Randi's Review	Andrea' Review	Rachel's Review	Chris's Review	Rebeccaj's Review

Review by Randi

The Picnic Basket stamp from Limited Edition rates a big WOW with me! Its the first 3-D stamp that I've ever used, and I have to say I LIKED it a lot! This wood-mounted stamp measures about 6 1/2" across by 5" tall, and the design is on THREE sides of the wood! The large surface contains the the bottom, side and front of the basket while the flip side has the basket top, other side and back.

One of the long, thin sides has the basket handle, which is stamped twice.

The rubber on this stamp is high quality and gives a great image. It comes with instructions to fold and glue the stamped images to make the 3-D basket. I chose to emboss my basket weave in white to go with my Christmas theme, and used mini brads so my handles could move. Using the DVD 10 Quick and Easy Mini-Books, I adapted the Picnic Basket to hold a mini-book with Christmas sentiments in it.

Christmas Basket Mini Book
Picnic Basket Stamp, Limited
Herbal Garden Dark Prismatic Cardstock, Prism Papers
Red paper, Scrappin' Sports 'N More!
VersaMark, Tsukineko
Snow White Cat's Embossing Powder
Rub-ons and Tags, True Gifts of Christmas,Be Blessed
Ribbon, Really Reasonable Ribbon
Mini Brads
Permanent Bond Glue Runner, Adhesive Tech

I can see so many uses for this stamp! Did you know it makes a great picnic basket for Barbie or My Little Ponies? My four-year-old caught on to THAT idea pretty quickly! They are so fast and easy to make you might create several for party favors or nut cups. Themed mini-books of all types can be housed in the basket too, with endless possibilities for color variation. This stamp is sure to add much excitement to your collection and get a lot of use. Pick one up soon!

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Review by Andrea

Limited Edition Rubber Stamps based in New York, has been around for over 10 years bringing variety and style into the crafting world. Famous designers like Nick Bantock (Nick Bantock Designs) and Danelle Johnson (Art Warehouse) have worked with Limited Edition bringing a refreshing depth to the product line. The stamp that came for this review is a basket stamp similar to the one seen on the 10 Quick and Easy Mini-Books DVD . Alexa Joy uses a Limited Edition stamp to create a basket image which she cuts out to create into a 3D item to hold a mini-book in! Remarkable!

What is so interesting is the sheer size of the Picnic Basket Stamp that we received from Limited Edition. It is just under 1 1/4" x 5 1/4" x 7 in size! The red rubber is mounted ON 3 SIDES of a solid chunk of wood. One side of the the basket is on the large top of the wood mount with the corresponding other side of the basket on the bottom. The basket handle is along one of the narrow sides. The images all have high ridge detail to make a great impression when stamped. The cushion and rubber itself are both very soft and squishy. A small single sheet of instructions was included and shrink-wrapped to the stamp when it first arrived. They were clear and to the point which made assembling the basket straightforward.

Since the stamp is so large, it is a little difficult to work with if you have small hands. I found it easiest to ink the stamp by laying it flat on the table with the side up that I wanted to ink. The pad was easy to tap on the stamp's surface to deposit the ink instead of the more traditional way of tapping the stamp on the ink pad. A nice clean impression was left when the image was stamped, showing that the quality of the image was high.

Each side of the stamp is inked and stamped on the desired paper. The images can be heat embossed for added definition. The handle is stamped twice to complete the 3D basket. After the images are stamped, trimming each piece out from the main paper is next. The instructions sheet and details on the stamp show where to fold the tabs for proper assembly, very neat. I recommend putting the basket together first before any gluing. This helps to see exactly where and how it all comes together. Alexa Joy uses hot glue to assemble and secure her basket, so I did the same. I wanted the basket to really stay together and hot glue was a great option.

One of the important things to remember before gluing is to embellish and color your basket. It is much easier to do this when the sides can be flat on the table. I colored the basket by using a water brush and Distress Inks. Some flower embellishments and brads gave the basket a feminine touch that I was looking for since this is a gift. I decided to add an accordion book as Alexa had done in the DVD. There are some great friendship quotes on the fold-out portion which will be easy to read once the cover opens up.

Title: Friendship Garden Basket
Products used: Cardstock (Prism Prismatics: Iced Kiwi)
Stamp (Limited Edition Rubber Stamps: Picnic Basket)
Ink (Ranger Distress: Walnut Stain, Tea Dye & Peeled Paint)
Embossing Powder (Powder Keg: Gilded Grape Leaf)
Flowers (Prima)
Brads (Making Memories)
Ribbon (Offray)
Inspiration (T2G Productions DVD: Quick & Easy Crafting with Alexa Joy)
Hot Glue (Adhesive Tech, Project Pro)

I found this stamp well worth the $22 retail value. I can see lots of uses for it since it can be adapted to practically any occcasion. The Picnic Basket stamp is one that I'll keep in my stash for gift-giving treats and mini-books! There are so many opportunities here that you'll have a hoard of baskets ready to go in no time flat!

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Review by Rachel

One of the stamps featured in the “Quick & Easy Crafting with Alexa Joy” DVD is the Fishing Basket Stamp from Limited Edition. This is a very neat stamp and I was intrigued when I watched that segment. After watching the segment, I immediately ran to my drawer to see which basket stamp I had received for this review and saw that it was the Picnic Basket Stamp (6501X).

The stamp comes mounted on wood and packaged in a clear cellophane wrapping with directions. This stamp retails for $22. It is made of a very high quality red rubber and measures about 6 3/4 inches wide by 5 inches high. The wood mount has three stamps on it: the two basket sides are on each side of the wood and the handle stamp is on one end. I was slightly intimidated by the stamp but the directions were helpful in easing that feeling. I found the directions incredibly helpful although there are a couple of spelling errors. They are an integral part of knowing how to use the stamp. I found it easy to use after reading the directions. I didn’t have any trouble getting a clear impression the first time. The picnic basket was very easy to put together and I love the final product. The actual picnic basket measures approximately 3 1/2 inches x 1 3/4 inches x 2 1/2 inches.

I used the Picnic Basket stamp to make a Thanksgiving favor box. I haven’t actually decided what I am going to put on the inside yet. I could do anything from candy to chocolates to fun little trinkets for the kids.

Front:

Back:

Title: Thanksgiving Favor
Products used: Cardstock, Tawny Light, Prism
Stamp, Picnic Basket Stamp, Limited Edition
Ink, Sepia, VersaFine
Pencils, Red, Orange, Gold, watercolor, Generals
Brads, Bronze, Scrap Essentials, Joann’s
Adhesive, ColdHeat Glue Gun

I loved using this stamp and have many more ideas running through my head that will put it to use. This stamp is so versatile and can be used for any season. You can use it for favors, for business cards or even for a mini album. There are many different styles of baskets at Limited Edition. You will want to check them all out to pick the one that inspires you the most. I loved using this stamp and would recommend them to all stampers and crafters whether they are beginners or advanced.

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Review by Chris

Established in 1995, Limited Edition Rubberstamps is well known in the stamping community for their "interactive rubber stamps which include moving parts, hidden images and dimensional designs." They also offer many unusual single-image stamps and collections from well-known designers like Nick Bantock and Deborah Farber. One of their stamp lines includes a variety of baskets in different shapes and sizes.

For this review, I received the picnic basket stamp. It is a large stamp, made from red rubber which is firmly mounted on a wood block. The stamp has two large sections for the basket body, each of which is mounted on one side of the wood block, and a handle section which is mounted on the end of the block. Once stamped, these three sections are cut out and assembled into a picnic basket which measures 3 ½" wide, by 1 ¾" deep and 2 ½" tall. The handles are attached with brads, allowing them to swing out of the way so the lid can open. The front of the lid is closed using a section of twine or ribbon wrapped around a stamped "peg." The basket is large enough to hold a small mini-album or a very generous supply of candy treats. The stamp comes with easy-to-follow stamping and assembly instructions.

With the Thanksgiving holiday rapidly approaching, I thought this basket would make a perfect place marker and candy box to add to each place setting at the dinner table. I stamped my basket on brown cardstock and distressed it further with distress ink. The detail of the stamp makes this basket very realistic looking, from the weaving right down to the hinges on the lid. I glued a small strip of ribbon around the top edge of the basket before attaching the handles.

Here is the basket with the lid closed.

Following a suggestion in the written instructions, I lined the inside of my basket to give it a more finished look.

I tied a stamped name tag to one of the handles, loaded in some Hershey’s kisses and this little basket is ready to adorn my dinner table on Thanksgiving Day.

Picnic Basket Place Marker
Stamp (Limited Edition Rubberstamps, Picnic basket)
Ink (Clearsnap, Ancient Page Chocolate; Tsukineko, StazOn Jet Black)
Patterned Paper (Flair, Autumn Splendor, Harvest Houndstooth)
Metal rimmed tag (Avery)
Metal sticker sheet (Mrs. Grossman’s, ScrapMetal)
Alphabet stamp (PSX)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, The BORDERline glue stick)

This basket was such fun to make. The stamp is very high quality with fine detail. The instructions for assembling the basket were easy to understand. I would not hesitate to purchase additional stamps from Limited Edition Rubber Stamps.

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Review by Rebecca

When I first heard about Limited Edition Rubber Stamps' Basket Stamp I was expecting it to be a little stamp with the image of a basket. Then I became intrigued when I visited their website and I found out that it was a 3D craft stamp. I had no idea what to expect but from the samples on their site I was sure it would be unlike any other stamp project I had created.

I received the Picnic Basket stamp. It is a wood mounted rubber stamp that is approximately 6.5" x 5". There is a large rubber image on both sides and a narrow image on one end. Luckily, the stamp also came with a handy instruction sheet.

The stamp is a great quality product. The rubber image is trimmed neatly so there are no edges to cause stray markings. The directions were pretty easy to understand though it would have been nice if there was a photo of a completed basket to refer to also.

Each image is two of the four sides of the basket, either a top or bottom of the basket, tabs to fold and glue as well as lines to show where to score and fold. The narrow image located on the side of the wood block is to be used as the basket handle. I really liked that the image had the score lines and I liked that it also had the dots to show where to place the handles. The image is very detailed with shading along the edges and the deep rubber stamps produce clean images. After constructing the basket I decided to use it to fill with candies and a gift card. The basket was the perfect size for the gift card as it measures 3.5" x 1 3/4" x 2.5" when completed. I did notice that the bottom of the image is a rectangle and so I constructed the basket as such. The lid; however, has rounded edges so it does not close exactly on the basket. For my project I left the cover up, but I would have liked to have seen the top and bottom having matching corners.

One of the steps in assembling the basket is to "color and highlight with markers or colored pencils". I did this with watercolor pencils I had on hand as you can see in my first picnic basket photo.

Picnic Basket - Shaded
Products used:
Stamp (Limited Edition Rubber Stamps, Picnic Basket)
Cardstock (Prism Papers)
Patterned Paper (BasicGrey)
Brads (Doodlebug)
Ink (Versacolor Ultimate Pigment Ink)
Pen (Watercolor Pencils by General Pencil)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Glue Runner)

Unfortunately, I was not completely satisfied with my highlighting work. Perhaps if I had some different pencils or markers I may have been more happy with the result. So to try to cover up the highlighting I decided to use my craft knife to cut along some of the lines and weave in ribbon so that it looks like part of the basket. You can see the end result of the basket with the ribbon woven into it in my second photo.

Picnic Basket - Ribbon
Products used:
Stamp (Limited Edition Rubber Stamps, Picnic Basket)
Cardstock (Prism Papers)
Patterned Paper (BasicGrey)
Ribbon (Poppy Ink Monthly Kit Club)
Brads (Doodlebug)
Ink (Versacolor Ultimate Pigment Ink)
Pen (Watercolor Pencils by General Pencil)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Glue Runner)

I really did enjoy working with this stamp. The idea of a 3-D stamp project is new to me but I believe the uses for this picnic basket are unlimited. I would recommend Limited Edition's unique Picnic Basket Rubber Stamp to all paper crafters.

For more information visit Limited Edition Rubber Stamps