Crafts For Less

When I first started out as a rubber stamper and realised I wanted to be a card maker, I was living in a small town where I knew no other paper crafters. There did not seem to be many stores that sold stamps and I had not seen the techniques demonstrated.

Then I met a wonderful woman online who was an advanced card maker. She lived over the Pacific Ocean from me, but she understood what I was going through. It was via her friendly emails and gorgeous pictures of her cards that my interest in stamping was finally allowed to grow. I wanted to try making some cards so much!

My friend sent me my first stamps, designer paper samples, ribbon and bling. I then found some ink pads and started to play. I had no idea how large and wonderous the world of rubber stamping was at the time, so I just did what I knew I could do. It pleased me a lot to be playing at last.

When a few nice stamping companies started selling stamps and supplies in Australia, I began to see how much was possible. That’s when my collection of tools and supplies started to grow.

So what did I buy? I’ll show you my list, but remember yours may very well be quite different to mine. I just went in the direction my interests and awareness took me. This is such a fun hobby there is no right and wrong way to do it – for me there is only play and experimentation!

Some of the things I make I love. And some I don’t. It’s all learning. Let yourself enjoy your own journey of exploration.

Here’s what I soon collected once I started rubber stamping:

Apart from buying the stamps I loved at the time I soon bought some cardstock that was colour coordinated (from Stampin’ Up!) and also their colour wheel. I had trouble putting nice and adventurous colours together at the start and the colour wheel helped me a lot Some good quality white cardstock to make my focal image for my cards I also bought good scissors – a rubber cutting pair and a small sharp pair for the tricky bits of paper trimming I bought a large self-healing cutting mat a stamp cleaning pad and stamp cleaning mist (the cleaning mist conditions the rubber in the stamps) an adhesive snail as much ink in as many colours as I could afford some watercolour pencils and crayons metallic gel pens, a good black journaling pen and a white gel pen a permanent black ink pad so I could colour over the lines of my stamps without smudging them a Versamark ink pad for embossing some embossing powder some double sided tape a good metal ruler a bone folder a mat pack and tool for paper piercing

I have to say I still use all of these tools years later.

As I got interested in other techniques (or out of necessity) I bought more tools. For example I used a toaster to emboss things at the first. (I do not recommend using a toaster for embossing, by the way. Read on to see why not!) When I was embossing so much I nearly set the house on fire one day, I decided to buy a heat gun (hence the necessity! Hubby finally agreed I needed a heat gun when my paper caught fire!)

Embellishments just grow like topsy when you start buying them. I started out with:

some split pin brads some paper flowers some ribbon and some tiny buttons

Then I decided to start my paper punch tool collection because I started learning how to use punched shapes.

Next I move on to wanting to set eyelets and that’s when I bought a noisy eyelet setting system. When I couldn’t resist setting eyelets at night after hubby (a shift worker) had gone to bed, he agreed I needed a Crop-a-dile – it’s silent and oh so efficient!

I think you can now see the pattern my craft supply buying has taken over the years?

My advice is this: go ahead and trust your own creative leanings when you are building up your rubber stamping and paper crafting supplies and tools. Find a nice open and airy place with good lighting to craft in and think about how you are going to store your supplies as they expand. I made do with an ordinary desk that had an overhead bookshelf attached to its back. It was placed near an open window and I added a desk lamp for times when the sky was overcast or I was crafting at night (which is often).

Only buy tools and supplies as your interest in them grows. If you would like more information about tools and techniques, you can find out more at my Paper Craft Tools page.

Stamping and paper crafting is a fun hobby with lots of creative corners you can explore. Take your time and enjoy it!

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