A Few of my Essential Tools...

I thought I would do a generic post today, with some of the items I use in almost every project I make.

From Cards to Layouts, Birdhouses to Bind-it-All books, I find myself consistantly reaching for the same products.

Cutting Fiskars 12" Rotary Trimmer --- I used to use the Provo Craft Paper Trimmer, and it was okay; I went through a lot of blades since it wasn't a rotary cutter and almost always seemed to have some sort of 'fuzz' along my cut before I splurged and bought this. I used a 40% off coupon at Michaels to help cut the cost a little!

Good Scissors (Full Size)-- I use the Corporate Express Brand, and they are from one of the office supply stores, and scissors you do decide to designate for paper only, I recommend you write that on them, and make it clear throughout the household; it's amazing how quickly a pair of $20 scissors can become useless (not like I'd know....)

Better Scissors (Small, for detail)-- Cutterbees; I swear by these little scissors. They can cut everything (big or small) and always stay sharp. I clean them every so often (like few months) and they have never failed me. Be careful though, these seem to attract my three year old like a bee to honey (must be the pink color... and sharp blades).

X-acto Knife-- Mine is pink, but even if it wasn't; these are very inexpensive and so helpful! I've used it for peeling stuff off my Cricut Mat, or quickly trimming spots that didn't cut. Overall, very useful for the price.

Scoring-

Martha Stewart Scoring Board- Again; a great investment. I'd never had a scoring board before I bought this one with a coupon from the Oprah Show to try a Martha Product at a discount, and I can't believe I lived without it, for cardmaking, envelopes or boxes. It's nice to make the little medallion type circle things also!

Inks--

Stamping-- Staz On; any color. This stuff ROCKS! Seriously, it works on everything and creates clear, crisp images from even the cheapest clear acrylic stamps that dye inks don't work well on. LOVE this stuff!!

Tim Holtz Distress Inks- I have 9-10 colors, but love them all equally. They are all amazing.

Inkssentials Ink Blending Tool & Foams-- I use this tool everytime I use my Distress Inks.

Adhesives:

ATG 700 Gun w/ 1/4" Adaptor- I bought this before the Pink 1/4" gun came out, and paid a hefty sum for it; but even after that... I did a little breakdown/review of the costs... it can be found HERE and it still is less expensive than using Snails for the rest of my life.

Liquid- Scotch Quick Dry Adhesives-- seriously, don't put this on if you aren't sure you want paper to stick; it's gonna stick and FAST. Great for small cricut cuts.

Stapler- There is a company that makes colored staples, and I'm addicted to those too, so this gets used often also!

Feel free to ask any questions; I'd be happy to answer!!

Wedding Card & Bee Happy Card

Here are a couple cards from recently! I know I haven't been posting often and I've been busy back at work, so it's made cropping time decrease a bunch.

The card above I made for a wedding this summer; the colors are Dark Blue and Silver; so I thought this would be gorgeous.

The lower card is intended to send to my Mother-In-Law who loves bees! I thought it would make her smile... now, all I have to do is get it in the mail!
Have a good one!

Dawn

Updated Scraproom Stills

I thought I'd hop on here, and show some updated photos of my scraproom. It's nothing fancy, at all; just an extra bedroom that I've added a desk and storage (and not even fancy or pretty storage!) to, and made work for me.

I made a coloring and play area for Zoe, since she ends up in there with me. She always wants to help, but by making a coloring area, she at least is distracted!Everything I use consistantly is right within reach. All my paper, adhesives, ribbons, cutting tools and even embossing tools I can reach from my seat.

This is what the drawers look like; the very bottom is adhesives; and cards I am keeping. Next drawer up; it my paper pads that are 8X8 and smaller.

The middle drawer is all inks, and blocks. And the top is bink-it-all owires, etc.

I also attached a photo of how I store my clear stamps. I used a 3-ring binder, with We R Memory Keepers Photo Sleeves. Baseball Card holders would work too!

It closes right up, stores flat and makes it much easier to find what I want quickly; instead of digging through a pile.

Reminisce Superheroes Line

For my last project as a Designer on Lila's Scrapbooking Design Team,

I worked with the Reminisce Superheroes Line.

I love the cute little charactors, and how they are zipping around!

This little pig was my favorite!

Followed, not far behind with the little Superhero panda!

Cute, right? I have some other things to post shortly, so hopefully you'll be entertained some this week!!

Cheers!

Dawn

BasicGrey Bind-It-All Book

Seems like theres a 'B' theme going on here, huh? lol.

Today, my little project is with the same adorable BasicGrey Pyrus Line of papers, I bought at Lila's Scrapbooking but I've used my Zutter Bind-It-All with a 3/4" o-wire to make this adorable notebook. It's roughly 6.5"X4.5".

I've tied various olive green, brown and orange ribbon to the owire also.

Enjoy!

BasicGrey Birdhouses

Hi! I know I've been off in my own world lately. Zoe was in the ER last weekend with a ruptured ear drum and ear infection; and today we had to head to the Walkin Clinic because she's got Croup. So, after dealing with a sick baby for more than a week; you can bet that I took some time for myself last night!







I made a cute little project, with some Basic Grey Paper I picked up while I was at Lila's Scrapbooking dropping off my Design Team Packet (I'm hoping for another round on the DT!)...

I have those photos too, but don't want to post em until the design team is announced, I'm not sure if they will be showing the projects turned in or not; so I'm not going to spoil the fun for anyone. :-)


All the paper I used is from Basic Grey, their line called Pyrus. You bet that I LOVE these papers and actually am going to stop in a pick up some more in the next day or two. I'm working on a sketch book with my Zutter and these papers also.

This is close ups of the actual birdhouses. I used this paper for the trims, 'walls' and roof of the birdhouses.

The birdhouses are from the Local Craft Store, but all the papers are from Lila's.

Enjoy!

Dawn