Monday, December 17, 2018

December 17, 2018 POTW Helpful Hints and my favorites

This week my Pick of the Week, over at The House that Stamps Built,  is just a few helpful hints that I use often when I make my cards.

P.S. this post may be a bit heavy in pictures.


Do you ever have small pieces of card stock that you need to cut - like for a sentiment or a thin slice, put a post it note on it to use as your anchor and cut away with your trimmer.  

Clean your acrylic blocks with a paper towel and alcohol - or use an alcohol wipe if you have one.  Clean and shiny and your stamps will stick much better to your clean block. 
If you go to a crop, friends house or stamp club like I do mark your blocks, and other tools with a sticker such as I use a smiley face on all of my blocks and tools.  Yes even ink pads.  
Do you try and pour your left over embossing powder back into that small bottle, using a folded piece of paper???  Well my embossing powder that I use often such as silver, gold, black etc. I pour in a large container with a nice tight fitting lid - then when I emboss my image I do it over a regular coffee filter, works like a charm. 
I am thinking that several designers use a stamp platform - especially to stamp multiples or to make sure you get a good image on your card stock.  BUT - have your every gotten your bar/circle magnets stuck???  Or have them stuck together with a finger in the way?  I use some pretty duck tape on my bar magnets with a nice long tail so I can handle them without any problem and on my circle one I use washi tape.  Saves a lot of hassle getting the magnets apart. 
Make your own pick-up stick to grab those pesky little sequins or gems that are so hard to pick up especially if you have no fingernails.  I used an orange stock (available in nail polish/tool section at the store), and Loctite mounting putty.  When the sticky no longer picks up - just take it off and put on new putty.  Saves a few $$$$.
I am lucky to have plenty of shelves in my craft room - and I have several ribbon holders.  I applied a tape measure to one of the cross bars so I could measure my ribbon instead of just guessing.  
I keep a small trash container right next to my trimmer on my cutting desk so I can trim and throw away any scraps I am not going to keep.  I found this cute aluminum can at Dollar Tree so you know how much it cost!!!



Below you will see three of my "favorite" cards - that I have made for challenges in the past.  I love dogs (we have 3 of our own) so Ruff Day using 8101L Bull Dog.  Colored him with copics, fussy cut him and ready to go.  My next selection I choose because of the multiple uses you can get from this set.  I would recommend getting the whole plate 10600 Holy Crap  which has more than 35 stamps in the collection.  This way you can mix and match so many combinations to make a bit "edgy" card.  I have had so much fun using this set.  You can also order the stamps individually - in my "married" card I used 10632I
Toilet Tissue, 10609F Married, 10602E You're 10618K Heard you are taking the plunge, using only the word "heard", and on the outhouse card I used 10634I
Outhouse,  and 10630J Crappy Day.  




I have given you quite a few little hints and suggestions for your paper crafting fun.  Everything I used was stuff I had in my collection so didn't have to buy anything.  






  
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3 comments:

loz said...

WOW!! Thanks for all the hints Shirley. I will have to keep these on file. My favorite was the first one using a post it note. Fabulous cards...loz

Cheryl W said...

These are all great tips. I was pleased to see I use most of them, but I still learned something new. I loved the sticker idea and will use that if I ever go to a crop or other crafty gathering. Thanks so much for all the fab ideas!

Darnell said...

I love your three amusing cards, Shirley! It's so nice thinking of the smile on the recipient's face when you drop your cards in the post! And thank you for all the very useful tips and photos!! 🎄Happy Holiday Hugs, Darnell