{"id":29693,"date":"2024-03-02T05:02:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-02T12:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blinkbargain.com\/blog\/january-favourites-im-a-stampfluencer-now\/"},"modified":"2024-03-02T05:02:00","modified_gmt":"2024-03-02T12:02:00","slug":"january-favourites-im-a-stampfluencer-now","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/blinkbargain.com\/blog\/january-favourites-im-a-stampfluencer-now\/","title":{"rendered":"January Favourites: I’m A Stampfluencer Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

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January \u201cfavourites\u201d and what an eclectic mix we have going on here! Family photo albums, rubber stamps and a stand-up show that will have you chortling away and wishing for more. As per monthly favourites tradition, there\u2019s a video to accompany this post \u2013 it\u2019s right at the bottom of the page.<\/p>\n

Ad info: no paid or sponsored content. Contains press samples and affiliate links are marked *.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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Let\u2019s begin with the stamps, because I\u2019ve bored my friends and family enough with these and need to move onto new victims. I\u2019m going to give you two good reasons why stamps (the rubber sort that you ink, not the ones you stick to envelopes) need to become part of your life and the first reason is incredibly wholesome. Because don\u2019t you miss the fun little craft projects of your childhood? Remember colouring in for hours on end, or cutting up bits of paper and glueing them to other bits of paper and then getting them all over the floor and table and wondering why your mum always looked so\u2026fatigued? Crafty stuff was great<\/em>. We loved it and then we became adults and most of us just stopped. No time, no desire to create extra mess, no real need\u00a0<\/em>to create anything whatsoever.<\/p>\n

What if I gave you something marginally crafty and artistic to do that didn\u2019t really make mess and that satisfied the urge to produce something nice to look at whilst requiring minimum effort?<\/p>\n

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Stamps! They\u2019re bloody foolproof! Someone else has done the hard, artistic bit; you just need to ink the thing and slap it on some paper, Early Man style. Mindless, childish escapism and because someone with talent has made the stamp it also makes you look and feel quite accomplished. Tempted? Good: I am a stamp influencer now. A stampfluencer.<\/p>\n

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But wait: it\u2019s not just the satisfying, highly therapeutic nature of ink-stamping I\u2019m selling to you here. That was just the first reason. What if \u2013 reason two \u2013 stamping could actually save you money<\/em>? Think about all of those notecards and birthday cards and Funky Pigeon things you spend on constantly and imagine if you could simply pop open your stamps box (yes, I have made one) and print yourself something lovely and charmingly rustic to send to your nearest and dearest? Or to your child\u2019s perpetual rota of classmates who seem to have about eight birthdays a year? Each?<\/p>\n

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Grab your Catherine Redgate stamp (special edition ones that make it look as though every card has been hand-illustrated, absolute genius) and press it onto a (recycled paper for extra wholesomeness points) card, then slip the card into a brown envelope and you\u2019re away.<\/p>\n

You can get bespoke stamps, lovely stamps with your company branding, stamps to make patterns with (I printed my own Christmas wrapping paper after seeing The English Stamp Company do it on Instagram, which was what started the whole thing off) and there are dozens of pretty botanical and animal stamps to personalise your stationery or make greeting cards or anything you fancy.<\/p>\n

You can find the English Stamp website here<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 they\u2019ve given me a code for readers to get 10% off, it\u2019s RUTHCRILLY10<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

From printing my own cards to\u2026printing my own family photo albums. Granted I don\u2019t do the actual printing but even choosing the photos and ordering them correctly takes hours on end and so I\u2019m claiming the praise for these Papier books.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve used Papier a few times before; I like that their photobooks have a sort of matted-down finish that looks very chic and stylish. If you want glossy vibrancy and crazy Comic Sans captioning (my Mum) then this might be too understated for you, but I love the Millennial vibes. Possibly because I\u2019m so\u00a0<\/em>close to being an actual Millennial. (Born 1980. Keep wheeling out that fact to make me feel more relevant and youthful.)<\/p>\n

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Just be careful when you\u2019re choosing photos for these books \u2013 make sure they have good brightness. It\u2019s very easy to be tricked into thinking photos look great because everything looks nice and vivid on a backlit screen; different story in print. Turn your screen brightness right down to about 20% and think to yourself: does this picture need some extra lift? Are there areas that are just varying shades of black? I have to do quite a bit of tweaking.<\/p>\n

You can get \u00a310 off at Papier with my MentionMe link here<\/strong><\/a>* \u2013 this is just the standard customer one you get at checkout, so once you order yourself you will get your own code to pass along to friends and family. Every little helps, etc.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I\u2019m doing one photo album for every year since having my first baby and I\u2019m currently on 2019, so quite a bit to catch up on. I\u2019ve decided going forward to put photos into a special phone album as I go along to cut out the bulk of the sorting work. Honestly, it took hours per book! But worth it.<\/p>\n\n

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Next favourite: entirely free and I\u2019m sure you\u2019ll get excellent value from it: it\u2019s the comedian Jen Brister\u2019s comedy show, The Optimist<\/em>. I had tickets to see this live last year but was ill and so I was overjoyed when Jen announced that she was posting the televised version online. She\u2019s wicked. In every way. Highly recommend taking an hour or so out of your evening to sit with this on and laugh along to her rants. She\u2019s like a very sexy John Cleese when she starts losing the plot\u2026<\/p>\n

Jen Brister The Optimist<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n

Now to the beauty favourites. Some clear winners here \u2013 these are things that made me instantly go\u00a0oooh\u00a0<\/em>and make a mental note to tell you about them. First, the Bio-Active Ceramide Enriched Moisturiser from The Inkey List. A highly nourishing, deeply hydrating face cream that manages to be rich yet completely non-greasy and that helps to repair the skin barrier. (Something most people need these days because they use every single acid and retinoid on the market, all at the same time, six-and-a-half days a week. It\u2019s a problem.)<\/p>\n

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Inkey List don\u2019t do frills or fancy packaging but the cream itself is a silky, luxurious-feeling sophisticate that costs less than twenty quid. You cannot go wrong with this. Decant it into a fancy glass pot, if packaging is what floats your boat!<\/p>\n

Inkey List Ceramide Enriched Moisturiser<\/strong><\/a>*<\/p>\n\n

Some hair heroes to finish, ones that are particularly good if you have hair that requires styling (or is the sort of length that looks better choppy and casual rather than silky and sleek) and doesn\u2019t do well with heavy, ultra-moisturising products.<\/p>\n

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Firstly the Cool Girl wash and conditioner from Sam McKnight (online here<\/strong><\/a>*): these properly nourish hair without weighing it down. If you like to wave or curl your hair and you need to retain as much texture and volume as possible but still want to help repair and prevent damage then this range is just the ticket. Packaging comes in the perfect shade of pink, as a sidenote. Meaningless to some but I rather like the fact it matches my bathroom tiles!<\/p>\n

Then the Arkive Everyday range. The conditioner is slightly \u2013 just slightly \u2013 heavier than Sam McKnight\u2019s one, but still doesn\u2019t weigh hair down and leaves everything feeling soft and light and ready to style. You can find Arkive at Boots here<\/strong><\/a>*. It\u2019s sometimes on offer in their 3-for-2 promotions so worth stocking up when you spot it!<\/p>\n

Right. I\u2019m off to stamp some things. Fast running out of paper, so if you see me walking about with what looks like multiple cat tattoos on my arms, neck and face then fear not \u2013 I\u2019ll have just treated myself to a different sort of inking.<\/p>\n