Lavinia Stamps storage idea

Hello there, design Elf Katrina here.

    Some customers, including me, have been having problems with the way the new Lavina stamps are packaged.On some of the stamps the image on the carrier sheet cracks and falls off when you take the stamp off of it. Thats not good as it is then all over your hands and I have got flakes of it on the actual stamp which won't then come off, luckily for me it was on the back of the stamp so won't effect the stamp but it is still a problem. the company has been told about this problem but please though don't let that put you off buying these stamps as they stamp beautifully and I have an idea for a way you can store your stamps cheaply and I think is rather cute too.

     My idea is to carefully peel the stamps off of the carrier sheet and store them in this cute little binder I have made from plastic CD pockets and cereal box card !

For each stamp I stamped it in black on card then laminated it. If you haven't got a laminating machine they are very inexpensive now and I find them invaluable for stamp storage but you could just cover the stamped card in sticky tape or good old clear sticky back plastic! This then makes a storage card for the stamp to stick too

Each card then has its own plastic CD pocket which I have punched holes in to bind then into my book. This also helps with another problem with this type of stamp, they can be rather sticky when new. For the smaller stamps I have stamped a few onto the card.

I then stamped a nice cover using the stamps and put the name of the stamps on too. I used some cereal box card, or any stiff card, to make the front and back covers, adding some ribbon to close the book with and covered the inside with coloured card. I then punched them using one of the CD pockets as a template.

I used some seam binding but you could use ribbon, to thread all the pockets and covers together making sure you leave plenty of extra binding so you can add pockets for new stamps at a later date if you wish.

I added a division, just a spare piece of the card, between the fantasy stamps and the Zen ones.

As you can see I have quite a good collection and it all holds together well. You can of course make this for any unmounted stamps as I have done over the years using all sorts of binding methods, ribbon, book rings, the bind -it-all or just using a ring binder. I have also store all my thin dies this way too but replace the laminated card for magnetic sheets instead. Oh the fun you can have with CD pockets!!!!

 Hope this helps with your storage problems with these stamps, if you have any questions just ask.

Happy crafting

                             Love Katrina

Easter Hare Card

Happy Easter! Design elf Katrina here to show you what I have been up too.

   Now, I am a paint addict and I also love my Gelli plate which for those who haven't yet come across one yet they are basically a big slab of Jelly but permanent jelly ( before these came along that was how you would do this, and still can of course, make up gelatine in to a large slab. The problems with this were many, getting it perfectly level, getting the set right and of course it would go mouldy after a couple of days ) You then add your acrylic paint to this, brayer it out and then you can take about 3 prints per application. The beauty is that it will take on any texture you want to press into it so the possibilities are endless, it is incredibly addictive and if you love all things painty fantastic fun!   You can print onto anything, paper, card, material, tape, and the one thing everyone wants to try is delli paper or dry wax paper. The problem with this is you usually have to buy this in large quantities which makes it quite expensive, unless you have a friendly fruit pixie who sells it in perfect amounts for a design elf's needs ( I did buy 2 packs though!! )

    So I went to work with my Gelli plate and the wonderful dry wax delli paper and layered the finish piece over some book paper. Then because it is Easter thought this wonderful hare stamps would go well along with some of the blue spotty washi tape the the Starry frame die from Crafty Individuals that I have cut into 4 to form the corners.

For this little collage piece I have used one of the wonderful book pages from The Fruit pixie and then stamped the hares on the painted delli paper and cut them out and glued them on. A couple of swipes of distress ink finished it off.

You don't need a Gelli plate to use the wax paper of course, you can just paint it using a paintbrush or brayer and you will get the same sort of effect. It is lovely to layer over other papers and is something new to play with.

Have fun what ever you are doing this Easter

                                                            Love Katrina 

Easter Hours

Mr Pixie is whisking me off to Wiltshire for a few days on the way we are stopping off to meet up with Design Elf Katrina. We've been friends for 10 years and we've never met in person so I'm a very excited pixie.

Orders placed over Easter will be processed on our return Tuesday 22nd April

Happy Easter to you all

Steampunk Card

Hi there, design elf Katrina here to show you a steampunk style card I have made using the Keisercraft Miss Empire papers and the Steampunk Sirens and Vintage Vixens stamps from Creative Expressions.

The collage feel of the papers makes it easy to get a lovely vintage collage feel to your card. The cogs were cut from chocolate bar paper, a great excuse to eat chocolate while you craft, hehe.

Now I don't use the wonderful alcohol pens, because I am allergic to them but these stamp sets are perfect if you like to colour your stamped images, then again they look good left as an outline too.

Happy Crafting

                                   Love Katrina