Oldies But Goodies - Tools of the Past

With CHA right around the corner – I know there are going to be heart stopping products that will become must haves.  We will replace yesterday’s must haves with these latest and greatest products.  It is a vicious cycle.  We have a lot of money invested in these tools, and they are still very useful.  I found myself resurrecting a few of them this week, and thought I would share with you how I showed them some love.

1.     Eyelet setting hammer  -  Remember having to BANG BANG BANG your eyelets into your projects.  Then the Crop-a-dile, from We Are Memory Keepers, was released and the hammer was tossed to the side.  Recently, I pulled the little hammer out of hiding and used it to distress a wooden cigar box. 

2.    The Grommet Setter from Making Memories had my toes tingling.  I HAD TO HAVE IT! It was like the coolest thing with the ginormous flower grommets.  I recently pulled it out to set an Eyelet too big for my crop-a-dile.  Also - Now that I'm thinking about it, I may just use it again this week to add a few of those flowers to a canvas. SO FUN.

3.     Dekled Edge Scissors  - GASP – you say.  Well, if used properly, these scissors can be a lot of fun.  I wanted a really tattered edge on an envelope  and decided to use these scissors.  I’ve also used them to cut fun shapes for mixed media projects.

4.     The old old Sizzix Dies remember the ones with crazy frames – no one ever shows them love anymore.  However,  I’ve been going through my stash of dies lately and found some great oldies to include in my mixed media projects and journals.   Example:  This frame was so popular,  but I haven't used it since 2007.  I recently cut some packaging with it, then dry embossed it and used alchol inks to give it new life.

5.     Remember this guy? I never could get this to cut properly. I have hurrled that little tool into the air so many times out of frustration.  I recently used the cutting plates as a stencil to spray interesting patterns on a project in my art journal.    Take your distress applicator tool and use the sides of the stencils to make beautiful borders on your journal pages.

Do you have tools that you have put away and forgotten about?    I challenge you to pull them out and find a new use for them.

Next week I want to explore products of the past that are making their way into my current proejcts.

Thanks for stopping in today,

Suzanne's Go To Tools & Products!

We all have certain products, tricks and techniques that we turn to time and time again -- the tried and true (for us) things that make scrapping easier and more fun!  Here are a few of mine --

Tim Holtz Distress Ink    I have always loved using ink on my pages, especially to define and/or distress the edges of paper.  But I was always intimidated by Tim Holtz Distress Inks, I never seemed to be able to get the hang of them.  And though they can be used for the direct to paper inking I favored, the effect was never what I was looking for.  Well thanks to a friend whose inked pages I had always admired and to acquiring a Tim Holtz Ink Applicator Tool, not to mention Flamingo Scraps adding them to our inventory -- these fabulous inks are probably my favorite staple product!!!  The lucious colors can be blended and layered to distess and define papers and they are FABULOUS for altering and coordinating paper, lace, ribbon, flowers -- well, I'd probably use them on the dog if she would stay still long enough!!  Getting a Distress Ink Blending Tool really added to my obsession -- I know people swear by cosmetic sponges and eyeshadow applicators, and to each his own, but I love the control I get from the Blending Tool.  I wash my foam pads with soap and warm water, and though they are stained with the previous colors, they clean up nicely for use with another color!

Tim Holtz Distress Inks and Applicator

3-D Pop Dots and Mounting Tape    I am a self-professed lumpy scrapper, I love to layer and add dimension and depth to my pages with paper, trims, and embellies.  I also love to raise elements like flowers and pictures above the base page.  I am therefore a pop dot addict.  I also find pop dots and tape useful for layering over other dimensional elements like ribbons, trims and laces.  Frankly, this prediliction can get expensive, especially since I favor stacking mounting tape for depth.  Recently, however, my friend (and scrapper extraordinaire) Kathleen shared a genius tip with me.  She uses scrap chipboard layered with adhesive to achieve the same raised effect.  Thanks Kathleen!!!

Sizzix Big Shot and Dies   Susan and I tend to go in together on the bigger toys and one of our first investments was an original sizzix machine.  We still have it, though these days it is mostly relegated to smashing bottle caps.  Later, we moved up to a Sizzix Big Shot and, though we have a Klic N Kut machine, that Big Shot is one of the most used tools in our Flamingo Scraps arsenal.  We have found that we can use it with dies from other manufacturers and it is still the quickest and easiest way to cut that perfect tag.  Long experimentation has led us to use die shapes for much more than their original purposes -- one of my favorites is making flowers for layouts and cards from coordinating paper (only when I can't find the perfect Prima!),  layering the shapes and giving them depth with pop dots and highlighting or altering them with  distress inks (do you see a pattern emerging here?)

The Sizzix Center at Flamingo Scraps

Basic Grey Magnetic Mat  I just love this genius tool!!!  Before I got it, I was really bad about gluing things down and then being really sorry.  With the mat and those amazingly strong little magnets, I can now lay out a layout,  play around with the pieces, even stand it upright to mull over the design without making so many mistakes, uh, I mean, creating too many embellishment opportunities!  And the magnets are great to play with when my mojo is on the fritz!!

Basic Grey Magnetic Layout Mat

Silicone Mat  I don't know how I got along before I had silicone mats!  They are FABULOUS for inking, painting, and gluing.  And they clean right off!!!  Even the toughest adhesive comes off with a little elbow grease and nail polish remover!!

What are your favorite tools and products?