First Silhouette Mint stamp - made and reviewed

I have been looking forward to my new toy and it came yesterday afternoon. Woo Hoo!

Everything needed to make two stamps was in the box. Making more stamps can get a little expensive but a cost comparison of consumables can be found here.

The Silhouette Mint-Stamp Kit & Ink Bottles came with:

Mint machine (so cute)
Power supply
USB cord
Instruction book
CD (software and driver)
4 ink bottles
1 mo. free Design store card
(1) 30mm x 30mm stamp sheet
(2) 30mm x 30mm labels
(1) stamp mount (and lid)
(1) 30mm x 30mm stamp base
At the top of the image above between the mint machine and power supply is a bag containing everything need for the 15mm x 30mm (stamp sheet, labels, stamp mount with lid and stamp base).

I was ready to go because I had already downloaded Mint software and driver. I also had played around with it in anticipation so I already knew that I could place an image created in Silhouette Studio. Even better I could create an image in Photoshop and save it as a Portable Network Graphic (.png) and merge it directly into the Silhouette Mint application.

I designed the stamp in Photoshop and printed it stamp on both a bubble jet and a laser printer to compare quality. I wasn't sure if the Mint would be able to produce small text and graphics clearly.

Photoshop Screenshot

Silhouette Studio Screenshot

Silhouette Mint Screenshot

Because I had previously download the software, I was able to plug in the Mint and print my first stamp within 2 minutes.

Printed stamp sheet in sheet holder

I removed the stamp sheet from it's holder, peeled the liner off of the mount, placed the stamp sheet on the mount, slid the mount onto the base and inked the stamp. Then waited 10 minutes for the ink to absorb.

I wasted ink because there was a puddle of ink sitting on the surface of the stamp even after 10 minutes. You can always go back and add more ink if needed so I think next time a little at a time would be the way to go.

In the end the larger text did very well the smaller text is readable but I don't think it could absorb the ink properly because it was too small. The text at the top, Chapparal Pro (9 point font size) did fine. The text at the bottom was also Chapparal Pro but the font size was 4.36 and it was just too small to see clearly.

I most likely won't try text with fonts less than 8 points. I also won't use teeny tiny graphics.

I happy overall with the experience and look forward to making new stamps.