How to remove a carpet stamp

Using a household iron works, with caveats.

First: several sheets of paper towel between the iron and the carpet. These are here primarily to protect your iron (and your shirts!). I was hoping that it might also might be something that the plastic preferred to stick to, but that didn't happen.

Second: no steam, and set the heat on wool (about 1/2). I slowly worked my way up the heat dial: the synthetics settings weren't hot enough (as expected), the cotton setting (3/4) wasn't appreciably better, and the linen setting (full) made the plastic adhere more tightly to the carpet (fortunately, I tried this near the end, to get the last bits out, and it actually had the benefit of making them disappear).

The process: put the paper towels over the spot, then let the iron sit for 20-30 seconds. This will soften the plastic, such that it can be removed either by pinching between your fingers or using tweezers. Fingers are preferred, as tweezers tend to tear out small pieces. In retrospect, a dull knife (such as a table knife) would have been a good tool: it would go on bottom, pulling the plastic away, with a finger on top to apply pressure.

Sorry to hear about your stain, but here are two options.

Tea should be fairly easy to remove. You can try blotting it out with very hot water and an absorbent cloth, or borrow a carpet cleaning steam machine and give it a try. Another option would be to hire a commercial carpet cleaning service. I use this type of service all the time in the apartments I manage. In this area it only costs me about $80 per room and the results are amazing. If you talk with a cleaning service, they can tell you if your stain can be removed before you hire them. Some will guarantee that the stain will be gone. This option is certainly a lot cheaper than paying to replace the entire carpet and padding. Good Luck.