Foam Alpha Stamp Storage

I didn’t mention the reason I thought of making the ABC cards for Jayden. I was in the middle of a project, and then got sidetracked into another project and then ended up making the cards. The first project was making some alpha paper for the March Counterfeit Kit Challenge.

To make this paper I needed to use my alpha stamps. I hardly ever use them because they’re all shoved into a drawer. They’re hard to get to, hard to keep from spilling out of their packages and generally a nuisance. So while I was looking at the mess of stamps, I decided I would put them into stackable holders (like what Jaylene uses for her pens) with all the stamp sets broken down into letters, with 3 or four letters in a box. So begins the second project!

I’ve been reluctant to organize this way because I always thought I wanted to keep fonts together. I used the foam letters to label the holders and started dismantling a set. Then I got into the whole “double letters” (b/p u/n) issue and knew that the project was doomed. I quickly turned to Google and found a message board post mentioning they use A4 document holders to keep their stamp sets together. Genius! Here’s my version.

Now my foam alpha stamps are neatly set into the drawer and I’m inspired to use them more often. What organizing tip has made your life easier or clutter-free recently?

Make your own faux Japanese Masking Tape Tutorial

Like many I am in love with decorative tape, including the new Japanese Masking Tapes. It’s quite easy to make your own though.

Materials:

fabric adhesive tape (for taping gauze on)
watercolor paints
waxed paper (perhaps freezer paper would work as well)
optional: pens, glue, wax crayons (for creating patterns)

I placed strips of tape on the waxed paper and added watercolor paints.

On some strips I played around with patterns first.

From left to right:
yellow: black Souffle pen
orange: silver Pilot paint pen
red: Faber Castel Pitt Artist Indian ink brush pen
dark orange: just watercolor paints, the key to blending is add more water between the colors
green: this was a more fabric type of tape, I found it hard to work with, I liked the edges though
green: clear Aquatip pen
blue: stamp with Brilliance ink
green/blue: white glue (creates a batik style)
wide green/blue: brushed on drier watercolor paint
white: painted with black watercolor paint
blue: cheap kids watercolor paint, felt grainy and powdery after
purple: cheap kids watercolor paint, felt grainy and powdery after

As you can see, anything seems to work. Play around with various mediums and let me know how they work out!

Here are some tags I made with my tape and paper scraps.

Wrapping Tip

If you’re sending off little goodies, a quick and snazzy way to package them up is to use deco tape on the tops of the little zip bags. If you don’t have deco tape, you could use folded up patterned paper. It’s a fun way to jazz up little embellishments that you might want to send a stamping friend.

Sheet Load Card Designs

Sheet Load

The neat thing that makes it different from other sketch blogs like Page Maps, Sketch Lover, ScrapMaps or the sketch challenges at SplitCoastStampers is that she shows how to use up a whole sheet of paper to make multiple designs. Very thrifty!

Tutorial: Stamped puzzles

Jaylene was playing with a hexagonal puzzle at school and after I looked carefully at it, I realized we could make similar ones at home. It was a fun rainy Saturday afternoon project. It’s a great way to use those small stamps.

The above shows the pink puzzle put together and the blue puzzle waiting for its pieces. All stamps by Hero Arts.

Materials Needed:

Hexagon punch
Thin chipboard
15cm x 15 cm piece of paper
6 small stamps
6 ink pads
repositional tape

Instructions:
1. Punch out 7 hexagons from the chipboard and adhere them to the paper with repositional tape and then trace around the outside.
2. Using a different ink color for each stamp, stamp each image five times randomly over the puzzle.
3. Remove the tape and you’re ready to play.

Tip: When stamping on the outside edge of a piece, lift up the paper and smoosh it to the stamp in order to get a complete image near the edge.

Jaylene had lots of fun stamping these up. I can see endless possibilities in the hands of more experienced stampers. They would make great presents to include inside a card or as stocking stuffers. To increase the difficulty level you could use more pieces or just one color of ink. I’m imagining one made with fabulous snowflake images stamped in glitter…

If you make up one, I’d love to see a picture so please send me a link.

Here’s a shot of Jaylene playing with her new puzzles.

For more tutorials, please visit Stampin’ When I can

Stamping Tip: Placing Stickers

Gotta keep it short today ’cause the fever moster is running rampant in our house. Jaylene’s been suffering for days, but is almost back to her wacky, wonderful self. Jayden’s popped out 5 teeth, so he’s been a bit out of sorts too.

If your sticker is on a clear back, then cut it out before you adhere it to your design. That way you can move it around and find out where you like it best before making a permanent commitment. Save those clear backing papers and use them for letter stickers or other stickers that don’t have clear ones. Hope you find this helpful.

Frame by: kskd

For more Tips and Tutorials go to Stampin’ When I can

I can’t do it, ugh!

I’ve downloaded recent pictures (since getting this hand-me-down computer) to our removable hard drive, and Ahji is in the process of making CDs for the grandparents. At least he says he is, but he looks suspiciously like he’s surfing channels. Oh, he just switched from TV to computer (we have both together somehow). Anyway, I’m supposed to delete the pictures off of my computer, to free up a bunch of room. I can’t do it. Delete? My pictures? Ugh. Someone come over and do it for me, please!

Consider this a friendly reminder to back up your photos and other important files. And remember, just downloading from your computer to a CD/DVD/RHD is not enough. If there’s only one copy available, it’s not backed up! Make sure there are two.

Stamping Tip: Lining up Letters

With a lot of my unmounted stamps I usually just add a dab of glue stick and attach them to the acrylic block. With letters that I want straight, I’ll use doublesided tape to make sure they’re in a proper line.

Overlay by Kirsty Wiseman