Review: Happy Planner "Important", Icon and Checklist Stamps
For those of you who have been following me on my planning journey for a while, you’ll know that I recently changed to a Traveler’s Notebook to manage my daily calendar and to-dos but I still use a discbound Happy Planner to organise my projects and other “collections”. With this new system I also like to create my own inserts but on occasions I’ll use my dot and grid pages to jot notes down and occasionally I need to highlight certain items as important, or as a to-do list.
I decided to buy some stamps so that I can add sections to my blank pages as and when needed. I have some acrylic stamps but I didn’t want to be messing around having to dig those out and ink them every time I wanted to stamp a page so I was quite happy to find a self-inking “Important Stamp” by MAMBI and a “Checklist and Icon Stamp Set” by MAMBI from a company in the UK called Craftie Charlie (These stamps are also available from Amazon – “Important Stamp” here and the “Checklist and Icon Stamps” here)
First Thoughts
I was initially surprised at how large the stamps were. I knew they would have to be the size of at least the vertical section of the medium Happy Planner but they’re quite a bit bulkier than that.
Whilst this means that you have plenty to grab hold of when stamping, and they do feel very substantial, it’s quite difficult to figure out where to place the stamp so you get the content nice and centeed.
I decided to trial the stamps in my planner so that you could see the sizing and how the stamps work with the “official” Happy Planner paper and layouts.
Above is my first attempt with the “Important” stamp – as you can see I lined the top of the stamp up with the top of the box, however the bottom star is over the line at the base of the box – how annoying! With a little practice I’m sure I’ll get the positioning correct – and it won’t matter to much on my blank pages.
Stamp Quality
The ink quality in both the Checklist and the Important stamps is really good and there was little bleed or smudging. You may have to clean around the edges occasionally – you can see from the checklist stamp below that it picked up a little in on the corner.
You can also see that I had trouble aligning the checklist – this time I aligned the stamp with the bottom of the box so I guess somewhere in the middle is the sweet spot!
Whilst I’m happy with the overall quality of the Important and Checklist stamps, I’m really disappointed with the Icon stamps.
Each stamp is made up of two individual sections, denoted by the icon on the barrel. On opening the “exclamation mark” stamp, the end fell out which wasn’t a very good start. The stamps are also really overly inked, so much so that any pattern that’s supposed to be present is unrecognisable.
Not only that, the ghosting with the ink is terrible on MAMBI’s own paper, below is the reverse of the above page:
The Checklist Stamp is available on its own* and I would recommend purchasing that as I don’t believe the icon stamps are worth the extra money given the issues.
Note: I moved from my MAMBI Happy Planner Expander Rings to Levenger Silver Rings which are slightly smaller but hold the paper a bit better (and look cooler too!)
Over To You
Do you use any stamps in your planners? If so, which ones and how to you get on with them? Let use know in the comments below.
Please note: The views expressed in this article are my own and reflect my personal experience with the products I purchased
* Amazon Affiliate Links: You will not pay more for any product ordered through these links, I will however receive a small commission for any products you purchase
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