I found my stash of baseball card sheets and had a crafty idea. I have fabric swatches stored in these sheets and thought it would be a good way to store my mini clear stamps. I have a few sheets of stamps that I cut apart and stored in these sheets also. To keep the stamps from falling out of the slick plastic sheets I included the back packaging from the mini stamps and cut 2 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ pieces of cardstock for the stamps I cut from the larger set sheets. I was left with only 4 sets of clear stamps that I could not store this way. I hope this tip can come in handy for other stampers. Happy Crafting!

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One of my favorite tools that I don’t use often enough is my Stamp-a-ma-jig. One of the main reasons I don’t use it is I find it messy using the plastic sheet the Stamp-a-ma-jig comes with. I often find myself smudging the ink from the plastic sheet on to my card or layout.  I also think it’s a waste of my ink. I’ve been using my transparency film more often and had a light bulb moment today. I decided to make permanent Stamp-a-ma-jig sheets using the acetate sheet. They store easily in the stamp storage box. I use ink jet transparency film that has a special coating that locks the ink in place. No smudging! If you do not have coated transparency film or if write-on film smudges, you can either use Staz-On ink or velum for the same effect. I look forward to using my Stamp-a-ma-jig more often.

Happy Crafting!

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When I make cards, I sometimes find it a challenge locating the correct punch or die to coordinate with my stamps. Some of my friends catalog their stamps by keeping a binder with image sheets of all their stamps (which is on my to do list). I thought it would be nice to have a template catalog of my punches, texture folders and dies. (I didnt find it necessary to include all of my dies & punches. Just the ones I use to coordinate with my stamps)

I created the tutorial below using Photobucket. The site did not offer the option to adjust the speed. To view all the images, hover your cursor over the slideshow to activate the navigation menu, click stop and you can manually navigate through the slides.

I hope you find this tutorial helpful. Happy Crafting!

Two items not included in the supply list are your die cutting machine (Big Shot/Kick, Cuttlebug, etc.) and a paper trimmer. I was not able to edit the slide. Sorry. ~Amy

I thought I would share a few things I do when I need to cut multiple pages or cards and want to make percise and consistent cuts or score lines.

• The supplies I use are: a paper trimmer with a swing out arm, 2 Binder clips and a piece of scrap cardboard that is slightly thicker than the cardstock. I used the back cardboard for the last DCWV stack I purchased
• If the measurement falls on the swing out arm, I clip a binder clip on the arm from the inside, lining up the inside edge of the clip at the measurement I need to cut or score. In this case, I lined the clip up at 5.5″. Slide your cardstock against the edge of the binder clip and then cut or score.
• If the measurement falls on the main part of the paper trimmer, I use a shim made out of cardboard. Using a piece that is thicker than the cardstock I am cutting allows the cardstock to butt up against the shim easily. The medium binder clips I use do not have very deep reach but are big enough to clip onto the shim and trimmer just fine. I lined up the edge of the shim in this demo at the 4.25″ trim/score line. Rule of thumb: The smaller the measurement, the wider the shim. I secure the shim to the trimmer using at least 2 binder clips to secure the shim in place.
• With the shim set in place, you can set up a pretty quick assembly line. Using these simple tips will help you with accurate measurements and consistent cards or pages. This tip helps most when making pages for my mini albums.

I hope you find this tutorial/tip useful. Feel free to trackback and leave comments.

HAPPY CRAFTING!