Clear stamping

Well, I finally did it! I entered the world of clear (or acrylic, or polymer, depending on your choice of label) stamping with this set that I've been dying to purchase for forever! I'd been searching high and low for unmounted rubber flourish stamp, but been completely unsuccessful. This set was exactly what I was looking for, but I just did not want to experiment. In fact, someone offered to sell me their set awhile ago, but I just couldn't bear the thought of wasting my money if I didn't like them. But, while having to place a small order, and having a free shipping offer if I spent a certain amount, I spied the set, and decided to be brave!

So, am I a convert? Am I going to buy only clear from now on and ditch my rubber? No way!!! I admit to loving how precisely I can place the stamp, knowing it will go exactly where I want it to, but I don't think they stamp quite as smoothly as rubber. I did, as suggested on Gingerwood, stamp in versamark ink first, and I think that made a difference, because the one I did not do that for did not stamp as well. They're a little harder to wash; they don't stay on the mount when I use scrub pads to clean them. I tend to create a mess when stamping, as I am usually working on several cards at once, and clear stamps on clear mount are just easy to miss when doing a visual sweep across the counter. Still, they work fine enough for me, and while I still prefer rubber, I won't be so reluctant to order clear again.

This card is for my card sets, but I'm not real happy with it because the middle circle is not completely on the card. Should I have placed the square shadow stamp to the left, instead of center? Skipped the middle joy altogether? I had a little bit of doubt when I designed it that it was "right," but I was so excited about using my flourish stamps I went ahead and did them all anyway! It's not the first time I've been stubborn about making a design that really needed to be set aside for a day... anyone relate?