10 Scrapbooking Tips and tricks

I don’t claim to be an expert by any means, so take this list with a grain of salt. These are just some tips I’ve discovered along the way that can be a great help.

1. Alcohol free baby wipes are perfect for cleaning rubber and acrylic stamps
2. Not sure if a stamp is the perfect design for a certain spot? Stamp it first with a solvent ink like StazOn on a piece of plastic and lay over your project in progress to check. Clear inserts or packaging that come with products are handy for this.
3. Glossy Accents by Ranger is also a great adhesive for lumpy stuff and clear elements
4.Older stickers and diecuts that you probably won’t use again make great masks. To use the diecuts lightly apply a re-positionable adhesive to the back. Then ink, paint or spray over them
5. Place embellishments in odd numbers like three and five for more visual impact
6. No more e’s in your letter sticker pack? Try an upside down 3! I’ve done this tons of times. In fact I have also changed a lower case g into a y and an h, and an ampersand (&) into an S. It all depends on the font, so take a closer look to see what you can improvise!
7. Try using themed products on unrelated projects. I’ve used stickers from a wedding sheet on a layout about pizza and another about dinner guests. This way you get more bang for your buck!
8. Punch holes in raw chipboard to make it a more decorative element. The Crop-a-Dile cuts through chipboard like butter!
9.Grab five to seven left out items from your desk and challenge yourself to use them on a quick page. You’ll be amazed at what you come up with
10. When all fails, use Thickers!

Note: This article was originally posted on my Callaloo Soup Blog.

Lacing is a great fine motor activity, and most kids go through a phase where they enjoy working with lacing cards. It helps promote focus and is a great quiet activity for kids to do in the car or to fill time in the classroom. And of course knowing how to lace is the beginning of knowing how to sew, which is great for all kids to learn (more on teaching kids to sew here).

There are lots of ways to make your own lacing cards. This one is just a pin but it’s easy to make lacing cards with any shape a child is into using cardboard and a nail to poke the holes. This could be fun for letter and number recognition or spelling the child’s name. Or try this version from Hey Azka, which uses a hole punch to make bigger holes so you can lace with shoe laces.

You can also just do lacing cards with paper, but it’s a great idea to print them on card stock and/or laminate them to make them sturdier for little hands. Homeschool Share has a set of alphabet lacing cards, which are free with email signup. Deceptively Educational has a set of number lacing cards with numbers 0 to 10.

Picklebums has some basic shape lacing cards, too.

Living Life and Learning has a bunch of cute printable lacing cards, including back to school designs, shoes kids can lace and learn to tie and ocean themed lacing cards. She also has tips for making your own lacing cards.

A Rose Tinted World made their lacing cards with craft foam, which makes them a little more durable than paper and you can cut it more easily than cardboard. They used a die cutting machine but you can also cut shapes by hand.

I also love the cat and mouse cards from Seam Whisperer. They also have some spring themed designs. So cute!

If you want to make lacing cards that are more open ended, check out this tutorial form Pretty Life Girls to make lacing cards that are more like geo boards. Theirs are made with wood but you can also do this with cardboard, craft foam or card stock.

Have you read?