The Details
Where did it come from
Simply Cards & Papercrafts Issue 159
When did I get it
January 2017
When did I try it
September 2017
First quick impression
Well, the theme of this set made me smile because it is one of the frustrations in my life. I love the idea of pretty teacups and teapots but I quite simply don’t like tea, I have tried a few varieties now with no success. However, no drinking will be necessary to enjoy this tea experience. One thing that hit me about this set was the teacup is only a die and there is no stamp meaning that potential new crafters who haven’t got a die-cutter yet would be missing out on an important part of the set. Having said that there are small die cutting machines on the market for about £40 and if bought from Create and Craft this can be split interest-free into two monthly payments of £20 which I’ll be honest if this is really stretching your budget life is going to be a challenge if you are a budding craftaholic! Anyway, let’s get on with trying the set, shall we?
Testing the Stamps
Update, having had a few problems with using my Ranger Archival Ink pad with any regularity as seen on this post when I dropped my Ink Pad! I did a bit of research and came across this Ink Pad 101 by the frugal crafter. The post is quite old now but the Ink Pads and Brands are all still relevant. The cheat sheet states that Brilliance is great for using on clear stamps that can struggle to give a good impression. As Brilliance comes in the same affordable and easy to manage dew drop as Memento (which I love) I ordered myself a couple of collections of 4 pads using my Amazon Prime (these basics and these metallic ones) to give them a go. Of course, I still use the Stamping Platform as described.
To test out new stamps I always use my Tim Holtz Stamping Platform. I know there are other platforms available but when I came to the point that I knew I needed one I did a load of research into the different features of them all and decided this was the right one for me. You can read my post about it. Why did I need one? With the Fibromyalgia (not to mention a bonus gift of some Arthritis in my hands) I could no longer rely on my hands to get a clean even print with stamps. I was increasingly finding I was not getting good results, even with the Rocker Blockers which always guaranteed this before. The benefit of a stamping platform is that for whatever reason you do not get a clean impression you can simply re-ink and go again and you are guaranteed to be exactly in the same spot. Even the best eyes can be slightly off and then you risk shadowing.
I also always use Archival Ink to test stamps that come as free gifts with magazines. They are usually made from a different material to the one used by a lot of the major brands which means that if you use a dye based ink like Memento the ink can pool on the stamp and give a really bad impression. You can see exactly what I mean in this test of a fairy stamp. Archival Ink does not pool like this and I get to really test the stamp properly.
Stamping Verdict
As you can see the images have all stamped really well, I am absolutely loving the flower bouquet and can see many uses for it. Given how juicy the new ink pad is a couple of the words with thicker fonts are a little bit harder to read but they are still readable. I heat set the ink with my heat gun and also left it about half an hour to dry as well as I was taking a break. I decided to colour some of them in with the new Autumn collection of Dreamees Dinky Inkies. The teapot was done with the brushes and solution and I was not as happy with the finish as I struggled between having the brush too dry or too wet. The three other images I used the Dove Blender Pen which is what Hayley used to use herself before bringing out the brushes and I was much happier with the results. See for yourself. These are the coloured images after being cut on the ScanNCut leaving a 1 mm border.
I could have imported the Teapot into the ScanNCut Canvas and dealt with the landlocked section within the handle but because I was not as happy with the colouring I had decided that I wouldn’t be using this on a card so didn’t feel the need to spend the extra time. With the images left, I made two simple clean style cards and for them both I broke into my C6 card blanks for the first time:
The Time for Tea Card
I chose a backing paper (for both the cards) from the Pretty Pastels Creations Pad I got from Poundland, I can’t believe some of the amazing cardstock pads you can get from Poundland I have 7 already and plan on getting another hopefully this week that I have seen featured in a September haul on YouTube. I used my Cutterpillar to cut this down to 14 cm by 10 cm. I die cut the Teacup from some light green mirror card then used my Stamping Platform to position and stamp the tea bag with Potter’s Clay Memento which worked fine as the stamp had previously been inked with the Brilliance. I stamped the sentiment similarly. I attached the biscuit with a couple of sticky foam pads of two different thicknesses so the biscuit sat at an angle. I’ve never tried a Macaroon but even looking at this image of one makes me think I am missing something here… Finally, I used some sticky backed pearls in the corner. Here is the completed card:
A Little Bird Card
For this card, I cut the cardstock as described above. I used some Tuxedo Black Memento to stamp the “A little bird told me” again using the platform to line it up so the bird could stand on it. The “It’s your” was stamped in the Tuxedo Black too and the “Birthday” was stamped in “Rose Bud” I attached the images with sticky foam pads and again finished it off with some sticky pearls in the corner. Here is this card:
Verdict
I like this collection, especially as mentioned the flower bouquet. I am fairly sure I do not have any other tea cup dies and I don’t think I have any stamps like this either. However, as we know I don’t actually know what is in a lot of my collection hence the beginning of this big project. At this stage though, this set has won its place in my stash and will be added to my database. I have briefly mentioned how to create a database in Evernote before but if you want a proper tutorial I can certainly recommend Kat’s Post here.
Thanks for reading, next time I’m going to talking about why I need both a Silhouette Cameo and a ScanNCut then, wait and see my “deer.”
Until next time,
Gentle Hugs,
Susan
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