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my advice is to not buy it all.... I went on a used SU set spree for awhile back about a year or two ago, where I just bought whatever I could win on eBay.... so much money wasted on stamps that I never use!:mad:
I wish I know my style way back when. I spent so much time and money buying "cute" retired SU sets off ebay, then in the end sold them as they were not my style.
I add another vote for excellent quality card stock. You get a much better image on a better quality cardstock and your finished card just looks sooo much better.
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I have some more. Stay away from those paper packs. I thought we needed those. I thought they were the better buy. I am reorganizing my craft room right now and I have so much darn paper in 12x12. I will never use it. I am getting rid of it. It's so freeing.
I use scraps more. I just gave my Mom some scraps that I outgrew and she asked me what she could ever do with those. I told her scraps make a lot of cards. The next time I saw her she told me I was right. She said she made six cards from one piece of scrap paper I gave her.
Don't buy big packages of anything. You will have it forever and never make a dent. I am getting rid of a lot of those big package things.
I wish I learned to buy clear, white or muted colors because you can alter them to any color you want.
I agree excellent cardstock is a must. I horde Bazzill but use it all the time.
I have some more. Stay away from those paper packs. I thought we needed those. I thought they were the better buy. I am reorganizing my craft room right now and I have so much darn paper in 12x12. I will never use it. I am getting rid of it. It's so freeing.
I did the same thing and had been giving away the paper I didn't like. Now I keep it and use it for templates, test cuts on the BS or Expression, or testing new inks, mists, etc. This way I get some use out of it and I don't have to use good paper for testing.
I don't buy slabs anymore... no matter how pretty that ONE piece is!;)
Oh my! I have to agree with all of this.... but especially to buy quality cardstock (especially white - I cut corners on the white because I use it so often - bad decision - now I have a ton of white card stock to get rid of) and not needing every new tool that comes along. I have the Cricut expression and thought it was going to do everything. I like it but sure don't use it enough for the $$ it cost.
you wished you knew (first) before starting to stamp, card make, scrapbooking pages, etc.... Mine was, Yes it is stupid, how to read a ruler... It took me, I swear, a good three or four times to get the hang of it.
That a Scor-Pal really was worth the investment. Took me 2 years to decide to get one after I first heard about them...and now wish I had bought it 2 years before I did!
And that tools ARE necessary - that a good pair of scissors and a ruler aren't the end-all, be-all, because unless you cut perfectly straight, your cards aren't going to be straight with even folds. I wish I'd bought a good paper cutter and a die cutting machine before I did.
And most importantly - to quit worrying about whether or not your cards are "good enough". Do your best, and enjoy the process, learn from your mistakes, and laugh at your cards that come out all wonky
I wish I had tried out things before investing in them. The funny thing is, I WORKED at a stamping shop and still didn't try things first! No kidding, I went through every single type of paper cutter on the market, and you know what my go to cutter is now? A 12x12 bypass trimmer from OfficeMax. You know the ones we had in gradeschool? The ones the teachers wouldn't let us use because they didn't want us to have stumps instead of fingers? ;)
I couldn't seem to cut straight with rotary trimmers, and the ones with the sliding blade would leave fuzzy edges everywhere, even with new blades. Now I bring this big honkin (plastic) trimmer with me to every crop I go to! I even use it when I'm cutting scraps! (yes, my friends DO laugh at me, but hey, my cuts are straight!)
The other major thing for me was PAPER! I was (and still am) a sucker for those 12x12 paper stacks. I've gone through and purged out a bunch of paper a few times now, and it seems when I'm going through one of those stacks, that there are really only one or two papers in there that I like. Granted, my friends are thrilled with this, but my pocket book is not. Also the *economy packs* of solid color cardstock from Wallyworld... don't bother with them. In 3 years I've only used one sheet out of the big pack I bought, and I hated the card I made with it! It ends up being very expensive scratch paper. :(
I've found that when there's a new shiny paper at the local paper shop, it helps to limit myself to one page each of my three favorite designs in the new collection. This forces me to choose which ones I will actually use, instead of buying two each of every single design. Same idea with stamps; I don't buy a stamp unless I can think of at least 3 different occasions/designs to use the stamp on right off the top of my head. This keeps me from having "that one stamp" that goes with "that one paper" but nothing else.
I also can't tell you how many diferent organization "systems" I've gone through. Again with the "oooh... shiny!" syndrome. If you can limit the stamp and paper purchases to things you really love and will actually use, it's a LOT easier to figure out an organization system when the time comes. Best of luck!!
__________________ ~Rachel~
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