Magaly Ohika LTC and Stamp Platform Review

This card is for Linden Leafs "Magaly Ohika Art" LTC tracker.  Linden Leaf hosts many art related trackers and I usually don't join them.  I struggle to make a stamp from a painting.  I've said before that my brain doesn't work that way.  But after some discussion on the message boards I decided that I would try to join more of her artsy swaps.

I got online and started looking for an image that I liked.  There were a few that stuck out at me but this is the one I chose.  I don't know the name of it but I have 2 sisters and named my card "Sisters".

I carved my stamp and decided to try a new toy.  I got the Tim Holtz Stamp Platform on a cyber sale the week after Thanksgiving.  When it came I played with and didn't like it.  I stamped 3 hand carved stamps and every time I got a big white spot in the middle of the image.  I tried re-inking the stamp and it still didn't work.  Everyone on the boards was a buzz about the new product but I hated it.  I decided that this card would be a real way to test it.

I cut my paper to size and attached my stamp with rubber cement.  One of the issues I had with the platform is that the grid on the top is not transferred to the bottom.  It would be much easier to remake a card over and over if the grid was also on the bottom.  Then you were sure to get your paper in the same place every time.

Another issue I had with the stamp platform, was that the magnets moved.  Maybe my stamp was to big.  I ended up taping the card down with washi tape and not using the magnets at all.

The original image has writing on the girls dresses.  I knew I could never carve this and I didn't want to write on all the cards.  So instead, I glued down text pages.  I inked up the middle part of the stamp, stamped it on the text paper, and cut out the dresses.

Using the stamp platform I stamped the image once, glued the text paper down, and stamped again.  The second stamping was often not lined up with the first. 

I am not happy with how the cards turned out.  In the synopsis area on Atlas Quest I call my card, "My ugliest stamp & card ever!"  I should chosen a simpler image of just a face and not tried this one.  I was so unhappy with how they turned out, I posted on the tracker to see if anyone wanted my stamp.  Someone responded that they would plant it with their own and I mailed it the very next day.