Kate's Paper Creations

I can't remember if I've shared this with you before or not so I'll take a chance and share it today.  

I am an organizer, I like to have a place for everything.  Now, it doesn't always get there mind you but at least there is a place for it.  Because of that I am always on the look out for ideas that make the use of my space more efficient and convenient.

As many of you know I am a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and I use Stampin' Up! products almost exclusively.  That alone makes organizing my supplies much easier.

There are two products I use a lot the Sponge Daubers   and Blender Pens   I got tired of having to clean the tips of the blender pens every time I used them and I could never find the sponge dauber that was the right color.  

For the Sponge Daubers I went to Walmart in the fishing department and found these great cases that the daubers fit into perfectly.  They are double sided so I have three cases to house the four color groups, and the in colors as well as the extras like Gold, Silver, White etc.  For the labels I went to my Silhouette Cameo and used their printable white sticker paper, created a 7/8" square and added the names of the colors to the squares.  Then I used registration marks and print and cut to create nice legible labels which I was then able to just peel and stick.

Isn't that slick?  Now I have a drawer where these are stored and I just pull out the box for the colors I am using and use the dauber.  Way cool, huh?

For the Blender Pens I used the Clear Mount Stamp Cases from Stampin' Up!.  I purchased enough pens for all the colors.  They are double tipped so for each color group I only needed 5 pens.  I then wrapped a small label around the end of each pen and wrote the color on it and stored each group in a stamp case.  Viola' no more cleaning blender pens.  I can always access the one I need and the cases store so easily.  I marked the spine of each case with the name of the color group.  

These sit on my work desk right in front of me where they are easy to grab.

There you have it.  A couple of organizational tips.  Have a great day!

Kate Creasey

   Stampin' Up! Demonstrator

   Card Making, Scrap Booking, Paper Crafting

   Silhouette Cameo Digital Cutter Class

Fun title for this post as I talk about adhesives.  There are so many out there and finding the right one for right job can be a little daunting.  I'm not going to address every glue and it's use.  Whew! Aren't you glad!

Instead I am going to focus on what I have found to be the best glue ever for putting together those wonderful 3D creations we all like to build with our Silhouette Ecutter.  

As you know whenever there is tension on a piece there needs to be a little extra hold or eventually it will just spring apart.  And, I've found that if have a little extra humidity in your home it creates a situation where things just don't stick like they should.

This is what I found when I began making the tea pots from SVGCuts Tea For You and Me kit.  I am making 20 of them for centerpieces for a Mad Hatter's Tea Party fund raiser that occurs in October of this year.  However, not being one to wait till the last minute to do things I have been building them now and I discovered that the first ones I made were starting to come apart in places.  This is not good, not good at all!

So I went adhesive hunting.  Now, Mary over at SVGCuts has reccommended ZipDry glue.   So, I gave it a try.  It works okay but I was constantly frustrated by the fact that the nozzle was always plugging up.  I would leave it for a day, with the cap on, and I'd have to dig out the nozzle before I could use it.  And I wasn't all that impressed with how it worked either.  It still didn't hold well in certain places like the lip around the opening of the pot.

I wanted something that would stick, quick, so next I tried using  ScorTape    Now this is usually pretty good stuff.  I've used it on boxes and things and it's held really well.  But for the tea pots it just didn't make the grade.  For one thing it was a major pain in the patooka to cut a gazillion little pieces and attach them.  So that turned out to be a no go.

The most recent glue I used is Aleene's Quick Dry Tacky Glue.
  This glue is white but dries clear, it is thick so it doesn't run all over, stays where it's put.  The nozzle does not plug up all the time and it dries really quick just like it says it will.  I mean in seconds.  I have made three tea pots with it so far and it has worked the best of everything I've tried.  After a week in my house with the humidifier going all the time they are still holding together.  

As a matter of fact I had one spot I didn't match up just right and when I tried to pull it apart it was like the two pieces were fused together.  So the only down side I see with this glue is that you need to make sure your placement is right.  You have a few seconds, maybe 3 to 5 before it begins to dry and stick so you can move your pieces for a bit but once they're stuck, they're stuck.  And isn't that what we want to have happen?

There you have it.  The long way around to tell you I really like Aleene's Quick Dry Tacky Glue for putting together 3D projects.

Enjoy!

Kate Creasey

   Stampin' Up! Demonstrator

   Card Making, Scrap Booking, Paper Crafting

   Silhouette Cameo Digital Cutter Classes