Stamping on a photo with CTMH inks.

Hi there, and thanks for stopping by. Happy New Year!

It's been a while since my last blog (September 2023), but hey....New Year, new plans, right?

So today, I'd like to share with you the results from a bit of an experiment I recently did.

Over the last year or so, I've been taking part in a YouTube hop called 'Stamping like it's hot'. 

Each month, those taking part are given a way to use stamps in their projects. This month (January 2024), the challenge was to stamp directly onto a photo. Several of us joined in, and the results varied quite a bit, so please note that these results pertain only to my efforts:-)

Whilst I often use stamps in my projects, I hadn't ever stamped on a photo. If I ever want something extra on a photo, I'm more than likely to add it in Photoshop prior to printing. But I was keen to give the challenge a go, and hopefully learn a bit more about the CTMH inks along the way.

CTMH (Close to my Heart) has four types of ink available in their main catalogue. 

Intense Black Ink

- solvent based, acid free permanent ink. This ink is waterproof, fade resistant, fast drying and archival. It is the recommended option for stamping if you're going to colour the image with markers or paints. 

Pigment based White Daisy

- acid free and fade resistant. Permanent on most papers and can also be used on other porous surfaces.

Only available in white currently. 

Archival Black.

- solvent based, acid free permanent ink. This ink is also waterproof, lightfast, fade-proof, and non-smearing. Recommended for stamping on scrapbook pages and on vellum. 

Normal, regular inks.

- acid free, water based dye inks. Available in a range of colours, this is the ink that we use the most. To be consistent, I used the black option for this experiment.

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Given the descriptions, I initially thought I'd need the Archival Black for stamping on a photo. But I decided to do an experiment with them all, as part of the YouTube challenge.

At this stage, if you'd prefer to watch the video, rather than read on, you can do that here.

But, if you want to read about the experiment, here's what I did.....

I chose a photo that had some whitish sky in the top half, and some green bush in the bottom half. 

I had all four of the above inks available. The three black options, and the white daisy pigment ink, which I thought would look good on the dark bush.

I chose the stamp 'Life is Beautiful', from one of the CTMH stamp sets that was sitting on my desk. 

First up, I stamped with Intense Black.

Outcome: Quite a light, patchy coverage.

Secondly, I went with the white daisy pigment ink on the bottom of the same photo.

Outcome: Reasonably good coverage, although not very even on the glossy surface. It's also a very wet ink, so not ideal for the non-porous photo paper. You can see where I tested how dry it was at the bottom of the 'B'. That was a wee while after I'd stamped it too!    

This ink is ideal for stamping on black cardstock for our layouts.

The third ink, on a second photo, was the normal everyday black ink. 

Outcome: Great coverage. Nice and black, and sharp. I'm surprised, but happy with this result.

Finally, I tried the Archival ink. 

Outcome: Patchy, and similar to the intense black option. 

                           

              

RESULT:

For the YouTube hop, I chose the normal everyday black ink to stamp my message on a bigger version of the photo used in the experiment. Here is the final page with the stamping on the photo. 

NB. It you want some tips on how to stamp a sentence like this, check out the video.

What I learned from this experiment is how important it is to try first if you're unsure what the outcome will be. Particularly as when I watched the videos by the other participants in the hop, they all had different results, and some had good success with the CTMH Archival ink. So, perhaps it is also affected by the type of photo print paper, and the amount of ink on the pad. Perhaps mine needs reinking.

The other thing I found useful from the hop is the benefit of using a Misti, to enable restamping if the first impression isn't as dark as you'd like. Must put a Misti on my Wishlist!

All of the inks available have their specific benefits. and you can check them all out on my website. You can order direct from there, or if you live in New Zealand and are looking for a CTMH distributor, then I'd love to hear from you. 

For international readers, please talk to your local CTMH consultant.

I'd love for you to also join me on Facebook and Instagram, and if you have any thoughts or questions about this blog, please leave a comment below. 

Thanks for reading. 

Cheers for now, and happy crafting!

Lynda