Splotchy is not good . . .

 So the problem began last fall when I bought a couple of sets of clear stamps by Jaded Blossom..... no matter what card stock I used or what brand of ink I used I could not get a clear stamped image. I used an acrylic block and stamped my card stock using a foam stamping mat as a cushion for the stamp. . . I used the MISTI and tried stamping with that . . .  Splotchy was all I ended up with. . .   so did not use the stamp sets for my cards/projects last year but I have thought about what to do with these stamp sets over the year. . .  and then . . .

Recently saw a video on YouTube "Coffin Treats" by Lee-Ann.  In her video she is taking you through her projects step by step as she puts things together... once she stamped her tag and shared the tip for a good image I knew I would have to give this a try. In many videos you see stampers using their MISTI tools to stamp their projects and they either use a cloth or their sleeve to press on the MISTI to put pressure on the MISTI door to help get their inked stamp image to stamp evenly. I have tried both a cloth and a sleeve but this does not work with these stamp sets I was having problems with. I have used my MISTI to stamp with other clear stamps as well as cling stamps and I have always had success using it. In her video she suggests using a dry erase board eraser to run across the top of the MISTI tool to give you a good stamp impression....

Off to the nearest office supply store for me and I bought their brand of the dry erase board eraser:

Brought this home and put it to use right away. Here are samples of one of the stamps from one of  the stamp sets using white/GP card stock and also using #110 weight white card stock from Mikes. I used two brands of inks and I used two types of ink pads - Catherine Pooler ink is a foam pad (CP on the samples) and a linen ink pad from Close To My Heart (CT on the samples). At the top of the sample cards I used an acrylic block and foam stamping mat to stamp the image. On the bottom of the sample cards I used the MISTI tool and the dry erase board eraser from Staples to stamp my samples. 

Here is the white/GP sample using the acrylic block for stamping:

this sample I used the #110 weight card stock with the acrylic block:

Now for the samples using the MISTI and eraser:

the above card stock is the white/GP. Here is a photo of the image stamped with the MISTI and eraser on #110 card stock:

Happy to say the stamps worked better in the MISTI using the dry erase board eraser for pressure and also much better images using the linen ink pad from Close To My Heart. Happy I had come across Lee-Ann's video and a big thanks to her for sharing this tip - now I can get some serious use from these two stamp sets with clear results!