This week’s tips are all about buttons….

- Great storage containers include: clear jars, fishing tackle boxes, bead containers, weekly pill containers and mini clear Ziploc bags.

- Have a whole lot of buttons to add knots to? String them all on on piece of thread and tie them that way. Saves on thread!

- Sew the thread through your buttons before you glue them down. Saves having to struggle sewing through paper too.

- Instead of adding the bulk of thread on a button, you can use a white paint pen to “paint” the thread. Looks like the real thing and is faster as well.

- Don’t throw away your buttons with the plastic attachment loop in the back of them. Just get some wire cutters and cut the loop off. You can then use glue or glue dots to adhere button to your page. It also makes your button flatter.

- Use a need threading tool to pull embroidery floss through hard to thread buttons.

- Recycle your not-so-pretty coloured buttons by painting them the colour of your choice.

- Add some rub-ons or stamps to the surface of your buttons for added whimsy.

- Use buttons for flower centers. They are cheaper than brads.

- Use the buttons that you have collected in your junk drawer from off of all those new clothes you buy.

SEW… have some fun with buttons on your next page or card!!!

I have a small collection of random scrapbooking tips to share today. They have been submitted to over the last little while:

If you’re going to work with glitter, here’s a great tip or two!
Before you start, take a dryer sheet (you know… a bounce sheet) and wiped down all your items: tray, your paper and your working surfaces. It takes the static charge off so you won’t have as much “stray” glitter when you shake off your page!
Use a dry fine tipped paint brush to brush away those stray pieces of glitter from your paper. ~Ally 

When heat embossing, heat your project from underneath to get a “cleaner” even finish and to keep the embossing powders from blowing around. To get a sharp image when stamping a project, lay a 1/4″ dense foam pad under the paper that you are stamping. If your gel pens stop working but still have lots of ink in them, remove the cartridge and put it in hot water for a few minutes (don’t allow the opening to get in the water) this will soften the ink and allow it to flow again.  ~Jackie

When you are going to paint, emboss, bead, cut little pieces from paper, place a piece of Glad Press n Seal to the table you are working at. When you are done, simply pick it up and throw it and all the little pieces away. It hs also protected your area for the paint and embossing crystals. ~Jen

When I am doing a layout where I use a large piece of cardstock as the border, I cut out the center of the page that will be covered and I save that paper for something else. This also works for photos. You can cut out a smaller shape of the hidden cardstock and save it.Cutting out the extra paper also makes your completed pages lighter and your overall book lighter.

They are often times when you want to remove the adhesive from a portion of a sticker. The best way to do this is to sprinkle baby powder on the area that you want to remove the adhesive from. If you are trying to remove the stickiness from a portion of a sticker that is overlapping from your page, be sure to stick the sticker to your page before sprinkling the baby powder, or you may remove the adhesive from the wrong part of the sticker.

You can add texture to a layout in so many ways. One fun and easy way is INK. You can straight distress, of course, but one fun way is to take things with interesting patterns, ink them up, and use the item as a stamp. Bubble wrap is perfect for this. Cheesecloth wrapped over something sturdy (like a stamp block) is fun too! ~Erin

You can send in your random tips to me at thynner5@yahoo.ca to earn a ballot in this month’s blog prize draw!!

~Tara~

This weeks tips are all about scoring….

If you have a paper trimmer, like a Fiskars, use an embossing stylus, or a pen that has run out of ink to score your paper. You can line it up so you can measure exactly where you want the score, and the blade track will keep it perfectly straight.

An easy way to score your paper to make a fold is to use an old mouse pad under your paper. This adds a cushion for a better crease and you don’t have to push as hard. Just use a ruler and a bone folder with your mouse pad and you will have perfect folds!

A new and innovative scoring tool is the Scor-Pal. This hard plastic board is grooved in measured intervals and allows you to score your cards and projects. It also has a snap in bone folder so you don’t loose it.

I came across these wonderful organizational tips yesterday and made a note to myself to post them here today. These are great tips I found in the Resource section by Sheri.

Organizational Tips: Alphabets by Sheri

As an alphabet addict, this was something I had to learn the hard way.

As my collection grew from a cm carrytote, to a manila folder, to a photo storage box, to a small decorative trunk-box with a lid, my alphabets became a huge mess!

Suddenly, it occurred to me to sort my alphabets by color.

AND THIS IS AWESOME!

Several times, I’ve been working on a project, knowing orange, for example, was my overall theme, I just went to my trunk, grabbed my orange alphas, used what I needed, and put them back in my box. No more digging!
I have them seperated by color first, then by size. So all my blacks are together, with largest packages in the back, moving up by size, then all clipped together with a binder clip. On alphabets that are thicker– like a package of epoxy stickers, for example, I might have another binder clip attatching just that pkg.. but still all clipped together in that color stack.

For my mm rubons, that come in those pkgs, they are loose.

I also had several Monograms/stencils that i’ve recv’d in swaps, and I have those binder clipped together by alpha.

Now my box stays nice and neat, and I can easily find what I need. Even if I’m going to mix it up, it’s still all right there!

I have a pretty cool system that I just love here. I’m big into the metal pieces, gameboard pieces and such as that for alphabets. I was having the same problems with stuff getting out of control. Although I never got into a trunk.

Anyway, I went in back in late June and organized mine differently. I have these trays by Craft Mates. They are plastic compartment things that lock shut. There are 14 compartments per tray. So, I took two of them and sorted by letter. There’s a space for each letter of the alphabet and I dig through it like that. I find that it’s much quicker for me to know if I’ve got enough of a certain type of something to write what word I want. Much quicker than rummaging through a package of that style and hunting desperately for an E. Ya know? Plus, when I want to do the mix and match ransom sort of effect, this system is totally perfect!!!!! I’m soooooooo glad I did this.

As for rub-ons… They are all together in a photo box and easy to sort through. My stickers are in Cropper Hopper Verticals with sticker organizers. One holds alphabets, one holds assorted leftovers and another holds all my nice sticker packages. I find that it works great!

If you happen to have any tips you would like to share with us please email them to me at thynner5@yahoo.ca and put CCAS Blog Tips in the subject line. Everytime you do you will earn a ballot for the monthly Blog Prize Draw!!

~Tara~

These tips are from the CCAS Resources Wiki:

Photo Storage Tips by Renee

Attics and Basements - The worst places to store your photographs or documents is in an uninsulated attic or basement. In the summer, temperatures in an attic could reach 125 degrees F. while in the winter they can get down to less than 0 degrees. With the constant high temperatures and humidity in the summer and low temperatures and humidity in the winter, the photographs or documents will become brittle. In severe cases, the emulsion (image) on the photograph can separate from the base (paper). These cyclic conditions will have a devastating effect on any paper product.

Uninsulated basements are usually moist which can cause photographs to stick to each other. Another problem encountered in basements is that they are great breeding grounds for insects and rodents which are strongly attracted to gelatin and cellulose in the photographic emulsion.

The best places to store important photographs or documents are in a safe deposit box at your bank. They are usually climate controlled and kept dark to provide almost ideal storage conditions. The ideal storage conditions are 68 degrees +/- 2 degrees and 50% relative humidity +/- 5% relative humidity.

I am so guilty of storing my pics in my uninsulated basement, I have had several all stuck together! If your photos are in these conditions, get them to a safe dry place now!!!

I found these great Card Making Tips in the Resources section. They were submitted by Kate

Beginning Card Making Tips 

• It can save you a lot of time to buy pre-scored or folded cards (and yes, they do even make them in square sizes). This will obviously cost you more money than just making the card base out of cardstock yourself, but it can be a real time savings. AND you can buy packs of them that also come with envelopes, so you don’t have to worry about finding the right size of envelopes for them.

• When designing for quantities: keep things simple - don’t do things that require several steps. For instance, I tend to avoid heat embossing if I’m making more than 15 cards (unless it’s for something special like a wedding and I have lots of time to do it!), because of all the steps involved in the process. (If you do want to do heat embossing, do it in steps like in my first suggestion) I also avoid things like rub-ons and dry embossing, because they tend to take a lot of time to do.
• Things that work GREAT for making quantities of cards: punches, colored staples (glue can be annoying if you have to leave a lot of time to dry), stickers, decorative edged scissors or punches, and rubber stamps.

• Avoid tying bows with ribbon, because they can charge you extra for mailing something with a bump. Instead, consider just stapling ribbon down, or weaving it through slots.

If you have any tips or techniques you would like to share with us please email me at thynner5@yahoo.ca and put “CCAS Blog Tips” in the subject line. Everytime you do you will be entered into the monthly draw.

~Tara~

Since Tara’s challenge this week is all about stitching, I thought some tips about sewing on your pages would be appropriate.

• Don’t have a sewing machine, no problem! Poke holes evenly using a ruler as a guide and connect all the dots using a pen for faux stitching.
• When using your sewing machine, dial the tension down to zero so the thread doesn’t rip through the paper.
• Test your sewing machine BEFORE you use it on a scrap piece of cardstock.
• Tape the ends of your threads on the back of your page so they don’t pull through to the front of your page.
• Use a set of stamps or rub-ons that look like stitches to get that sewn look.
• Not enough adhesive in your stash, sew on your papers instead of gluing things down.
• Use you sewing machine without thread and make dotted patterns as a page design element.
• Do not reverse your sewing machine at the start or finish of your stitching. This will cause the thread to punch unnecessary holes that may cause your paper to tear more easily.
• Sew all your page elements before you put on any 3D elements like flowers and brads. You break your needle or worse, your machine if you were to run them over accidently.

Happy stitching!!!

I have often heard complaints from my fellow scrapbookers about how much they love the look of glossy photo paper and yet hate the finger prints that seem to appear. Unfortunately, getting fingerprints and smudges are unavoidable when handling glossy photo paper. There are a few things you can do to minimize them.

1. Purchase photo paper that have a perforated extension. This allows you to grip the photo and lift it without getting any prints on the photo. This is great for when you are transferring your photos from the printer to a work surface. Once your photo is dry just tear at the perfection. HP makes special perferated photo paper and I use it all the time.

2. You can do the obvious and start buying matte photo paper. This type of paper is much more forgiving when it comes to fingerprints and smudges.

3. Purchase a lint free cloth like one you would use to clean eyeglasses or CD’s/DVD’s. This is wonderful for wiping away the fingerprints. Just make sure that the cloth is dry and that you do not apply too much pressure. This is a fantastic solution to the fingerprint issue and I have done it several times.

If you have any tips or techniques you would like to share with us please email me at thynner5@yahoo.ca and put “CCAS Blog Tips” in the subject line. Everytime you do you will be entered into the monthly draw.

~Tara~

Here are some great inking and tips from Ally that I wanted to share today:

To remove ink from your acrylic blocks, use a damp Mr. Clean “Magic Eraser” sponge.  Works at removing any permanent ink like magic!!
Store your ink pads upside down to ensure the top of your ink pads stay saturated and ready to use.
Store your mini chalk ink and mini ink squares in a bead organizer box.  You can stack 2 pads per divided section.
Clean your stamps using baby wipes.  I cut mine up in small squares and stick them in a snack size Ziploc bag for easy storage at your desk.

Thanks Ally for sharing these amazing tips with us!

If you have any tips or techniques you would like to share with us please email me at thynner5@yahoo.ca and put “CCAS Blog Tips” in the subject line. Everytime you do you will be entered into the monthly draw.

~Tara~

Today’s tips are all about using paint.

The lovely Claudia left this wonderful tip on the blog yesterday that I wanted to share:

I use disposable paint edging pads to clean my rubber stamps. They are very inexpensive so when they get dirty you can just throw them away. They are available anywhere paint is sold.
Claudia

Great stamping tip Claudia!

Now…. some tips when using paint:

• Use an empty egg carton as a paint tray.  When you are done, just throw it away.
• Make your own overlays using paint and transparency paper bought from your local supply store.  A quick and easy project.  If you make a boo-boo, just wipe it away and start again.
• Add a small swipe of paint to brighten up your flower tips or buttons or chipboard elements.
• Store your foam paint brushes in a Ziploc bag, labeled with the paint colour and store in the freezer.  You’ll always have a paint brush ready to go with that specific colour.
• Paint your brads to get the desired colour to match your page.  Why not use up those yellow or odd colour brads you’ll never use.
• Create your own Magic Mesh by painting drywall tape from the hardware store.  And yes… it’s acid free!
• Purchase a large foam sheet or a craft mat from the dollar store to place under your painted projects.  Makes for an easy clean up of your craft area; wash and dry and you’re done.
• Use the caps from your milk cartons or pop bottles as paint holders.  You can even wash them and use it again… and again… and again. A great way to create and recycle!

Please email your tips to Tara at: thynner5@yahoo.ca and put “CCAS Blog Tips” in the subject line. You could also link it to us here on the blog.All tips and creations will earn you a ballot into the Monthly Blog Draw! Good Luck.