February Stamp of the Month: Heartfelt Sentiments

The February SOTM, which is Heartfelt Sentiments S1902, a set of 9 stamps. 

This months Stamp of the Month is a 4 1/5 " x 5 " stamp.  There are several things to know with a larger stamp:
1. put the acrylix block on the table with the stamp up and put the ink onto the stamp from above rather than putting the ink pad on the table and tapping the stamp on top of it.
2. as with all new stamps make sure you "season" it by inking and stamping on scratch paper first.
3. larger stamps need to have pressure all over so that the stamp will come out even.  It helps to try out the stamp on scrap paper.

With the larger stamp this month, I was wondering how to use it.  Close To My Heart has great Cricut cartridges and the one I used was Cricut Flower Market Collection .  I make the watering can large enough for the stamp and small enough for the paper which meant the stamp was sideways on the can.  

I had some Heart Happy Workshop Kit  CC2197 (available through February) paper left and I used Red Shimmer trim Z4012.

I vacillate between feeling the layout worked and not sure if it worked.  I thought it would look neat to have the hearts seemingly being poured from the watering can.  You can't see the paper I used on the edges because I covered it up with heart photos and paper.  It mirrored the right side.  Let me know what you think - too crowded or did it work for you?

I used the Basic Hearts Thin Cuts Z3317 for both the paper and the photos.  I have a program that allows me to print any size photo that I want so it was easy to get the right size photos.  I used the Thin 3D foam Z2060 under the watering can and some of the photo hearts.

I used Intense Black ink Z4189 for the stamps on the watering can because I was going to paint the flowers and the ink won't run with water.  I chose to "smoosh" the cover of the ink pads and use the Small round waterbrush Z3224 to get the ink from the cover.  I tested out the colors on the mint paper and used Candy Apple Z6509 and Raspberry Z2812 for the reds and Willow Z2807 for the green as the Mint was too light.  If you really want your colors to match the paper and you paint frequently, the reinker might be a better bet but as many people only get the ink pads, this is a way of using the exact color that is on the paper. 

You could use: 1) reinker (pages 122, 123)  2) ShinHan markers (page 131)  3) watercolor paints Z3132 or 4) watercolor pencils (Page 130) with the Intense Black ink or Archival Black Z3271 as both are waterproof.

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