Chop-O-Holics Birthday Card Club

 

Buy supermarket or stores own brands rather than the expensive ones, they are generally 'drier' but you will find this helps. These are the ONLY ones I use personally.

Smear the glue stick lightly as if applying lip balm, as if you apply too much pressure this will also cause blobs.

If you find you have smeared some glue where it wasn't meant to go, wait until it stops being tacky and rub over gently with a clean dry finger or pencil eraser to remove. This almost always works

Thankyou to Vodka Chops, She say's:

I keep an old household candle in my pen pot....

when i use my scoring board or embossing boards, I rub my bone folder or ball ended embossing tool on the candle first, It helps give a bit of movement on some cardstocks that seem to "grip".... it works well.

Thankyou to Pompey Chops for sending these hints n tips!

 

Instead of buying expensive vellum for printing, .use decent quality tracing paper, has the same effect...and is a lot cheaper!

 

Do not bother using fancy applicators when using chalk - cotton wool and cotton buds are just as good and much cheaper. Fix chalk with cheap hairspray. Use peel offs as masks when chalking to get different backgrounds.

 

When using glue (either liquid or pritt stick) or sticky dots, etc I always use this sturdy A4 sheet of plastic to do it on - saves getting my work mat sticky.

 

Use baby wipes to clean your stamps, cheaper than the special cleaner.

 

Before dry embossing rub the back card with a new tumble drier sheet - it helps the tool to glide and also doesn't leave a residue like candle and soap does.

 

Use cheap eye shadow powder instead of chalks as some are lovely and pearly and give a great effect. Also, don't use too much chalk or eye -shadow, build it up slowly if you want a stronger colour. Set with hairspray.

 

I use the chopping boards from pound land cut to size sprayed with repositional glue for my Craft Robo.

I keep the original copy of all my decoupage and photocopy it so when I need it, I always have it to use.

 

When using spray mount or very sticky glue use an old catalogue or telephone book under your work then rip off used sticky page and it’s ready for the next time. Use tweezers to pick up sticky card and place where needed, saves getting it all stuck to fingers.

 

When cutting ez-mount, put some neat washing up liquid on your scissors first. You don’t get quite so stuck up!! Cut the stamp images out first and then draw round them on the ez mount backing paper. Then cut out the rough shape and fit the stamp on to it. It seems to make it easier plus you get more stamps out of the sheet.

On stitching cards, rub over the back of your completed stitching with the back of a teaspoon to close up your pricking holes. It gives the final product a much more polished appearance.

 

When inking stamps, lay your stamp on a flat surface and take the ink to the stamp and not the stamp to the ink as it stops unwanted inky edges.

 

Use olive oil to get Stazon stain off rubber stamps.

 

Before using a brand-new stamp, go over it with sellotape, it will remove any silicone left on the stamp from the production line.

 

Keep all coloured off-cuts in an expanding file, keeping each colour group together, makes it much easier and quicker to see if you have the right size bit in the right colour before cutting into a new piece. It doesn't take long to do at first and then only seconds to keep it up but a massive time saver.