Oh my goodness, this doesn’t happen very often! Close To My Heart is having a 25% off sale on cardstock. You can pick single color packs, or assortment packs. You can see the different assortments in the photo below.
Click this cardstock sale photo to go right to my CTMH shop.
You can shop at: KristieSloan.CloseToMyHeart.com
The cardstock has a white core, and I ink the edges for some of my projects. It also cuts as smooth as butter for electronic cutting devices!
Here are direct links to the paper pack assortments. All single color packs are available in the shop. Note: the sale price doesn’t show until you place an item into your cart.
If you have a mouse pad around, you can use it as a crafting tool! Here are a couple of ways to get some use out of a mouse pad.
A mouse pad can be helpful in the craft room!
Turning a mouse pad over so that the spongy side is facing up, and you’ve got the perfect surface to use for stamping with acrylic stamps which don’t have a built in cushion.
Place your paper on top of the mouse pad
Place the acrylic stamp on an acrylic block
Add ink to your stamp
Gently but firmly stamp your image, and remove
Voila! A great image!
A mouse pad can also be the perfect tool to use with a piercing tool. Those piercing tools are sharp and can quickly poke and gouge into your work surface. There are sets available which include a mat to use with a piercing tool, but they are usually small. By using a mouse pad, you’ve got a much larger protective piece to work on. So if you’re doing paper piercing as a decorative element, or you are just poking a starter hole for a brad, try out a mouse pad!
It is amazing how many ways people find themselves doing some sort of memory keeping!
Using Travelers Notebooks for small scrapbooking.
Some of us are proud to consider ourselves “scrapbookers,” and others just want to keep a few memories along the way without shouldering the title. In the end, it’s about the stories and the pictures. Sometimes we don’t even have a photo of the actual story we want to tell, but with a little creativity, there is usually some kind of photo or something you can use to illustrate the story. In that case, the story truly is the star.
Traveler’s Notebook Inserts have become quite popular for a variety of uses; journals, bullet journals, lists, mixed media, etc. These inserts are perfect for capturing bits and pieces of daily memories, and they are small enough that they don’t feel as intimidating as a large blank page often does. Beth from ScrappingWonders.com shows how she has used one to save a story from her daughter’s third grade final party. The video is below. Beth has also found that mixed media Traveler’s Notebook were either hard to come by or non-existent, and has started making them and carrying them in her Scrapping Wonders Etsy shop. Stop by if you want to grab one, or more!
Watch as Beth shows us a quick layout in her Traveler’s Notebook.
Most of you already know there a million things you can use duct tape for.
3 reasons to use duct tape on your stencils.
We commonly refer to it as “Duck Tape,” which is actually a popular brand name of duct tape. I’m sure you’ve seen some of things people have made, from wallets to prom dresses. Today, we’re sticking with a crafty use. I recently noticed someone had used a pretty duck tape to edge her stencils. Brilliant! Having all the edges extend beyond the existing borders of the stencils was really helpful.
Duct tape edges give more space to cover the project beyond the stencil.
A stack of stencils slide more easily across each other.
There is more to hold on to as you clean your stencils.
We even soaked and cleaned stencils in a tub of water and the duct tape held up great! We were actually encouraged to use Duck brand duct tape, as it seems to actually work better for this purpose. I had envisioned using some wild prints and really jazzing up the edges, until I found out that the solid colors had TWICE as many yards as the prints, for the SAME PRICE. Yes, I started with a solid color! However, you can grab a coupon for your big box craft store and get started with some wild prints more economically. If you have some doubts, just do a few to get started.
A final tip, if there is info on the stencil you want to keep, just grab a permanent marker and write it on the tape.
Write any info about the stencil right on the tape with a permanent marker.
Today I wanted to share a fantastic project by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer!
New life for an old globe.
You know how fond I am of taking found items and sprucing them up! Julie took an old globe she found at a thrift store and used some paint and vinyl cutouts to create a really great update to the globe. In fact, the direction she took this project will allow this globe to be used no matter how or when boundaries are redrawn for country borders, or what areas are renamed. She uses some great step-by-step photos so you can follow her project.
As you can see, it’s another way to use an electronic cutter for an artsy project. Using the letters for both a masking technique, as well as adding phrases, is such a great use of her machine and her creativity! Julie uses a Brother ScanNCut machine, but you can use your Cricut or Silhouette!
