Tip for the Week: 

Know when not to skimp – 

 

As any of you who know and love me will attest to, I am a HUGE fan of the dollar tree and dollar bins.  They draw me like a child to the candy aisle. With an extra $20.00 I would nearly empty a clearance bin. But unfortunately, I learned the hard way that those “great deals” were sometimes just not worth the money even when I paid next to nothing for it. 

 

All that to say, know what items you are ok with skimping on. Adhesives are NOT one of those items that you want to save a nickel on. My friends Carla and Cindy will tell you the heartbreak I felt when after I spent a weekend building an album and it started to disintegrate before our eyes,  I had to redo the whole thing with Cindy’s more expensive tape which luckily she had there with her and was willing to share.   The bargain I got on adhesive ended up being a waste of time and money. 

 

On the items you know you will use all the time, your paper trimmer, scissors, die cutting machine, punches, all-occasion stamps and yes even adhesive – DON’T skimp on these items.

 

Many companies make products for all levels of stores. You have seen some of these brands in the Dollar Tree and other big box stores and even some of the online stores.  Just because they look the same as a name brand items doesn’t mean that they are the same quality. 

 

It is true, you get what you pay for.

 

If this is a hobby that you know you are going to stick with, invest in the tools that will go the distance with you.

 

Hugs,

 

Stella

 

Tip for the week - Scissors

 Tip for the week:

 

Scissors

 

For a long time, paper crafters had about 100 scissors in their stash. Most of them were decorative or wavy cutting blades. (Slight exaggeration) Then the trimmers came with attachments that would do the fancy cutting and edges and the decorative scissors stopped being as popular. 

 

However, you do to have scissors in your craft room. Two pairs of scissors- minimum.  Nothing will dull your scissors faster than cutting paper.  I recommend having two pairs at a minimum because there is nothing like going to trim a piece of ribbon and having your scissors mangle the end of what you were hoping would be a clean cut.

 

I recommend keeping one pair for cutting card stock, paper, etc., and one for ribbon and or fabric.  To help keep these separate, tie a piece of around one of the handles of your ribbon scissors.  My family knows to ask before they use a pair,” is this a fabric pair?” Not that I have blown a fuse or anything. 

 

In my craft room I also have a pair of micro blade scissors for fussy cutting and a pair of Teflon coated scissors to cut my sticky stuff that I may have glued prematurely or need to trim. I also have a pair of TH scissor to cut heavy duty “stuff” like chipboard. I still have my decorative scissors because I am a hoarder by heart. LOL.

 

Once or twice a year, I would gather up all my scissors and take them down to McKinney to a person who sharpened blades and knives. 

 

Your scissors are tools and having the proper tools makes crafting easier and more fun. 

 

Enjoy your week,

 

SJ

July 2024 Paper Pumpkin!!

 JULY: Painted Petals

Subscribe 11 June–10 July
Craft beautiful cards with unique watercolor designs and pretty layers!

• Makes 9 cards: 3 each of 3 designs
• Project includes printed cards and coordinating envelopes
• Precut paper pieces and embellishments
• Coordinating colors: Calypso Coral, Gray Granite (Classic Stampin’ Spot), Melon

Mambo, Mossy Meadow, Old Olive

Kit comes in a beautiful coordinating box!

Tip for the week - Kitchen and other stuff for your craft room

 Tip of the week: 

Kitchen and other stuff for your craft room

 

This week’s tip is for kitchen tools and other items, that you can bring into your craft room:

 

1.     Aluminum Foil – You can use this to sharpen your punches, or run it through an embossing folder and make embellishments for cards, etc.

2.     Wax Paper – Ball up a bit of waxed paper and run it over your card stock before you score it. It makes scoring your paper smoother and easier to fold, etc.

3.     Press & Seal – if you use lettering or small die cuts line them up where you want them on your grid paper and then take a piece of Press & Seal and place it over it and give it a gentle rub.  This will attach to the Press & Seal and you can lift the whole word up at one time still in order and then apply your glue. Afterwards you can place them on your card or scrapbook page and release them still aligned.

4.     Plastic spoon – I have several up in my room and in my craft tote. They help spoon embossing powder over an object, help spoon glitter over glue, or move ink around on  your inkpad. I use a spoon when I reink because sometimes gift cards will “cut” the foam pad that SU uses and leave lines in your stamping.

5.     Metal Fork – I use mine to make mini bows. There are several videos on fork bows on You tube and I recommend Jennifer Cotton’s channel for instruction.

6.     An old scrapbooking tip, I keep dental floss in my craft kit as well. I use it to “Saw” up an embellishment that was placed in the wrong spot. Works on pictures for scrapbooking as well. Especially works well when you realize you have placed something just off from where you intended.

7.     Erasers – A regular eraser works great on removing stray pencil marks from your projects or if your stamp is not quite stamping as clean as you would like it to. A sand eraser is good from removing small dots of ink from your card or pages.

8.     Swiffer refill – I keep a stash of Swiffer cleaning cloth refills up in my room.  I use this to clean up spilled glitter, embossing powder, etc. It is also good for removing the excess talc from your embossing buddy. 

9.     Microfiber cloth – generally handy to have for spills, cleanups, wipe downs, etc. It’s handy to have one in the room. I have one with a grommet affixed to my cup holder. 

10.  Paper Towels – yep – can’t do without them. However if you cut the roll in half with a hacksaw, you may be surprised how much further it goes. 

11.  Post it Notes – not only are they great at masking, but you can use it to help hold dies in place or leave notes on scrapbook pages when you forget an embellishment or some memento that needs to be added.

12.  Last but not least – a note pad. My room is upstairs. I am making notes on stuff that need to come down, need to go up. Need to be finished.

D

Tip for the Week - Season your stamps

 Crafting Tip for the Week: Season your stamps

 

Have you ever had a new stamp that when you first use it, it is kind of blah.

 

The reason this happens is because your stamps get a bath before you buy them. So yes, they are clean when you get them, but you may have to “season” them like a cast iron pan.

 

For quality stamps, you pay a lot of money and make an investment in your craft.  With polymer stamps you may want to ink it up and stamp several times in order to get the image you want.  I also use a polymer eraser over the complete image. This works with both polymer and red rubber stamps. You can find them everywhere. If you are still having an issues, use a “sand” eraser but use it sparingly and lightly.

 

If you are still not getting a crisp image, contact me and I’ll see what I can do to help. 

 

Hugs 

 

Stella 

 

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Stampin' Up! is having a ONE DAY free shipping special offer! Tomorrow, MAY 21 ONLY, any order of $75 or more will receive FREE SHIPPING!!

 

It's a great time to get your must haves from the NEW CATALOG!!

 

While you're shopping, don't forget to check out the Clearance Rack, Kits (we have a really nice new ones), Online Exclusives, and the new Paper Pumpkin DIES - (subscribers can purchase these)!!

MAY 21 ONLY:

Also receive 48 sheets of retired Designer Paper assortment (cut to 6x6) AND 5 free card samples with $75+! Use Hostess Code: GZJCSKVG

 

 Let me know if you have any questions! If you need me to enter your order, I will need your cc info, too.

 

Thanks!

 

Stella