The Goldilocks of Stamp Sets

First up, let me share my last two orders with you. These used the last of my Christmas cash, and I must say it's been fun going on a wild spending spree in May.

From Impress Rubber Stamps. Yes, that's a Tim Holtz set. In case
you didn't know, I love coffee. That's also my first Mama Elephant set.

From Gina K. The order qualified for their incentive program,
so I got the dimensionals and canvas stickers for free.
The paper is 120# white, and I picked up another long, narrow
gridded acrylic block for convenience sake. That stamp set
is gin-ormous! Lots of goodness!

It'll likely be a while before I buy anything else. After all, I have to use all the stamps before putting them away, and with the earlier orders from Ellen Hutson, that's a LOT of stamps!

Now, today's cards. The first set I played with was Color Layering Butterflies from Hero Arts. You can catch a peek of it in this picture:

To my knowledge (which is incomplete and entirely unreliable), this is the first release for which Hero Arts has multi-step stamp sets. Generally speaking, I avoid this sort of set because lining things up perfectly, even with clear sets, can be tough, and y'all know how I like perfect. But I threw this set into the order to give it a try, and I'm so glad I did!

The set is sort of forgiving...things can be a little off but not really noticeable. And I had a BLAST playing with all my colorful inks to come up with color combinations that would work. I found, however, that for my style, using all three layers for the butterflies resulted in a pretty--but busy--image. The butterfly below was stamped with Hero Arts mint julep, tide pool, and ocean.

Too Much!!!

So next I just used the base layer for the same layout. I like it much better, but it's not really enough.

Too Little!!!

So I made a third card, and it's just right!

Just Right

This card, made with Hero Arts fresh peach and red royal, leaves out the middle layer stamp. It has interesting detail but isn't too busy for my style. Yay!

This large butterfly stamp trio allows for flexibility. The solid base stamp could stand alone with a spritz of water or Glimmer Mist, stamped in Kaleidacolor ink or using a rock-and-roll technique, or  colored with watercolor crayon.... Lots of options. I'm also going to experiment with just using the top detail stamp as well.

The smaller butterfly trio in the set turned out a little differently, but more on that in a later post.

Anyway, I'm definitely happy I bought this set. We'll see if I feel that way about all the sets I just splurged on.

Only time will tell if they're all "just right."

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts Color Layering Butterflies
ink: Hero Arts
paper: Papertrey Ink white
accessories: none