I went down a rabbit hole the other day - reading an article my friend Dana posted about not raising narcissistic kids, and it contained a Louis C.K. video that had SUCH a great piece of advice in it.
He was trying to tell an angry little daughter who didn't get something that another girl did get that she shouldn't be worried about what the other girl got, and he said this:
“The only time you look in your neighbor's bowl is to make sure that they have enough. You don't look in your neighbor's bowl to see if you have as much as them.”
I love that so, so much.
Lots of the world's problems could be solved with these two sentences I think. I couldn't think of one that couldn't.
Anyway, I just had to pass that along.
I've gotten some questions about my remodel post which you can see here. I have updated the post with a few links to my card display, etc. that I left off the original list, so check that out.
I also got a question about the dental floss - I use dental floss to remove elements of my card that are adhered down crooked - it's so thin and flat, and you just slide it between the layers and poof - it comes off like a dream!
And one person asked about my stamp cleaning tools. I use the Stampin' Scrub for my wood stamps and when I'm using either cling or clear stamps with blocks.
However, for background stamps and stamps on my MISTI I use a shockingly simple and inexpensive stamp cleaning tool that I found accidentally when I was refinishing my stamp table. I was using a non-toxic, no odor whey-based polyurethane from Vermont Naturals - and since it was high gloss, a brush wouldn't work because it would show strokes, so I had to use a furry pad to apply it. I bought a few different kinds to try and had a lightbulb moment.
This is my new stamp cleaner for background stamps and stamps on my MISTI:
I love it! I spray Stampin' Mist on one side and use the other side to dry. So easy to rinse out and it dries really fast by design. They have smaller ones too.
Finally, I converted my clear stamp storage to the pocket system shown by Jennifer McGuire. To give you an idea of how much space this saves, check these out.
Here are the cases I emptied and how they ended up.
And here, you can see a bin containing 49 stamp sets takes up the same space as 15 sets in their boxes.
Jennifer likes the Avery Elle ones, which have a flap. But I know myself, and I know that the flap would drive me crazy, so I went on the hunt and I found some very inexpensive ones without a flap that are awesome! They are made by Ultra Pro and hold 5" x 7" items.
I took cheap Mart of Wal cardstock, cut it to 5x7 and slipped that in. Then in went the stamp set, and on top of that, the stamp case insert, cut to 5" wide as you can see above - this basically cuts the spine off.
Then I just purchased the fridge bins that she recommends and they are awesome too.
Now that I have these I can see why she likes them - that little pull handle on the front is really nice.
SHAZAM is this ever going to clear some shelf space. And you know what THAT means! MORE SHOPPING :).
I'm contemplating doing my cling this way too, but I don't want the cling foam to get squished, so I'll have to think about that one a bit more. I love it.
I was playing around with Indescribable Gift this week, and went in an uncharacteristically pastel direction with Chameleon Pens. I ended up really liking the "dawn" colors in this and I thought that was perfect for an Easter card.
Impossible to see in this photo, but there's Tim Holtz Frosted film all over the colored image, so the whole thing is sparkly.
My friends at Splitcoast actually have a review of Chameleon Pens in the newsletter today - you can see that here.
AND - I snuck in for a guest tutorial today as well on my Gilded Relief card. Here's that video, which has been blogged previously, and here's a link to the step-by-step tutorial.
Thanks for stopping by!
Loveyameanitbye.