Tips on to Make Cards with Confidence

How many of you are new to stamping and find yourself afraid of stamping, cutting and glueing? You are not alone! I have had these fears as well. I think it is normal to be afraid of "messing up". I've come up with these helpful hints from my Tuesday's Tip at Ten to help you create with confidence!

Stamping

The key to stamping great is like anything else, by practing. Always have a scrap paper (practice) paper around and stamp there first before putting ink to your project. This helps to see if the image will come off clean, the alignment and helps you to know what kind of pressure is best for that stamp. Each stamp, stamps differently and you get to know it better just by practing. I always have "practice paper" out for my classes. I want my stamping friends to feel confident when they stamp and happy with their results. I do this today still and  "practice" before I put ink to my projects.

Cutting

Cutting paper use to scare me so much. But I really love all the pretty paper (designer series paper) and now have stacks of paper unused. I should not be hiding away my pretty paper but should be using it to create and send beautiful cards. Cutting paper, still makes me nervous but I use my DSP a lot more now then ever before. I just have to tell myself, I can always get more (#loveitchopit)! I've learn this through other Demos who cut without fear. I do check my measurements twice always, just to be on the save side! 😉

Glueing

Lastly, glueing seems so final, I know. Here are some tips to help you with that. Don't glue! Wait, what? Well at least not until you have played with the layout. Have all your layers and pieces ready and play around with them. You can even take a picture of one way you have it and take a picture of another way so you can compare. Then glue down confidently, knowing that that is where you like it best! This has been huge for me and taken the fear away.

 So don't be afraid, practice, measure twice, and play with your pieces before glue down.

Happy Stampin' Everyone!