One of the easiest and more enjoyable crafts comes when you get your hands dirty. Making “tailor-made” T-shirts to give as Valentine’s Day gifts is a great way to go. All you need are some white T-shirts and some red fabric paints. Kids can draw a heart or write something on the T-shirt using chalk and then paint or trace over it. Or, smaller kids, can stamp their hands wet on red fabric paint on the piece of cloth. These gifts are so much fun to make, and so easy you won’t believe it. Just remember to clear out the area where you’ll be working; since kids tend to make a mess!

Before you go out trick and treating with your kids here is an idea you won’t want to miss. Halloween pins! Cut out bats or ghosts shapes from black and white craft foams. Decorate them with a white pen, when making the bats eyes, and with black pen, when making the ghosts´ scary eyes and crooked mouths. Then, use hot glue gun to glue pins on the back of the foam and there you go. You’ve got creative and easy gifts for your kids and their friends!

Nowadays unmounted Rubber stamps are growing in popularity. You may ask yourself why. Well, there are many advantages for choosing unmounted stamps, first the price; they are considerably cheaper than mounted ones. Then, there is the issue of space. Unmounted stamps are space savers since they can easily be stored in lightweight storage panels - occupying almost no space- where you can keep them organized and free of dust. The only drawback is that you need to mount the stamp in order to use it. Mainly you’ve got two mounting systems, the wood mounting system and the acrylic one – the latter one is only temporary but is a real money saver.
Rubber stamps art unmounted

A lot of people have problems when trying to stamp larger images, they end up with blotchy spots where the ink didn’t fully transfer. This can be VERY annoying, especially when you don’t know how to fix it.

Well, you’ll be very happy to hear that there is an easy fix for your problem. All you have to do is gently rub the rubber stamping surface with an ordinary eraser! Yes that’s it.

An ordinary pink eraser (or any type really) is all you need to soften and clean the stamping surface. This will allow the stamp to fully disperse the ink and eliminate those annoying blotchy spots.

You might find that your stamps are particularly old and the rubber has hardened considerably. In this case an eraser might not be enough to soften the rubber. When this happens you might want to try some fine grit sand paper, I suggest 120 grit or finer… a gentle rub is all you need to get those stamps like new again.

Happy stampin!

It’s a simple thing that many of us overlook or simply forget about, but keeping your tools clean can help keep them looking and working like new.

Scissors in particular can suffer when not properly maintained. A quick and effective tip is to clean your scissors with plain old rubbing alcohol. A quick rub down after every use can remove gunk and glue residue, keeping them sharp and cutting like new.

One more tip for keeping your scissors in tip top shape is to take care of the pivot screw. Sometimes water and other substances can get in there and cause them to stick. A good way to prevent this is to regularly oil the pivot screw with sewing machine oil. This helps lubricate and clean the pivot screw, ensuring many years of flawless performance!