Silhouette Mint Stamping System

I got this for my birthday after waffling for a bit on whether or not I wanted it. I was thinking about trying another system that uses photo-sensitive polymer packs (which is also one way that commerically-produced stamps are manufactured), but those are even harder to find than refills for the Mint system and are also only made by one company (based in the UK). The Mint is definitely capable of doing detailed images at a fairly high resolution. It's not going to do microscopic shapes, but I was impressed with the quality of the first stamp I made. I've also added some screenshots of what my original image looked like and how it looked after the Mint's filtering was applied to prep for making a stamp. I've tried to find information on the potential to use non-Silhouette inks. I've come up with pretty much nothing. The inks are oil-based, and while I doubt they are unique to the Mint system (or its Casio-branded Japanese counterpart, the Pomrie), I can't find enough information on the ink to trust that a cheaper alternative will work. I may risk one of the smaller, less-expensive stamp sheets with some oil-based self-inking stamp refill and see what happens - if I do, I'll make sure to update my review. The downside of the Mint is that it is a completely unique and proprietary product. This is a rebranded and repackaged version of the Casio Pomrie, which is also unique and proprietary in its market (East Asia), so there's really no way to get refills on the cheap. I found inks and stamp sheets for a bit cheaper than other sites (including Amazon), but even at $2.95 per 5mL bottle of ink and $3.95 to $12.95 per two-pack of stamp sheets, the cost adds up. I spent $65 on the machine and another $100 on ink and stamp sheets so that I'd have a variety of sizes and all the available ink colors. Theoretically you should be able to mix ink colors together, but since it's difficult to do that at the time of applying the colors to the stamp (without wasting a bunch of ink and sourcing extra application bottles), I don't know if it's worth it. The stamp sheet refills are quite expensive as well, and unlike the dyes I don't think there's any potential for a cheaper alternative from a third party. The stamp itself is made of some kind of heat-reactive (aka thermal) material. From what I can tell, heat applied to the sheet in the shape of your design causes the heated portions to become porous and slightly raised, allowing the ink to soak into the design for self-inking stamping. The material is very resistant to the ink otherwise, which I think is how you're able to apply a blob of ink to a small design and, after waiting a bit, all but a minute amount of ink has disappeared into the stamp material. So far, I am very happy with my Mint. I'm disappointed that the refills are so expensive, because it means that I have to be choosy about my designs, whereas with my Cricut I can just use scrap cardstock and even cheap printer paper to test a design before cutting it on more expensive specialty materials. That being said, it's definitely a unique product that packs a lot of creative punch, depending on your needs. One tip - the stamp kits are not worth the money. A stamp kit costs more than a stamp sheet set and isn't at all necessary for making your stamps. A kit comes with a single stamp sheet and a stamp base, whereas a stamp sheet set comes with two stamp sheets. A stamp sheet in this context means a stamp sheet to run through the Mint, a plastic base onto which the printed stamp is adhered, and a plastic snap-on cap to protect your stamp and prevent the ink from drying out as quickly. The thing is, the stamp base is literally just a piece of composite material (something similar to MDF) with a plastic bit glued on. A completed stamp can slide into that plastic bit so you can swap out different stamps with a single base. Instead, you can just use some foam squares on the underside of the completed stamp base and adhere your stamps to wood blocks! Buy some scrap wood and saw it down to the sizes you need, or look on Amazon for cheap wood blocks. You'll end up saving a decent amount of money, and you won't have to change out the stickers on the back of your blocks since the stamps are permanently attached rather than interchangeable. I also learned the hard way that if you want to use multiple colors on a single image and you want them to blend smoothly, you need to use something small and pointy (like a pin or needle; I used a dental pick) to mix the ink where the colors meet BEFORE it absorbs into the stamp. On the other hand, if you do want colors side-by-side without bleeding into each other, this stamp material is amazing - colors don't seem to bleed at all unless you force them to by mixing.