Review of Tim Holtz Papillon Stamp Set

A couple of weeks ago, I won a stamp set from Simon Says Stamp.  A marvelous stamp set.  A beautiful stamp set.  It has butterflies.  Really beautiful butterflies, and marvelous background stamps with the names of cities and words pertaining to butterflies.  Don't take my word for it--look at that beautiful set!  I've been stamping with joy since I received it!

The set is made of pink rubber with a foam backing, and the cut is deep, intricate and clean.  No more than you would expect from Tim Holtz!

They're large stamps (I've provided a picture of the set stamped on an 8x11 in sheet of paper to give an idea of size).  Large stamps can be a challenge.  It isn't always easy to determine how much pressure, or if you've applied pressure to the whole stamp.  I've been practising.  I don't always worry about a perfect image, since my style is pretty rough anyway.  But I want a perfect image when I want one, lol!

For the first bleedthrumanade I did with the stamps I used a new journal I found at Marshalls fro $5.  It's a Valentina, Made in Italy, 9x13 in light card stock sketchbook, and the paper is fantastic for about anything you want to do to it.

The drawback is the size.  There aren't too many pages, but it's still heavy and very hard to hold on to while drawing.  The stamps came out wonderfully.  I even cut out butterflies from another piece of paper and glued them on for a 3D effect, but I had a difficult time tangling in the book.  I also had a hard time getting a picture.  The sketchbook is too big for my scanner, and it was hard to prop up and get entirely into frame for a photo.  The paper was also pretty thick for a bleedthrumanade and not much color came through.

I didn't think this first example properly showed off the stamps in the photo, so I did a second example in my moleskine, which was much more manageable, and more properly shows why I'm so excited about my stamp set.