How to Store your Clear Mount stamps

Do you have your clear mount stamps “swimming” in their DVD box?

Are they all in a mess?

Do you know if you’ve lost one – especially when it’s a set with many stamps?

Have a look at this one – does this remind you of one of your clear mount boxes? You probably can’t see so well from this picture, but some of the stamps are sticking to the DVD case, but others are not (hence “swimming”) and when I’m taking them out to use or take along with me – they just all fall out. Not great when I’m using 3 or 4 stamp sets at the same time (can’t decide which one to use!)

Finally fed up with losing stamps and putting them in the wrong DVD case AND having them shake around (damaging each other) I had some brilliant idea – why not keep the SUPPORT BACKING with them!

So it looks like this:

Just mount the support background as you would any clear mount stamp and stick it onto the DVD cover. Voila! I no longer have swimming stamps and especially for this stamp set where the pieces are so small and there are many of them, I now know when I’m missing one.

Here’s the back view – perfect!

So when I take stamps out, I know exactly how many are missing. And once I’ve used the stamp I just lightly push it back into the placeholder.

Hope you like my little tip! It’s made such a difference to my stamp sets – I just wished I had this idea when I first bought my clear mount stamp sets… unfortunately there will always be those stamp sets I bought and mounted before my brilliant idea – shake-a-shake-shake!

Scallop Edge on any Circle

Hope you enjoyed the blog hop yesterday. If you didn’t have a chance to go on the hop yesterday, start from my post yesterday and then you’ll be able to view all the other blogs.

Here are the pictures on how to make the scallop edge for any circle (that I used for my blog hop Clear Vintage Vogue card).

Cut a 1 1/8″ circle, then the scallop circle from the same circle (turn the punch upside down so you can position the punch for the scallop circle). Make little slits in the inside of the scallop circle, being very careful not to cut through the scallop. Depending on the size of your circle mat, you may need more scallop circles prepared.

Position and stick the scallops around the back of your circle card stock (cut out by your circle scissors). I used a pencil and the circle scissors to draw a smaller circle to guide me so that I knew that the scallops on the other side would be the same size.

Here’s the finished circle. You can see the join on the bottom right.

Here’s the finished embellishment. On the card, I hid the overlapped join with a flower cutout from the same stamp set.

Now it’s your turn to make a scallop edge with any size circle.

Inky smiles,
Lyanna

Tie a Perfect Kiwi Kiss Satin Ribbon Knot

Still loving the Kiwi Kiss Satin ribbon? So what about tying a double knot on a card and having the ends perfect, showing a little of the very vanilla? Well, here’s the tutorial for you to create the perfect knot.

You may have heard the ‘right over left, then left over right’ method. This is the same method with the help of  pictures!

Here’s a photo of the final knot on a card.

I’ve started off with a 30cm length of Kiwi Kiss/Very Vanilla Satin ribbon. You may want to start with probably a 35cm length until you are used to tying the knots.

It’s easier to tie a knot with one piece of ribbon, than two. Hence grab the two the ends (creating a circle), and have the right end go on top of the left end.  

With the same right end (now on the left), fold it down, over the other end.

Continue to wrap it around the original left end. That’s the first knot completed. (The first knot is ‘right over left’)

Now, grabbing the back end (the original left end) wrap it around the front end from the left side (this should feel a little awkward).

Continue to wrap that piece around the front end and slip it into the loop at the back created to complete the second knot. (The second knot is ‘left over right’)

Using all fingers, pulling from all four parts of the ribbon (the ends as well as the large circle), until you have a well balanced double knot. Here I trim the ends and lightly singe them with a lighter.

To know where to cut the ribbon, position it onto the card exactly where you would like the knot to be.

Stretch the circle out to the end and cut the ribbon approx 1cm away from the edge of the card. This will leave enough of the edge to wrap it around your mat, or DSP for a more finished look.

Add snail to the back of the ribbon, lightly stretch it across your cardstock and fold back the edges. Voila – your perfect knot.

Tie a Perfect Kiwi Kiss Satin Ribbon Stand Alone Bow

I love the new Kiwi Kiss/Very Vanilla Satin Ribbon. At first it may feel a little daunting on how to tie a ribbon so that it’s even and looks stunning. So here’s a tutorial that will help you tie the perfect bow using the new different sided ribbon for your cards. So here is the final perfect bow.

I started off with a 20cm piece of ribbon. It will probably be best to start off with a 25cm or 30cm piece until you’re familiar with the bow tying.

I’m right handed so I start off by creating the basic loop in my right hand. The forward piece of the end is about 3 cm and the back piece is where I will be using it to wrap it around the first loop to create the knot and the other loop.

Picking up the back end using the left hand, twist the ribbon slightly so you can see the Very Vanilla and wrap it in front of the tip of your right thumb.

Keep wrapping around the tip of your right thumb so that it has done one full wrap around the loop and back in the same position.

Using your left hand, (I use my second finger), push through the ribbon creating the knot and final loop.

Here is the bow whilst it is still loose, move the ends and loops to position the knot in the middle where you would like and tighten by pulling  the loops as well as pulling the ends to keep it neat and perfect.

Trim the ends and lightly singe them with a lighter…And voila! Your perfect bow.