No defence, more an explanation. Or not.

Great WOYWW everybody - really enjoyed that!

Taken late last night after a clear up, here is the basket of unwashed stamps that is vexing quite a few people. I know, it's torture. But it's OK. They're my stamps and I don't mind. As you can see from the glistening and gloopy black ink, there are a few that have pigment ink on them - and that amount of glycerine isn't drying anytime soon, so they'll clean up perfectly well. Others, like the clear stamps and any that I've used permanent ink on will still be cleaned. They may or may not be stained, but they will be clean. And they'll all be put away on their shelves. Not labelled or necessarily in any sort of group, but mount facing, for ease of reference.

I don't use chemicals to clean them unless I borrow a stamp from someone; then I do clean immediately after using - with Stazon cleaner. I may be lazy with my own stuff, but not with yours. I actually use a scrub pad, not unlike the SU! one, and I use washing up liquid and water on it. I don't run the wood mounted ones under the tap and I do wash the clear stamps in hot soapy water after a good scrub. I also always have the plug in - those little ones glide down the plug hole as easy as you like......

Another really interesting thing that came to light for me this week is the number of people that catalogue their stamp collections for fear of buying the same thing twice. Never done it - I can't be bothered, there's a surprise! But it doesn't matter. I can't tell you, list fashion, what I've got, but when I see it for sale I know I already have it, and I can walk into any shop that sells 'em and tell you from looking at their stamps what I haven't got. And I can (with the odd polymer exception), tell you the stamp manufacturer without handling it. I dunno if it's a gift per se, but it has proven useful! The incredible point of this erm, skill, is that I can barely remember what I had for breakfast most days, so this long term stuff is a teeny miracle!

So ya see, I do the right things, in my own time. I'm still living and breathing, my stamp collection is intact and everything is fine. Of course, I may well go to hell for these acts of idleness. But I suspect that I'll be so busy shaking hands with loads of other bloggers that I'll barely have time to be a stamp cleaner there, either!

And finally, as if asking for another wave of anxiety, here's another card from the Christmas stuff we did last week. Nesties bird...gotta love my scroll stamps again. Inkadinkado, btw!