As much as I love using stamps to embellish my scrapbook pages, they don’t always turn out perfect. Then again, I’m not looking for perfect.

I’m sure you can pick out all the imperfections on this page. The pieces of missing images & the blurred edges don’t make this page any less effective. What’s the first thing you notice when you look at this? The photo, right? Does the imperfect stamping detract from this page? Not really. The page is intended to be messy and haphazard, like the boy in the photo, so the imperfect stamping just furthers the theme of the page along.

You remember this page from Monday, right? Did you notice the incomplete, rather pebbly looking inking on the journaling spots and title? (Reminds me of mud!) That’s a result of using Distress inks with photo-polymer stamps, and to be expected. If you know how particular inks and stamps work together, you can prepare yourself mentally for when things go wrong. In this case, I knew Distress inks were a potential problem, but tried them anyway. I actually really like how the letters came out. I didn’t outline the edges of the letters, but it looks like I did. Don’t you love how happy accidents make something that was unplanned look like it was planned?

Do you see the bad stamp images on this page? No? Here, take a closer look:

Do you see it now? The blue swirl that’s blurred and ghosted? (Accidentally double stamped.) You don’t notice that for two reasons:

1. You are your harshest critic. Only you know if something is a mistake or intentional.

2 It’s mostly covered up with the strategically placed white flowers. Simplest strategy for dealing with stamping mistakes, other than claiming it was intentional? Cover it up!

To further illustrate the intentional bad stamping:

I had so many problems with this page: the multiple layers meant the image didn’t transfer correctly over paper edges, and when I tried to re-stamp it without a stamp positioner, I missed, and got a double image on one end. I used a fantastix and some brilliance ink to color the arrow so it looked purposeful. What do you think? Does it work?

One last example for you today:

If you look closely at the flourish, you’ll notice gaps at the edges of the photo and mat.

If the gaps really bother you, you can fill them in by using a tiny paint brush or a fantastix, and the ink from your ink pad, or, if you are lucky enough to have one, a matching marker. I filled in some here (bet you can’t tell where!) and left some alone. Looking at it now, there’s only one that still bugs me, but I am a firm believer in leaving a page alone once I’ve decided it’s done.

Are you feeling any braver now? Ready and able to stamp on your pages? Still nervous? I will have a PDF and short video on how to avoid common stamping mistakes to share with you next week if you sign up for my mailing list.

If you have stamped on pages before, link up an example. I’d love to see what you do!