Glue Gone Bad

Hey fellow scrapbookers- I'm sure when I say "glue gone bad" you know exactly what I mean. We've all been there. Glue that makes pages nasty and wrinkly, doesn't adhere strong enough, discolors, etc. It's a pain plus a disappointment.
Well I decided to make a calendar for my mother for Christmas. I used old photos of my sisters and I and decorated each page for each month. I am most definitely aware that you can do this all digitally now, but I'm a paper and glue scrapper. I knew also, that this was a fairly cheap kit, and that this wouldn't be a calendar to last the ages. My plan ultimately was to let her enjoy it for the year and then I have an album ready to stick the pages in at the end of the year. A sort of seasonal memories scrapbook if you will.

Unfortunately, I was put in a tough spot with adhesives and ended up buying off-brand glue. BAD IDEA! I have always used the Elmer's Craft Glue and been please enough (all liquid glue results in some wrinkling but glue sticks don't). The off-brand stuff I got though was worse than I had ever seen or used before. Check this out

Ugly rippling keeps the pages from laying flat which triples the whole size of the calendar. Oh well, Mom loved it anyway and once in an album it won't be as noticeable. My lesson was learned though, and at the advice of Missy, I purchased a tape gun. Mine is the Scotch Advanced Tape Glider and was definitely a wise investment!

Example of one of the pages- August was the Florida to page to commemorate all our summer trips to Destin. Although, we normally spent August starting school and then went to Florida in September. The calendar felt awkward though having a fall-like page in the middle of very summery pages. So I used artistic license and did Florida in August and school in September.

*PS- sorry for the crummy photos. My good camera's battery was dead so I was left using the old point-and-shoot. :)

Tools of the Trade- Scrapbook Edition

Here are some of my favorite scrapbook tools. I don’t necessarily use them all the time, but they are some of my favorite, fun tools to utilize.

 

1) Cricut Expression machine

It’s a Cricut- need I say more?! Ok, I know some of you all don’t use electronic die cut machines, but I do and I love it. I use Cricut Craft Room with mine. It works similar to the gypsy but it’s free. I think there are some things on the Gypsy you can do that aren’t included on Craft Room but I haven’t felt the need to buy a Gypsy yet. I register all my cartridges with Craft Room so I don’t have to physically install them to cut from them. If you don’t want to register your carts (because you can only register them once), you can use a Jukebox to let you cut from multiple carts at one time. Craft Room is supposed to be hooking up with Gypsy soon so you won’t suffer from registering your carts to one or the other. Your accounts will be linked, so once registered you can cut from that cart with either design tool. I haven’t paid too much attention to this development because I don’t have a Gypsy. Maybe eventually.

 

2) Cuttlebug embosser

You can use your Cuttlebug to die-cut also but I only use mine as an embosser. There are lots of different embossing folders, including ones designed to coordinate with some Cricut cartridges. You can use folders (or dies for that matter) from any of the major machine brands (Sissix, Spellbinders, etc). One thing about my Cuttlebug is that I wish I would have bought the embossing machine to go with my letterpress kit.  I already had the Cuttlebug before the letterpress so that’s just what I use. I don’t want to have two of the same type of machine. The result though is that I have to use multiple layers of paper to get the impressions right.

 

3) L Letterpress Machine

This is the only Letterpress kit of its kind on the market. I don’t use it super frequently because it’s kind of a messy business. But when I need that something special to put my project over the edge, letterpress usually does it. There are several different plates you can use and Lifestyle Crafts is even developing a way to order custom plates. The tool is meant to be used with Lifestyle Epic 6 machine which is what I now wish I had instead of my Cuttlebug. But I make do and still get good results. If this is something you want to get into, you’re in luck- the starter kit is now available at Jo-Anns! When I was buying mine it was sold out for Lifestyle’s website and the few stores that carried it didn’t have it in stock. I ended up getting mine on Amazon. Archivers carries the Letterpress materials also.

 

4) Lifestyle Crafts Quickstick

Remember ticky-tacky? Well this tool has a ticky-tacky tip on one end and then a couple of acrylic tips for the other. This has solved my problems of dealing with tiny embellishments. You pick them up with the tacky end then use the acrylic part to pull it off. You can pick up the small piece, dab your glue on the back, and set it down on your page wherever you desire- all without getting any glue on your fingers or ruffling the embellishment!

 

5) Cutterpede Straight Edge Trimmer

I use this to trim down all my paper pieces, well for everything. I like Cutterpede because it’s just always served me well. They have different decorative blades you can use- like wavy edge or perforated. Their stuff is really affordable which I appreciate since cutting blades do have to be replaced fairly regularly.

 

Other items that deserve honorable mention:

·         Scotch Tape roller- kiss massive amounts of glue goodbye!

·         Embossing heat tool

·         ZIG markers (by EK Success)

Tools of the Trade- Kitchen Addition

These are my kitchen tools that get used just about all the time. I have lots of gizmos and gadgets, but I don’t use every specific tool each time I cook. A lot of times I just make do with my favorite ones.

 

1) KitchenAid Professional Lift-Stand mixer

What’s not to love?! I adore my mixer, especially now that I have the flat-head beater with spatula edges, no more scraping the bowl! I don’t have many attachments, only the ice cream maker now, but I’ve got my eye on the pasta roller or meat grinder next. My only complaint with the lift-stand mixers is that you only have a stainless steel bowl option, the tilt-head versions have a glass bowl you can purchase as an accessory.

 

2) Silicone flex mixing bowl

This was a gift one year for Christmas and I was skeptical. I’ve never been a fan of silicone bakeware but I decided to give this bowl a try. The reason why I love it is because you can flex the sides to pour out of it easily. My stainless steel mixing bowls (with rubber grip bottoms) don’t have a pour spout so pouring out of them can be tricky. I really like using this one for pour batter recipes like pancakes because I can mix and pour out of the same bowl. Plus it’s dishwasher safe!

 

3) Mini spatulas

Mine are from Williams and Sonoma, but you can find these just about anywhere. They are the best for scraping out of small containers. A good rubber spatula (especially the scoop kind) is a must-have kitchen basic, but I find myself using the smaller varieties even more.

 

4) Pampered Chef large round stone with handles

This one had to do battle with my Pampered Chef stone bar-pan to earn this spot. But, the bar pan does actually get put away, the round stone (affectionately called the pizza stone in my household) doesn’t ever leave the stove or counter top. I prefer to bake on stoneware when I can, and we use this stone for everything- baking, reheating, pizzas, big piles of nachos, you name it. One trick I’ve learned with your stones is using them to help bread dough rise. They work because they hold heat so well and stay warm so long. I’ll heat mine in the oven then place the hot stone either near or under my bowl of rising dough and it creates a nice warm environment to get that yeast working.

 

5) Kitchen Shears

I cut my pizza with kitchen shears, aka scissors. It’s weird but true. I also “chop” my green onion by snipping them with my shears. Ditto with chicken. I know how to use a knife, but I’m much savvier with scissors. So anything that is in a strip-like shape and needs to be chopped or diced, I forgo my kitchen knives and use my shears. I also use them for opening various food packages. My favorite pair actually comes apart like salad tongs and is dishwasher safe (easy to clean!)

 

Some other tools that earned honorable mention:

·         My stone bar-pan

·         Garlic press

·         Pampered Chef Mix-n-Chop tool (for ground meats)

·         Glass prep bowls

 

 

I Want 6 Colors!

So I have had a really nice photo printer. It was an HP photosmart all-in-one. It did borderless photo printing, was a six-color system, had the slots for the memory cards, some in-system photo editing, designated photo tray. You know, the works.

Well it died. The printing quality started to go downhill. I did everything I could but it just wasn't as bright as it used to be. Then it stopped feeding the photo paper from the photo tray. No problem, I just printed from the main tray. Then it stopped feeding photo paper from that tray. I can still print on regular paper, but no photos. And most of my printing is photo printing. I'm a scrapbooker!

So I did all the self-cleaning I could with the printer's own functions. Then I did all the trouble-shooting and fixing I could do according to the HP help people. Then I did all the trouble-shooting and fixing I could do according to all the voices and people on the internet. It came down to needing some new parts and to get them and have them installed was going to cost me about $100. Well heck, I figured I might as well cost out some new printers.

So I did. And I was able to get a highly rated, 6-color photo printer with all the same capabilities as my old HP minus one thing. I can no longer fax. Oh darn.

So for $130, I have replaced the HP (it has served me well for 6 years now) with the Epson Artisan 730. Please don't say anything bad about it, because I'm very excited to have it. :)