June SOTM {wishes}

Happy June! We've got a new Stamp of the Month (SOTM) to share with you today, a lovely set of images & sentiments from Penny Black.  This is a clear set of stamps that comes with 8 images and 8 small sentiments.  Such a versatile set!  We've paired it with papers from the 'Anthologie' collection by We R Memory Keepers for this month's sample board.

Let's kick things off with two cards created by our guest DT member, Dorothy!

Here's a card I (Tara) created, using copper embossed images.  If you look close you'll see that two of them were stamped on some text print paper from this collection.  I love the little bit of detail that gives.  My images are all watercoloured using Distress Markers.  The butterflies and corner vine dies are both by Memory Box.  A touch of Stickles finished it off.

This final card was a joint effort... the main image/layers was actually from a mini card I did as a make & take at the Penny Black booth at CHA!  Mom took it and transformed it into a standard size card :)  The images were stamped with clear embossing powder on white and coloured with Stampersmarkers by Faber Castel.  They're super juicy India Ink markers and blended really nicely! 

We'd love to see what you create with these stamps!  Have fun!

One last thing before I go... I have a tip to share with you (that I got from Tim Holtz) for using clear stamps.  Sometimes clear stamps just will not give you a good impression and seem to resist the ink you're trying to stamp them with (particularly if you're using a water based ink like Distress).  I found these to be that sort of stamps!  It was super helpful to prime my stamp by inking it up with Ranger's BLACK Archival first.  I actually inked my entire set and stamped on scrap paper several times until I started getting a nice crisp image, then cleaned my stamps with water and a rag.  Now that my stamp set is primed, I can use whichever ink I like and get a perfect impression!

We've been sharing this tip for a bit and I think we're down to just one ink pad left in the store, so we'll be getting more in stock as soon as we can!  Let us know if you'd like us to hold one for you :)