(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Bluesky. And her latest book, The Atropine Tree, is now available!)
I'm always on the lookout for any tools that can help me reign in the unbridled chaos that is my task list. I do tend to keep things in list format, so these Stickyle Stamps from Sun-Star seemed like a fun way to add some color-coding to my planner.
There are both pros and cons to these, and one person's pro might be another's con, and vice versa, depending on how you use your tools.
These stamps come in a lot of color varieties. Each stack of stamps has five colors, and they're all nicely themed and complement each other well. Some sets have closed circles, some have open circles, some have squares, and there are even hearts. The five colors are stacked so that the bottom of each stamp is the cap of the next color, and the final cap at the top of the stack has a metal clip. Joined together, they make a nice shape that fits well alongside pens and markers.
The five stamps connect with a single twist. You line up the join and twist them in place, instead of snap caps. This ensures that they're always properly aligned. I've only had them a few weeks, but the single twist cap does seem to keep them properly sealed. I've had no drying out. Which is actually kind of a bummer, because my main complaint about these stamps is that they're too wet.
With the Tomoe River paper in my planner, I'm used to ghosting, and a bit of show-through doesn't bother me at all, but these stamps bleed aggressively, even through thicker and coated paper. I would go so far as to say they're not useable for anything where you need to use both sides of the page. Still fun for single-sided lists, though I'd lean more toward the open circles than these closed ones. The saturated ink in these makes it hard to mark off tasks.
But that's just an issue with how I've used them. I wanted to use them in my planner to make task lists to check off, and they haven't worked for that. But they'd still be good for color-coding notes or marking important calendar dates. A set with lighter colors might have worked better for me, too.
In any case, they're well made and reasonably priced. Each set is $7.50, which is right in line with similar products from other makers. I may try some of those other stamps eventually to see if they work better for my uses. Perhaps, with the power of polka dots, I will finally become master of tasks. That's all it is, right? It's not the crush of overwhelm that's preventing success, it's just the wrong dots. All problems can be solved with stationery!
(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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