Tools

I just have to give you a list of a few of my favorite things! 1. Crop-a-dile Big Bite - I used this consistently when I was scrapbooking for a friend and it was fast, simple to use and made lining up those eyelets and brads a breeze! 2. CTMH makes a stamp cleaner that's amazing. I use it to not only clean all my stamps, both acrylic and rubber, but also to clean my acrylic blocks. 3. Microfiber cloth - I bought a dish towel at a discount store that was microfiber, cut it in four pieces, surged the edges, and ended up with four small clothes that are lint free for cleaning stamps. 4. Paint Pad Stamp Scrubber - Back when I was just starting to stamp, I was looking for a large surface to clean stamps on, so, I put together two small paint pads from the hardware store (with the edge loops cut off) and attached them with double-sided tape to a flat plastic lid from a dollar store container. Voila! Stamp scrubbers! I have two, one for wet and one for dry and although I've tried two manufactured double scrubbers, I always fall back on my paint pad scrubbers! They have a large surface and no lip to catch the stamps on. 5. Simple Green - I've got to admit, about the only place I use Simple Green cleaner is in my stamp room! I use it one part SG to one part water for cleaning the SU craft and permanent ink off stamps (like SU's Basic Black and for my embossing pad), and it's an affordable substitute for the expensive stamp cleaners. 6. Cricut Expression - My dear husband bought me a Cricut Expression for my birthday in March and I've thoroughly enjoyed the five cartridges I got with it for both stamping and scrapbooking. 7. Catalogs - I've always had my CTMH and SU catalogs wire bound mostly so they lay flat on my table (plus you can wrap the unused pages to the back, so only the page you need is showing). In January, I had the front and back covers heat laminated at a office supply store and I love that even more than just having plastic covers separate from the actual covers. Try it - it's worth every penny! The laminated covers really keep the covers from getting bent and torn. 8. My guillotine paper cutter - I'm not sure how I ever crafted before I had one! My cutter is not an expensive one - it's about $50 from an office supply store, 12" x 12".