Choosing the best craft rubber stamps is largely a matter of personal preference, although some stamps are better for some purposes than others. Craft rubber stamps are largely of uniform quality, although some do appear to last longer than others. In general, the best way to choose craft rubber stamps is to think about the size of the stamp and the ways in which one will use it. There are stamps for all different purposes, and having a wide variety available can make it easy to accomplish craft projects without purchasing additional supplies.
In general, craft rubber stamps consist of a rubber side that bears the reversed image and a handle side that may have a printed image of what the stamp will look like when applied to paper. The handle can come in a variety of shapes and may be as simple as a wooden block or as complex as cast metal. Commonly, the handle is made of wood and is of a simple design.
One consideration when choosing craft rubber stamps is whether the stamp will be good for a single project or many projects. This may or may not be important, depending on one's budget. Stamps that are highly specific and include dates or specific holidays may only be good once a year, whereas alphabet and letter stamps can be used to spell out any date or holiday. For many crafters, it may be better to go with the most basic stamps possible and combine them in unique ways to create amusing designs.
Depending on what one uses rubber stamps for, it may also be wise to consider getting sets of stamps that can be combined with a layout tool. If one often needs to precisely align stamps, having pieces that do not have handles but attach directly to layout tools can be very useful. On the other hand, this type of stamp can be limiting because one must purchase stamps within a certain set.
For crafters, one of the most excellent features of craft rubber stamps is that they are extremely versatile in terms of what types of projects they can be used for. The same rubber stamp can be used to print on fabric or paper and can be used to print in any color. While craft rubber stamps may be of fairly uniform quality, they do need to be cleaned and taken care of in order to last a long time. So long as the crafter is prepared to care for the stamps, the best way to choose stamps is to simply pick designs one enjoys.