They arrived a few days ago and I decided today to test my ability to stamp and color with a still-wonky left hand. It was also a chance to test a new tool: The We R Memory Keepers precision press. It's a riff on the MISTI and I thought it would be bigger than it is, but it has one feature that the MISTI does not have: it is "open" on two sides so papers larger than5 x 8 can be used in it... I can see uses for it on larger cards, scrapbook layouts, etc. Have to say, though, that I still prefer the MISTI becasue of it's magnetic feature which keeps paper in place.
I made one card with each stamp set...
First up was "Christmas Soldiers". (If your card is large enough, you could stamp it twice and have "10 Lords a Leaping", I think...). Anyway, I stamped in Archival "Jet Black" using the precision press. (I had to make several passes with it --- for some reason, the stamp wasn't happy with Archival "Jet Black" and wasn't stamping solidly. I gave up after 6 impressions!). I then colored the image with Inktense Pencils and a detail water brush and stamped the sentiment from the set using Archival "Vermillion":
- Stamps: Stamping Bella "Christmas Soldiers" (cgr119)
- Inks: Archival "Jet Black" and "Vermillion"; Inktense Pencils "Cherry" (0510), "Poppy Red (0100), "Sun Yellow" (0200), "Ink Black" (2200), "Madder Brown" (1920) and "Baked Earth" (1800)
- Papers: DCWV Card Stack "white"
Next up was "Caroling Chicks" I stamped and colored as in the "Christmas Soldiers" card but, in this instance, only two impressions with Archival "Jet Black" were required. (Sadly --- the paper shifted so there is a slight doubling of the image which makes teh photo look slightly out-of-focus...Sorry!):
- Stamps: Stamping Bella "Caroling Chicks" (eb319)
- Inks: Archival "Jet Black" and "Vermillion"; Inktense Pencils "Poppy Red (0100), "Sun Yellow" (0200), "Ink Black" (2200), "Madder Brown" (1920), "Baked Earth" (1800), "Apple Green" (114) and "Tangerine" (103)
- Papers: DCWV Card Stack "white"
The third card used the stamp set "Rudolph, The Christmas Lights and the Chicks". Stamps and colored as before, although there was a third chick stamp in the set that didn't fit on the card in portrait. This stamp set worked perfectly with the precision press and the Archival "Jet Black... but the Vermillion wasn't as crisp. Also, my watercoloring leaves something to be desired... too many small bits on that large deer and my shading on the deer didn't come out how I wanted.
- Stamps: Stamping Bella "Rudolph, The Christmas Lights and the Chicks" (eb428)
- Inks: Archival "Jet Black" and "Vermillion"; Inktense Pencils "Poppy Red (0100), "Sun Yellow" (0200), "Ink Black" (2200), "Madder Brown" (1920), "Baked Earth" (1800), "Sea Blue" (1200) "Apple Green" (114) and "Tangerine" (103); Uniball Sigma Broad "white" pen
- Papers: DCWV Card Stack "white"
All in all, a learning experience. I find that my left hand cannot yet hold my ruler solidly when trimming with a craft knife, and handling that HUGE Archival "jet Black" pad is nearly impossible (it was hard enough with two functioning hands) without getting ink all over me and the precision press and the paper... Still, it was fun to stop watching bad television and playing games on my iPad to actually craft!