Trying out the Photopolymer

Well, my Photopolymer stamp set finally arrived yesterday.  It's hard to be forced to wait sometimes.  I have tried the transparent stamps made by other companies, but there is always the question when something new comes along: how does it compare to what I have tried?

My first thought was "Oh my goodness!  What tiny pieces!"  I already had a sense that the pieces would be very small, given the size of the stamp pad next to the Photopolymer stamps in the picture that Stampin' Up! had released in the initial announcement, but actually coming face-to-face with the set really brought the size into perspective.  "Ah well," I told myself.  "All the better to have a little balloon coming from a character, making a comment."  I already had a set in mind to combine with the Photopolymer for its trial run: the Everybunny stamp set.

So I stamped the little bunny sitting in front of an egg, apparently talking to a wee chick.  Perfect, I thought, for a comment balloon.  The bunny image, of course, stamped in beautifully slender lines--a perfect image--but I wouldn't expect anything different from rubber stamps.  Next, I stamped a balloon coming from the little bunny.  The lines were very heavy.  I immediately wondered if that was going to be something one would have to expect from the Photopolymer or if that was simply the nature of this particular stamp set.

Then came the letters for the comment within the balloon.  I had seen a couple of videos from other demonstrators showing their own trial runs with the Photopolymer but doing it myself brought several things to light.  The "natural" spacing, if I simply put an entire word onto an acrylic block, allowed a bit too much space between letters.  Obviously in the future I would have to stamp each letter one by one in order to have spacing that, for me at least, was more aesthetically pleasing.  The lines of the letters were as heavily stamped as the lines of the balloon but I didn't mind it in the letters.  The balloon just looked heavy and slightly out-of-place against the finer lines of the Everybunny stamp.

Before getting down to colouring, I decided to use the Photopolymer image for the multiple banners across the top of my cardstock.  Again, the lines were very heavily drawn but at least they balanced the balloon, making it appear less out of place.

After colouring, I stamped inside each individual banner to get the word "EASTER" and then stamped a little butterfly image into each end banner using the Itty Bitties stamp set.

Overall I'm happy with the finished card.  Since we haven't any other Photopolymer stamps available at the moment, I'm not able to decide whether I like the stamped images or not.  If they continue to be heavily drawn, I won't be buying any more sets.  I do like a light touch in my images.  If this is simply what they've come out with for the Photopolymer premiere, I question the sense of having a set that doesn't show the capabilities of this type of stamp to its fullest advantage.

The best part of the experiment was being able to see perfectly where my stamped image would be.  That really was a pleasure.

Remember that the Late Night Stampers are having a Spring Treasure Hunt.  To read more about it, just click here.