Multicolor Houndstooth Stamping

Hi everyone! Today I have some multicoloured stamping and a review of the Born Pretty Store clear stamper with cap. I wanted a houndstooth pattern but didn't feel like doing traditional red or white and black. I went to Google image search and found these two houndstooth prints... I took the marbled colors idea from this one and combined it with the colors of this one.

I started with a white base (1 coat of Layla No. 23) and then stamped with a mix of these 4 colors:

Color Club - Je T'aime (light pink)
Color Club - Secret Rendezvous (light purple)
Color Club - Snow Queen (very dark purple)
OPI - Just Lanai-ing Around (darker pink)

I applied dots of each color and then scraped across twice to blend the colors more.

Plate is Born Pretty Store plate BP-L013. Use my code SL10K31 for 10% off!

To help align the houndstooth I used this clear stamper with cap from Born Pretty Store. 
I like the idea of the cap to keep it clean. The stamper is quite springy but still soft... It keeps its shape but I think you could get away with using it gently if your base isn't fully dry yet. It also comes with a clear scraper.

I personally didn't like the clear scraper. I found it too flimsy. But then I've only ever used the metal konad stamper. I just never got used to using plastic ones.

This was my third time using the clear stamper and I managed to get it to pick up somewhat. I haven't been able to get it to work again since however :( I have tried using it for about 10 different plate / polish combinations so far.

The first mani I tried this with was a small polka dot pattern with white stamping polish. I managed to pick up the image but there would be holes in the middle of some of the polka dots. I tried using Konad black stamping polish with this and couldn't pick up at all. I also wasn't able to pick up any metallic polish. 

I watched this video from Fireangel120 on YouTube and she suggests rolling the stamper across the image without pressing down. I tried this and it helped a lot with this mani but I haven't had the same success since. 

I found that using more polish helped... I usually only paint one line of polish and then scrape it across the image... I used a lot more polish for this mani because of the multicolored dots of polish. 

I also found that the clear stamper generally worked better for images with wider lines but again it still didn't work all the time or I would get bald areas in the middle of the image.

Aneta of NotCopyACat said washing the stamper head with soap helped for one mani, but the stamper wouldn't work when using a different image and the same stamping polish and soap. For me the soap helped a bit - but I was only able to pick up about 3/4 of the image which wasn't enough to cover one of my nails.

Although I did manage to pick up the image for this mani it was still a bit of a struggle. I found that the image picked up nicely on the side of the stamper that touched the plate first, but the middle area and the side that touched the plate last would show up with some bald areas or not at all. That is why the image is rotated on all the nails - what I managed to pick up was barely enough to cover each nail so I just made it fit as best as I could since it was getting late. 

So I'm not sure if I should give this stamper a rating yet. I am able to pick up well sometimes so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt for now... I may just need to press lighter or change something else with my technique. I'll update this post if/when I figure out how to get this to work consistently! 

Anyone have any tips?

And here's my thumb... just because I really like the way the marble came out here!