I have the bundle Forever Lovely set from Stampin’ Up!. I love this set. I also have customers saying to me that they have seen other products that Stampin’ Up! sells at Ali Express or Alibaba websites. These are Chinese made and sold from Chinese based companies. Of Course, they are extremely cheap comparatively. So I wondered since some of my customers have purchased them and seemed happy with them. Was it really all that bad? I just had to know. So I did the unthinkable being a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator, I ordered the Forever Lovely Set from Ali Express. It cost about $8.00 US dollars total with shipping. Now mind you I already had the Forever Lovely Bundle from Stampin’ Up! Now to just wait. These orders take about 60ish days. I almost forgot that we had ordered these. That is difference number one. Shipping because you are getting it straight from China takes what seems like FOREVER! (no pun intended)
First, let’s look at the actual stamps. I have taken a picture with both sets side by side. As you can see the size is noticeably different. In fact, some of the images are different by over an inch. The Stampin’ Up! stamps come in their own case and the Ali Express has two semi-hard pieces of clear plastic to hold them together then placed in a plastic bag that is glued shut.
The quality of the stamps varies greatly as well. They are both polymer stamps. The Stampin’ Up! Forever Lovely stamps seem to hold their shape but are pliable enough to adhere them to the block, plate or paper when you need them too. They even stay slightly sticky after being washed with just water or even with a mild detergent. I found that the Ali Express stamps were extremely squishy, pliable and do not hold their shape at all. See the video at the end of the blog with the differences in how they hold up and their sturdiness. Once I washed these with just water they did not have the stickiness they once had. So I washed them with mild soap and water to get all debris off the polymer and it still did not improve the stickiness to the stamp.
First of off Stamping with the Ali Express Stamps left me disappointed. See the comparison Shot below. The Ali Express Stamps are on the right. The wording was blotchy. It seems like the Ali Express Stamps picked up a lot of ink in only some spots and not evenly over the entire image. When I tried with the Stamparatus it just made the words dark and unreadable. With the Stampin’ Up! stamps, the wording was crisp and clear. The Images seemed to pull a lot of ink, this can be fixed by stamping off.
Then there are the Dies below I have a picture of the dies side by side for comparison. The dies from Ali Express came all stuck together for me to pull apart leaving pieces of metal stuck to some of my dies that I could not get off without putting out some plyers or wire cutters. Which I did not. My husband has a rule about me using his tools. haha
Here is a shot taken of the Multi-Flower die next to each other. All I can say is WOW! the size difference is huge there is a 1/2 inch difference each way on these dies. Just take a look for yourself.
The difference is even noticed when I used the dies to cut out the images. I cut everything with the Ali Express dies and ran them through the Big Shot the same amount of time as I did with the Lovely Flowers edgelits. The Ali Express had a hard time cutting the images out. Some of the images did not even cut out at all. The Stampin’ Up! had a few spots that I needed to use my pick tool to get some small pieces out but everything cut through completely. You can watch the video attached to see how they did.
Now the proof is in the pudding so they say so here are the three samples that I did. You be the judge on what you think about ordering Ali Express Stamps and Dies.
I was inspired to do this particular card by Jenn. You can check out her card here. I did, of course, not make it as beautifully as she did since I was doing this as an experiment. Here is the video below. If you are reading this from my email you will need to click onto it from my website.
Dimensions
- Base (Balmy Blue, Daffodil Delight, Grapefruit Grove) 5 1/2 in x 8 1/4 scored at 4 1/4
- Whisper White 4 x 5 1/4 in
- Whisper white and Balmy Blue, Daffodil Delight, Grapefruit Grove 3 3/4 x 5 in
Supplies
I hope this clarifies what you are getting from Ali Express and what you are getting from Stampin’ Up! I find it very sad that you can be so misled by pictures from Ali Express that it seems you are indeed getting the same product for huge savings. I mean really who wouldn’t want to buy that bundle for 8 dollars when the bundle from Stampin’ Up! is 47.50 plus shipping. That would be a 39.50 savings. In reality, you are not getting the same product and you will not have it for years to come because in my opinion the product is cheaply made. They will not stand the test of time. Sadly they are just enough different that legally there is not much that can be done by Stampin’ Up!. You know they are trying. In other news, this set will carry over into the new 2019-2020 catalog. Yeah!!
Thanks for Stopping by
Happy Craftin’
Amy
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