Playing with PhotoPolymer (Our new, limited CLEAR stamps!)

I was SO curious to try out our new, truly clear, photopolymer stamp set, and to see if the image quality truly is better than the clear stamps I've used (and been disappointed with) in the past. Well, I am IMPRESSED!!

The very first thing I did was try out the ability to shape the banner and arrows, and when I "hung" the banner and stamped it (using a fairly dry, very OLD Basic Black pad, which STILL looked fairly crisp with the stamp), my 5 year old said "That looks like teeth!" And so, I decided I had to make a cute monster card ;) The "hair" is leaves cut off of the Little Leaves Sizzlit, and I used the Itty Bitties and one of the clear stamps for the "sentiment" (clearly this monster doesn't speak proper English).

Now I'll show you some more "action shots" of the new set...

Here I wanted to test the theory that these will work best with the new foam pads. On the left is my Firm trial in Midnight Muse and Gumball Green, which were VERY crisp and clear. On the right though, I was pleasantly surprised to see that my old linen style Island Indigo and Lucky Limeade, both of which are nearly two years old, used frequently and have never been re-inked yet, STILL came out quite crisp and clear! YAY :)

Next I tried a few things at once... I wanted to see the arrow curved, I wanted to see if the image was just as clear with a very light color (also an old linen pad), and I wanted to figure out how to line up words that aren't "straight" and match the image perfectly. (Straight words are easy to line up directly on the block).

As you can see, even with Pink Pirouette it's a crisp, clean image. And to line up the word to match the curve of the arrow, I lined the letters up on the image and THEN placed the block onto the word, and then inked and stamped. Perfect!

Here, you can see the normal staining left on the used stamps, but rest assured, these clean off just as nicely as our red rubber, and the staining does not affect or transfer to future stamping. Overall, I'm excited to have the flexibility (literally!) and versatility of this stamp medium for some upcoming special sets!

Here are the Challenges I'm entering this Monster card for:

Pile It On - Circles and/or Squares
Try Stampin' On Tuesday - Sketch
Crafty Ribbons Challenge - One for the Boys
Riley and Company - Yellow, Green and Blue
By Lori Designs - Use the color GREEN
Stampin' for the Weekend - Child's Play
Pause Dream Enjoy - Anything Goes
ABC Challenges - J for Just as you like it
Fab and Funky - Add a sentiment (I hope my "monster speak" counts, lol!)
Word Art Wednesday - Anything Goes
V's Sweet Ideas - Masculine
Anything Goes - Seeing Double (While technically, the monster's eyes are the qualifier, it also kind of looks like HE'S seeing double ;) )