This section will include some general stamping tips and tricks, plus introduce some fun stamping tools and accessories.

TOY STORY

No stamper is truly fulfilled until they have accumulated a hefty set of "toys" with which they can embellish their inky masterpieces! Here are some of the toys that I consider to be some of the staples of stampdom:

DECORATIVE SHEARS

These are just scissors with decorative cutting edges. I don't know what I'd do without a pair of deckle scissors. These do wonders for breaking up those straight lines when layering papers. There are also beautiful victorian edge shears that give a much more elegant look to your work. And for anything feminine or babyish, a pair of scallop edged shears are fun to work with. There are a couple of things to think about when using shears. First is the design...if you have a repeating design such as a victorian or scallop edge, you will have to realign your scissor blade with each cut to make the design appear continuous. With a deckle edge, there is not really a noticeable repeating pattern, so that you can just cut away and the result will not be noticeably awkward. The next item to worry about with shears is how well they snip! Sometimes decorative shears seem to get caught on their own blades and do not open and close smoothly. To remedy this, try snipping through some waxed paper to lubricate the blades. These run $5-$7 a pair.

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SPONGES

Can be used to dab into an ink pad, then onto a card to get a light diffusion of color. You can also write on a sponge with a marker and then dab that color onto your card. Some folks use cosmetic sponges, but my favorite is a round sponge because there are no sides which can end up leaving ugly line marks, and also because the round sponges I use can be rinsed and reused for different colors. Sponges are great to dab color around a deckled edge to highlight it, to make billowy clouds when dabbed around a cloud stencil, to add a glowing look to candles, sun or christmas lights! You can dab with a sponge for that soft look, or you can hold down your sponge and pull away from an object for the look of light beams. With sponges there is really only one big thing to remember: you can always ADD more color, but you can't take it away. Therefore, it is beneficial after you have applied the color to your sponge that you dab it once or twice on scratch paper to take a bit of the darkness off. The sponges I use are just over $1 apiece!

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CORNER ROUNDER

This darling device does just what it sounds like--it rounds the corners of your paper! This again is a very nice way to break up the sharp lines of layering on your stamped art. This is also a staple of scrapbookers, for rounding the corners of photos in their albums. There's really no trick to these...you just put the corner of your paper into the space at the front of it and squeeze down to cut off the sharp corner and leave a rounded edge! A corner rounder will set you back about $7-$8.

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GLUE PEN

A glue pen is like a marker with glue in it instead of ink. The most popular glue pen is one with "two-way" properties. This means there are two bonds you can get from the glue. First, if you adhere the surfaces while the glue is wet, the bond will be permanent. If you wait until the glue is dry and attach it to a surface, it is a temporary bond similar to a post-it note. Glue pens are useful for layering papers on cards, or for providing an adhesive surface for embellishments such as the ones listed below. The glue pen I use marks in a very light blue, but dries clear. Glue pens cost $2-$3.

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GLITTER

Another self-explanatory toy! However, most of the glitter you will find for use in stamping is very fine. The glue pen is ideal for adhering this glitter right where you want it. Place a piece of scratch paper under your card, "write" with your glue pen over the places you want to cover with glitter, pour glitter over the glue marks and dump the excess onto your scratch piece of paper. Turn the card over and flick the back to get rid of any glitter not glued on firmly. Then you can hold the scratch piece of paper by each side and funnel the unused glitter back into the container. To 'seal' the glitter onto the card, I usually turn it face down onto a clean sheet of paper and rub over the areas where I have glittered. This presses the glitter into the glue. A staple glitter is one that is translucent with iridescent reflective bits, allowing your stamped image to still be seen through it. Glitter looks great on party cards as highlights on balloons, used as a glow on candle flames, used on pine trees or buildings or the ground as snow, etc. A small container of this very fine glitter goes a long way. It will set you back about $2-$3.

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FLOCKING

Flocking always reminds me of those fuzzy velvet Elvis pictures! It is little bits of fiber that you can adhere to your card with a glue pen. Flocking looks really cute on yellow duckies, brown teddies, pink bunnies--and it comes in colors suited exactly for those uses. The application of flocking is just as instructed with the glitter above. One tip on flocking is that it is opaque. Anything you cover with flocking will no longer be seen, so try not to cover your stamping lines or details with the glue if you want them to show. Flocking is about $2-$3 a jar.

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LIQUID APPLIQUE

This is just puffy paint that can be used on fabric or paper. It comes in a little tube with a tip you cut off, then you squeeze some out where you want it and heat it to puff it up! (I recommend the heat of a heat gun.) The package says to let it dry for about 6 hours before puffing it up, but you don't really have to on cards. If you heat it up right away, you may get a sort of unevenly puffed look but it will puff up quite a bit. When it is left to dry, the puffing looks a little more even perhaps, but you can't get quite the height. For fabric I would let it dry the entire 6 hours or overnight, just so it has a chance to set into the fabric first. Right when you have finished heating your liquid applique, you can dump glitter on it and the glitter will stick with no adhesive necessary! This is a great look for snowy winter cards. Again, as with the flocking, the liquid applique is opaque--what you cover will not be seen. Additionally, appliqued cards do not travel well in an envelope...all the puff gets squashed. Save your appliqued cards for hand delivery or put them in the box of a gift with a little space, or use the applique on cards or tags that will remain outside the package. Liquid applique comes in many colors and each tube will cost you $2-$3.

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CORRUGATOR

A corrugator is nothing more than a paint tube squeezer. Stampers run card stock through these to give the card stock a 'wavy' look, and use the card stock to layer with. It is an easy way to add depth to your card. The trick to the most common corrugator is to hold the handles closed tightly in the middle so that you get even pressure. If the card stock doesn't turn out the way you wanted, just run it back through and try again! This basic corrugator will only allow for a piece of card stock about 3" wide, however. You can fold larger pieces of paper to go through, but you will have heavy crease marks. A basic corrugator costs about $10, but I have personally never heard of one breaking so it is pretty much a one-time buy. Larger corrugators are available on the market, which will allow for wider bits of paper or card stock, and these will cost you a little bit more.

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MOUNTING TAPE

Mounting tape is foam with double sided adhesive. You can use mounting tape to display an image higher than the rest on a card for emphasis. All you need to do is stamp that image on another piece of card stock, color as desired, then closely trim it out. Place mounting tape on the underside of it and adhere it where you want on the card. For placement purposes, some stampers find it easiest to first stamp the same image on the card itself. Then when they are ready for the 3-D look, they place the trimmed out image right over the one already on the card. You can do layers on top of layers of mounting and have a card that ends up three 'stories' high! Mounting tape is not a specialty item and can be found with other types of tape in your local discount store. You can purchase it in rolls, or in packages of square or circle pieces.

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CHALKS

Chalks are a dry medium you can use to color in your stamped image. Not a lot of explanation is needed here--they look like chalk! Chalking gives a pastel, soft look to a stamped image. Chalks can be applied dry with an eye makeup applicator, or q-tip, and are eraseable. You can also apply chalks with a Blender Pen (see next paragraph), to achieve a watercolor look. If you use your chalks like this, pick one corner of the chalk to "ink up" your Blender Pen every time. This way, the moistness of the Blender Pen will only compress the chalk in that one small area. Chalks are very brittle, and can crack and break apart easily, though this does not impair their use at all. I *love* my chalks, because I have an entire palette of colors that match the ink and paper product I use! This palette of just over 50 colors cost just less than $25.

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BLENDER PENS

Blender Pens are simply markers without any ink! You can dab Blender Pens into a variety of mediums, then apply them to your stamped crafts. To find out more about these little gems, check out my watercoloring page. A set of 3 Blender Pens can be had for about $10.

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