamps are one of my passions and people might say that I actually collect them. You just can't beat the instant art that stamps create - over and over again! They are so versatile to be able to be used on just about any surface given the right ink or paint AND personalized to the project at hand by the myriad of coloring options available today. In my opinion, rubber stamps are one of the handiest tools a paper crafter can have in their stash.

Receiving justjohanna stamps to review was a welcomed treat since I had never heard of her line before this review. The package contained 5 closely trimmed red rubber stamps mounted on red cushion to solid wood. The image is stamped on the top side of the wood for easy identification. The wood mounts have smooth grooves down the sides for finger positioning. "justjohanna" is stamped on the end of the wood mount so that you know they came from Johanna.

The stamp images in the package are all from Johanna's Holiday line. I received 3 reindeer and 2 words. The "Prancer Deer" and "Disco Dancer Deer" images are about 3 3/4" tall by 1 1/4" wide with the "Ballet Dancer Deer" being about 1 3/4" wide to allow for her tutu! Each design is hand-drawn and simple with a definite dash of humor - the reindeer are standing up and dressed like humans! The word stamps are "Prancer" and "Dancer" measuring about 1/2" by 1". The text is a mixed funky font of upper and lower case letters.

These stamps scream "Casual Christmas" to me, so what better pictures to scrap than ones from opening presents on Christmas morning at my sister's house. The kids are usually still in their pj's, so it makes for some casual pictures. I wanted to use two of the images facing each other on a tag for an embellishment, so I mirrored Prancer Deer by stamping it on a blank sheet of rubber then stamped that onto the tag. Both images were colored with Twinkling H2O's for a festive look. The tag was a terrific embellishment for the page and really helped convey the mood of the photo.

Title: Merry Xmas 2000
Products used: Patterned Paper, Cardstock Stickers and Tag (BasicGrey Blitzen)
Stamps (justjohanna)
Inks (Stewart Superior India Ink Black and Ranger Distress Peeled Paint)
Twinkling H2O's (LuminArte)
Fiber (Shoebox Trims)
Brads (Jo Ann Scrap Essentials)
White Gel Pen (Uni-ball Signo)
Poinsettias (unknown)
Rubber Mirror Plate (Mostly Animals)
Sketch (www.kittys-kloset.com)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

I wanted to really play with the deer images, so I stamped 2 of them on shrink plastic to use as charms on little reindeer food baggies. I thought this would be a cute little box to put out on a desk during the holidays and then out by the tree on Christmas Eve. The deer shrunk to about 1 1/2" in size, perfect for a charm. I think I'll make some Christmas Cards using the shrink plastic idea again!

Title: Santa's Reindeer Gift
Products used: Cardstock (Prism Prismatics: Nautical Blue Medium & Herbal Garden Dark, Exclusives: Rosso)
Patterned Paper (Die Cuts With a View)
Stamps (justjohanna)
Inks (Ranger Distress: Fired Brick & Peeled Paint, StazOn Jet Black)
Shrink Plastic (Lucky Squirrel)
Coloring Pencils (Staedtler)
Wire (Making Memories)
Punches (Carl)
Staples (Target)
Ribbon (various)
Deco Scissors (Provocraft)
Glitter and Oatmeal
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)
Project inspired by Paper Crafts Magazine

Justjohanna holiday stamps are a fun and easy way to add some cheer to a package, card or scrapbook page. The deer stamps range in price from $11.50 - $13.00 and the word stamps are $4.50 - $5.00 which is about average for wood mounted stamps. I would like to see the name of the image on the wood mount somewhere for easy reference and maybe a web address. If you like a touch of whimsy in your holiday stamp images, justjohanna is for you!

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Review by Catherine

Justjohanna stamps is a fairly new stamp company that makes fun, whimsical stamp designs. Before this review, I have to admit that I did not know anything about this company. After I found the justjohanna website, I was excited to try out some of the different stamps offered.

Usually, I am not a big fan of cute, whimsical designs in my stamps. My most often used stamps are alphabet stamp sets and bold, graphic designs. However, the whimsical stamps that are created at justjohanna Stamps are just so fun that it is very hard to resist. I was sent three different reindeer designs, as well as a word stamp, and sentiment stamp. The reindeer I received are “Darling Deer”, “Fast Dasher”, and “Dasher Deer”. The stamps that I received are all wood-mounted with red rubber stamp images. One of my biggest pet peeves is trying to use stamps that are not deeply etched enough to get a clear image without “bleed” or over-stamping. I had absolutely no problem getting a clear image every single time I used each of the different stamps. I love all of the different reindeer and sentiments that I received, and looking at the Fall/Winter catalog supplement, I found even more reindeer to love, as well as over twenty other pages of fun stamps that I would love to own as well.

For my first project, I decided to stamp all three of the reindeer images I received onto one scrapbook page. I filled in the black line images of the stamps with thin-line marker, and I had cute, fun images to include on my page. I love the playful look that these images add.

{Cheer}:

Products used:
Cardstock (Prism Papers)
Patterned Paper; Patterned CS (KI Memories)
Stamps (justjohanna)
Transparency Letters; Sparkly Brads; Rhinestone Stars (KI Memories)
Chipboard Heart (Heidi Swapp)
Brads (Bazzill Basics)
Ribbon (Unknown)
Adhesive (AdTech Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

For my next project, I decided to get a jumpstart on some Christmas cards, and I created a few cards to include with gifts for co-workers. The fun Speedy Dasher stamp and sentiments stamps added a sense of merriment to my cards, just perfect for a simple gift enclosure card.

Dasher Card:

Products used:
Cardstock (Prism Papers)
Patterned Paper (Heidi Grace; A2Z Essentials)
Specialty Paper (MagicScraps)
Stamps (justjohanna)
Ribbon (From Really Reasonable Ribbon Kit)
Rhinestone Border (Heidi Swapp)
Adhesive(AdTech Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

I have to say, in review, that I absolutely adore the cute little reindeer stamps that I received from justjohanna stamps. The timing couldn’t have been better, as my thoughts have been turning to Christmas more and more lately, but I can see myself using these stamps continually throughout the Holiday Season. If you are looking for cute, whimsical, fun stamps for your Holiday projects, or for any other reason, then you must check out justjohanna Stamps!

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Review by Chris

Justjohanna designs and makes mounted rubber stamps in some quite unique and clever styles. In browsing their online catalog, I found many varieties of critters such as birds, rabbits and cats, with accessories such as crowns, hats and purses; lots of flourishes; other useful things such as birdhouses, birdcages, flowers and musical notes; and many clever words and phrases in English, Spanish and French. There also are many holiday themed stamps.

I received 8 stamps from the new Christmas line, featuring reindeer and words. "Don Juaner deer" resembles a matador sporting a festive Mexican sombrero; "Vixen" looks like quite a "hottie" wearing a long skirt with a very high slit on the side; Blitzen is a real "dude" and came to me accompanied by a "rein beer" stamp and the word "cheers." I also received stamps for "donner," "vixen" and "feliz navidad."

These stamps are really quite clever. At first I was a little put off by them, wondering what I was going to do with stamps of reindeer with human characteristics. But once I got into the spirit of fun, I thought of many possibilities. Stamping with these stamps was a snap. These red rubber stamps are well made and finely etched. The position of the rubber vis-ŕ-vis the indexed image is excellent. Every image I stamped came out perfectly, without any missing detail.

I had the perfect photo for the Blitzen "dude" stamp – a shot of my son being a "dude" in front of Santa’s reindeer. He was becoming too "old" to get up on the float, but still young enough to go outside and participate in some of the excitement of Santa’s visit to our neighborhood. I stamped the image on a tag as an embellishment on this page.

Hey Santa!
Products used: Patterned paper (BasicGrey, Dasher and Fruitcake)
Stamp (justjohanna, Blitzen)
Ink (Printworks, Outliner)
Stickers (BasicGrey, Blitzen)
Ribbon (Shoebox Trims)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Glue Runner)

I thought that Don Juaner Deer would make a perfect Christmas card for Matt’s Spanish teacher. I stamped the image 3 times and colored them with twinkling H2O’s.

Feliz Navidad
Patterned Paper (Deja View, Sharon Ann Collection, Home for the Holidays)
Stamps (justjohanna, Don Juaner Deer, Feliz Navidad)
Ink (Printworks, Outliner)
Twinkling H2Os (Luminarte)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Tape Runner)

I love the whimsical nature of these stamps along with the fine detail of the design. I certainly would not hesitate to add more justjohanna stamps to my stamp collection.

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Review by Terri

Although I am not the most experienced stamper, I love the look of stamps on scrapbook pages as well as cards. They add a creative, personal touch and I am always amazed at the variety of beautiful stamps in my local scrapbook stores. I had never used justjohanna stamps before I was sent some to review, but I was looking forward to trying them.

I was sent stamps with a reindeer/Cupid theme. The stamps are made from red rubber and were adhered to wooden blocks. They looked very well made, and the images were super cute. I received Rudolph the reindeer, Cupid the reindeer, two Cupid wings (left and right), and a stamp with the name Cupid. I immediately thought of the Rudolph the Reindeer song. Do you remember the first verse? “You know Dasher, and Dancer, and Prancer, and Vixen, Comet, and Cupid, and Donner and Blitzen but do you recall the most famous reindeer of all.” I could not wait to start using these stamps on Christmas pages and cards.

As I mentioned, I am not the most experienced stamper. I bring this up because I want you to know that the images produced by these stamps are very crisp, but as I learned you should not rock the stamp, but instead firmly press it. If you look at my first project, you can see my mistake. Luckily this was easy to master, and on my second project I got it perfect.

I used one of my favorite Christmas photos on my page. Since I wanted to use the Cupid stamps, I looked up Cupid to find out a little more about this particular reindeer, and incorporated that information into my journaling.

Title: Cupid
Products used:
Cardstock: Prism Prismatics
Patterned Paper: Kaleidoscope by My Mind’s Eye
Stamps: justjohanna
Ink: Stampin’ Up!
Button: American Crafts
Marker: Sailor Rolling Ball Writer
Rhinestones: unknown
Adhesive: Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

For my second project I used the Rudolph stamp and wings. This time I stamped on cardstock, cut the image out and colored part of it in. I used a 3-D Design Block on the top wing to give the card dimension and a whimsical look.

Title: Reindeer Card
Products used:
Cardstock: Prism Prismatics
Patterned Paper: Carol Wilson Fine Arts
Stamps: justjohanna
Ink: Stampin’ Up!
Markers: Marvy Uchida (mfg)
Wooden Christmas Tree: Holiday Time
Sticker (joy): Me and My Big Ideas (MAMBI)
Adhesive: Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner and Adhesive Tech, 3-D Design Blocks

I really like the page and card I created with these stamps. It took me a few minutes to figure out why I liked them so much but then it hit me. These stamps have so much personality, and added life to my projects. I have known for a long time that stamps are versatile and a great investment, but they are also fun and give your projects a unique touch! Justjohanna offers a large range of whimsical reindeer stamps, as well as a huge holiday line that features both whimsical and traditional Christmas images, phrases and a gorgeous alphabet. I encourage you to take a few moments and look though their online catalog. I think you will be delighted by their stamps, and encourage you to try a few.

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Review by Rebecca

Stamping and scrapbooking go hand in hand for me lately. When I found out I would be reviewing new Christmas stamps from justjohanna Rubber Stamps I was very excited. This seemed like a perfect time to begin gathering some Christmas photos and papers and getting ready for the holiday season.

I was anxious to get started when I received my package containing six stamps. All of the stamps were wood-mounted rubber stamps. Three of them were images of reindeer and they measured approximately 4" x 1". Two of the reindeer stamps had clothing on. "Merilee Deer" has an apron and a necklace on and the second with a coat on is named "Deerlene". The additional stamps included one that read "You are a deer friend" a second that stated "Comet" and a third that resembled a can of household cleaner with a label that read "Halley's comet". The stamps are adhered well to the wood block and even after a few cleanings were still firmly attached. The rubber sheets are trimmed neatly around the images so there aren't any edges to leave stray marks when stamped. The price for the stamps I received ranged from $12.00 to $4.00.

For my first project I grabbed my already gathered Christmas photos and created a layout of my daughter opening a present. I used the plain reindeer image that I stamped in black. I also cut out the image and added some folded paper behind him so that he would pop from the page. I also stamped "Deerlene" on my journaling paper as a background image as well as used the Comet stamp in my journaling.

Happy Girl
Products used:
justjohanna Plain Deer rubber stamp
justjohanna Deerlene rubber stamp
justjohanna Comet rubber stamp
Cardstock (Prism Papers)
Patterned Paper (BasicGrey, Chloe's Closet)
Ribbon (Crafty Keepsakes Monthly Kit Club)
Chipboard Alphabet (Heidi Swapp)
Stickers (Heidi Swapp)
Chipboard photo corners (Chloe's Closet)
Ink (Tim Holtz Distress Inks, Brushed Corduroy; ColorBox Fluid Chalk Ink)
Pen (Micron by Sakura)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Glue Runner)

My second project was going to be a holiday card. However, I realized that the design of these stamps allows for use beyond just holiday themed projects. I used "Merilee Deer" and the "You are a deer friend" stamps to create a quick card. I colored, inked and used some glitter to turn this into an any occasion greeting card.

Card
Products used:
justjohanna Merilee Deer rubber stamp
justjohanna You Are a Deer Friend rubber stamp
Cardstock (Prism Papers)
Ink (Tim Holtz Distress Inks, Brushed Corduroy; StazOn, Jet Black; Stampabilties Pigment Ink, Plum)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Glue Runner)

Justjohanna has created unique rubber stamped images. I liked the play on words in the greeting with the spelling of "deer" and thought the comet cleaner stamp was humorous. I would consider purchasing justjohanna Rubber Stamps in the future. I like the attention to details such as eyelashes and a necklace on one of the images and the whimsical feel these images add to my projects.

For more information visit justjohanna