Clear stamps are all the rage these days and all of the big name companies are coming aboard with their own lines of these fun acrylic stamps.  If they aren’t already your favorite item in your scrapbooking toolbox, acrylic stamps will soon become your go-to suppy when you want to create dazzling pages.  They are easy to use, easy to care for, easy to store and so easy to love!

The Benefits of using Clear Acrylic Stamps:

They are so easy to use-just peel and stick to an acylic block and get stamping.

Clear stamps and blocks make precise placement easy.

The stamps are lightweight so easy to store and transport.

They are economical to premounted wood stamps.

The artistic detailed designs will inspire your creativity to make your own designs with different sets.

At the store, we mostly carry clear stamps from wonderful companies like Crafty Secrets, Imaginisce, Basic Grey, Inkadinkado and Autumn Leaves.  We have a few wood mounted rubber stamps but all the trends definately lead to the clear market.   You get so much more for your money and they take up less space than traditional wood mount stamps.

There are tons of techniques, you can create so many different looks with clear stamps.  You can stamp on cork, stamp on felt, stamp with acrylic paint. stamp on metal, stamp on craft foam, stamp on canvas…the possibilities are endless as you can tell.

A few tips for you that I have learned with clear stamps…never use pigment ink on your stamps only dye inks.  Pigment inks stain you stamps permantly, you can still use them, they are just not very pretty anymore. 

I always keep a box of baby wipes on my work surface to wipe off the stamps as I use them.  This seems to be the quickest most effective way to keep them clean.

I always put my stamps back in the package they came in and try to keep them as air tight as possible, it also helps to keep them stored out of direct light, other wise they may become yellowed and brittle.

Grab your stamping supplies, go play and be inspired to create something Clearly unique.  No pun intended!

I found these cute little mini lunch box albums at Targets Dollar spot and decided to turn them into mini albums.  They have been a huge hit at the store, so I thought I would share the directions with you.  As of last night at Target they had a few left and were clearancing them for 50 cents a piece.  Good deal.

All you need to do is cut a piece of twelve by tweve paper in to 4×12 inch pieces.  You will have 3 pieces, but you will only need two of these.  Next, score every 2 1/2 inches, peak and valley.  This makes your accordian album.  Add photos and embellishments next.  You can go as simple or as elaborate as you wish.  I used lots of photos, prima flowers, buttons and rhinestones.  After you have decorated your accordian album, just insert into the lunchbox and adhere with red line tape (this will make sure it stays put).  Next all you have left to do is decorate the outside of the lunchbox with a few embellishments like ribbon and rhinestones. 

Super cute, super easy and the perfect little memento for summer or maybe for back to school photos on the first day!!!

Sorry about the layout of the photos..I have a terrible time with the way this program uploads the photos…I just don’t get it.  I’m working on it so bare with me!

Have a creative week and remember to take time to PLAY!!!

 

Now that we are nearing the beginning of another school year, changes are right around the corner and I feel the need to refresh my creative juices.  It seems that we all tend to put our creativity on hold during the summer months, with kids being home, company and our own traveling, so now is the perfect time to start planning your creative escape.  The kids go back in only a few weeks and it will be time to jump back in to scrapbooking, paper crafting and card making.  Start planning and dreaming now.

We have been so busy at the store with new products, ordering and planning for the Fall and the upcoming Holiday Season, that it can be more than a little overwhelming.  I honestly have not done much creating this summer and can’t wait to dive back in.  The past couple of weeks I have been creating my own Scrap Space and I can hardly wait to get in there and create and scrap the nights away.  We cleaned out a bedroom of all the junk we didn’t use anymore and my husband (awesome guy) repainted it (even with the colors that I picked he didn’t complain), help me move my table, shelves, and even all of my supplies into the room.  (Little tip, it’s not a wise idea to let them really see how much stuff you’ve collected over the years, I think I scared him).  Now my room is almost complete…just a few little decorating touches to go and it will be perfect (it could be bigger…sshhh, keep that a secret cause I don’t think he’ll let me take over any more space.)

So all of this leads me to this…I want to hear about your creative space??? Tell me about it, do you have your own space, do you share a space, use the kitchen table?  I would love to hear how you organize your papers, your ribbon and all your other stash!  I would love any feedback you have.  I hope you get the chance to refresh your creative juices this fall so you can get started with all your papercrafting ideas.  It’s going to be wonderful Fall at the store, so much fun stuff arriving daily and my own space is going to such a treat!