Crafting Tip for the Week: Card Mailing

 Crafting Tip of the Week:

 

Card mailing:

 

I was reading another presenter’s blog and she suggested that you go ahead and get your cards for the next month ready to mail and put the date in pencil on the back of the envelope.  So I thought I would jot down a few other tips:

 

Review your calendar and see how many cards you are going to need for the month:

1.     Birthday

2.     Anniversaries 

3.     Thinking of you, etc.

4.     A couple of Sympathy 

5.     Thank you cards    

 

Create a folder and pre address envelopes especially for birthdays, anniversaries and keep them ready for when you create the card. That way you are not searching for the addresses

 

Make a perpetual calendar for example - Line list in a notebook if you don’t do calendars. Put the month at the top of each page and then number every other line – that will be able to list the names by the dates. For example:

 

            January

            1

            2

            3 John

            4 Kenneth, Kent, Jim

            5

            6 Bryan, Nicole, Mary

    So forth and so on. . . 

 

Another perpetual calendar my friend Nesa made for me: It has the month on the front and on the back are the dates. All I need to do is list people on the back of each of those months and that way I can get my cards ready for the month. 

 

Am I good at keeping up with the cards? To be honest I’m not, but I keep trying and that is all you need to do. Keep trying. You will find a system that works for you.

 

Hugs,

 

SJ

Tip for the week: Destash

 Tip for the week: Sorting your Stash

            

I hope you all have had a great week, This week is a tip on how to de-stash your hoard.  

 

I had a friend who found herself homeless after she suffered the sudden loss of her husband. She was forced to reduce her stash to almost nothing when she moved back into her parents’ home with her children. About 90% of her collection ended up storage or trashed as they were given 2 weeks to move out of their home of many years.  She is now settled and her children are on their own and she is once again attempting to rebuild her collection. 

 

Before a disaster causes you to sort your stash. Take the time to do so on your terms and your timeframe. Set aside one day a week to go through one box, one bag, one drawer, etc.

 

Here are some tips for you:

 

Gather the following items

Post it notes, labels, tags or other identifying markers

TO DO LIST: 

Boxes or baskets

One gallon storage bags (These can be recycled) I also have 2.5 gallon bags too 

Sharpies

 

Make three boxes (I use laundry baskets) and label them

1.     Keep:

a.     Do I have a project in mind for this (Put a note on it)

b.     Does this have a goal or project it needs to go with (Put in a baggie and label it)

c.     I am in love with this paper, jewel, ribbon and cannot part with it.

2.     Donate

a.     Paper you cannot remember why you bought it or is left over from a project. These can go into a baggies.

b.     Ribbons that you cannot remember why you needed them or projects are completed.

c.     Tools or supplies that you don’t use anymore or never did truly liked

3.     Throw away

a.     Partial sticker sheets, especially if they are falling off the carrier sheet.

b.     Adhesive that is over 10 years old and/or lost its stickiness.

c.     Tools that do not work – no reason to keep broken toys.

d.     Partial bottles of solvents that are old (Depose per local regulations)

e.    Pens or markers that don't write or leaking ink everywhere.

 

Once you know what you are going to keep, make a to do list of the WIPs (work in progress) projects that you want to complete. You may be surprised at the number of WIPs you have. Make a deal with yourself. That once you finish a project – you will allow yourself a new project. Keep the list going. Or complete one WIP per week, month. Etc. Any WIPs that you realistically will never get finished: 1.) put in the donate box and 2.) cross off your To Do List. Once a month go through your To Do list of WIPs and make a new list of WIPs so that you always have a fresh view of projects that need to be completed.

 

Donate: 

1.     Churches

2.     Operation Christmas Child crafting centers

3.     Foster care agencies 

4.     Child care facilities

5.     Market place (Free porch pick up)

6.     Goodwill

7.     Salvation army store

8.     Senior Centers

9.    assisted living centers and 

10.    schools/after school programs

 

Trash- is just that Trash – let it go and then award yourself with a pat on the back. 

 

Start working through your WIPs and projects. Allow yourself a treat when you complete something, donate a box, or throw out a bag of trash. Brag on yourself and slowly unshovel your stash to an area you can find things in and be proud of. If you need help give me a DM, text or email. I may not have an answer, but I’ll try and find you one.

 

Happy Shoveling,

 

Stella

 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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