work space :: special guest

Today's topic is all about your "Work Space," and the guest blogger today couldn't be any more perfect. Lowri from Paper Vine creates some of the most AMAZING paper crafts. I seriously could browse her blog for hours... it's filled with beautiful paper craft ideas. I first discovered her blog when I found this adorable deck of cards craft idea... I mean, really... so cute. Today Lowri is going to share some of her must-have products for her work space... the items that never leave her desk... and now, after reading this, they will probably never leave my desk either. You must go visit her blog and say hello... you will not be disappointed. Enjoy...

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Hi Everyone. Lowri McNabb here and I am excited to be guest blogging today for Black Tag Diaries. I am all about paper crafting and today I am sharing 3 "tips and tricks" I use on pretty much every project... the 3 must have items for my work space...

1) Glue be Gone

Many of the projects I create start by basically sticking paper to either a wood or chipboard base. Some are simple...

and some are a little more complicated...

but each time I prefer to use a solvent based glue such as U-HU or Helmar 450. I find it doesn't wet and warp the paper and one of the main reasons I like to use it is that any mishaps can easily be cleaned up.

I love this one from ThermoWeb - $2.10

This is how I use it to clean up my little spills...

STEP 1

You have made a mess by putting too much glue onto your paper/project.

STEP 2

You gently rub the adhesive eraser over the glue until it balls up onto the eraser and disappears.

STEP 3

Once the project dries (it is still wet in this pic) you will not be able to tell there was spilt glue on either the paper or wood part of the project!

The reason corners are missing from mine is that I have cut them off to make mini erasers for getting into the tiny nooks and crannies of my projects!

2) Sticky be Gone

People who do a lot of stamping on their paper projects often use an "anti-static bag" to eliminate static before embossing their projects. I am not very good at stamping, BUT I have one of these bags of chalky stuff as it is great for making things that are sticky such as adhesive backed chipboard - non sticky! You can find the bags here.

Here I have used a chipboard letter as a decoration for a card-set.

Why would you do this? Maybe to turn a piece of sticky chipboard into a decoration, or more often than not - to remove the sticky back from something to allow you to place it on your project in various places without having to commit!

Simply select your sticky piece, peel off the adhesive backing and liberally dad the challky stuff all over it! Easy. Bear in mind you could basically use this technique on ANYTHING sticky to make it non-sticky!

3) Sandpaper

I ALWAYS have some small pieces of fine grit sandpaper lying around on my desk. I use them to give a clean finish on pretty much all my projects. It makes edges look clean and neat... and evens out any little errors you made in your cutting too! You can see it to good effect on this project here -

You can see the difference between a before and after piece here. It's subtle, but makes a big difference to the finished project.

A little sandpaper covers a multitude of sins when papercrafting - it also makes for a fab emergency nail file... not to mention it can be used to scuff up pretty much anything to make it look less new. Try rubbing it over black and white photo prints for a great look...

I hope you have enjoyed these tips and please take a look at my blog for some other papercrafting ideas. I also have the odd cooking and kid's craft ideas too!

Thanks again to Julia for allowing me to post today - it has been a pleasure:)

Lowri