5 Must Haves: for a Kinda Crafty Gal

Meet Stacy. One heck of a crafty gal. She likes to say she's just {kinda} crafty, but then what does that make this average chick? Eek! I've known this gal since college and beyond being super sweetheart, I'm in awe of her impressive designs. We've kept in touch mostly through Facebook where I get the pleasure of stalking her latest creations for herself and her crazy adorable little girls via her new photo albums. And, after discovering her blog, She's {kinda} Crafty, I just had to have her here. I wanted her to share her must-haves with everyone (ok, really me!) because for, wow, about a decade, she's been creating the most impressive works and I can hang around her blog for hours, trying to soak in all her awesomeness.  I'm so honored she said yes to joining me here on TAGG! Her ideas are perfect all year round but especially holiday seaosn. For gift giving, making something is infinitely more thoughtful than buying it from the store. So here goes...

In Stacy's words, here are her five must haves... for a {kinda} crafty gal.
It doesn’t take much to be crafty, let alone {kinda} crafty, but there are essentials that every Average Girl needs to have in her arsenal to not just get through the holiday season but to add a little touch of crafty to the everyday.

Cardstock

Made using a free "printable"
and white cardstock!

 There are so many amazingly talented ladies online that offer an endless amount of free “printables." A printable can be anything: fun signs and tags, thank you cards, cupcake toppers, invitations, etc. However, you can’t just print them out on regular light weight printer paper. To take full advantage of you need a package of white, heavy weight, cardstock. Of course, having a pad or package of colored cardstock won’t hurt either, but white is a must. You can pick up a package at your local office supply store, just make sure the weight is 100 lb or more. My favorite paper supplier is Paper Source; their papers are great quality and the colors are always fresh and now! And, my favorite place to find free printables online is Living Locutro. You will look like the craftiness person your friends and family have ever met if you print out a couple of these goodies!
TAGG tip: check out the bag toppers Stacy made to spice up Halloween this year! If kids weren't at your house, they were certainly at hers!

Paper Trimmer or Scissors

Once you’ve printed out all the gorgeous free printables on nice heavy cardstock you’ll need to cut them out! Every girl needs a good pair of scissors that are exclusively for arts and crafts; keep them away from the kitchen! My favorite for detailed cutting are by EK Success, called Honey Bee Non-Stick Scissors. Buy them on Amazon, at Target, or my favorite - at Michael's using a 40% off coupon! Now if you are thinking of getting a little more crafty and think you’ll be cutting a lot of straight lines I highly suggest a guillotine style paper trimmer. There isn’t a week that goes by that I don’t take out my Tonic Studios Paper Trimmer ($18). I did my entire wedding using cardstock, my printer, and this paper trimmer.

TAGG tip: the "guillotine-style paper trimmer is one of those ahh, wish I had one of those! As Stacy mentions, she takes it out all the time, but I would, too, and I'm not even as crafty as she is! It's so annoying try to get a straight line sometimes. This makes it simple... and quick!

2” Circle Punch

I don’t know about you, but I am smitten with cupcakes! And no cupcake is complete with a cupcake topper. Kim of The TomKat Studios blog is the queen of party circles! There are plenty of free "party circles" available to create your perfect cupcake topper. After you’ve printed them on your new cardstock, you’ll need a 2” circle punch to punch them out (you could always use your Honey Bee Scissors but remember, cupcakes are usually by the dozen and that’s a lot of cutting by hand!). There are also scalloped varieties that make beautiful punches. You will use this circle punch more than you ever thought you would!


Adhesives


spice container made using
Mod Podge



So now, you have your printables, cut or punched them out and now you need to glue some of them together. There are three basic kinds of adhesive. Wet stuff that is similar to what we grew up using in school (but way better), roller adhesives, and ultra strong gel adhesives to glue down fun things like BLING! The #1 glue that you MUST have is Mod Podge (in the matte finish). Don’t buy the small bottle, go for at least the

medium sized one because you can use this glue and sealer for pretty much everything. Don’t believe me, there is an entire blog dedicated to mod podge. You can glue paper, fabric, leaves, whatever it is you are looking to glue to just about any surface and then you can use it as a sealer. Adheasive runners are wonderful, too, for scrapbooking, layering cut outs and lots of other small jobs. I recommend the Tombow, but really any permanent adhesive roller is important to have. If you are going to get really crafty (or if you need to fix a lot of things in your house), E6000 is the way to go for an ultra-bond gel adhesive.

Ribbon


So festive: a ribbon tree
Stacy just made!

 Don’t tell my husband but I have an on-going love affair with ribbon. If it wasn’t so embarrassing I would show you a picture of my ribbon box (it’s only slightly larger than my adhesive box). There isn’t anything you can’t make prettier or craftier with a little ribbon. Those gorgeous roller fabric flowers that are so popular right now can be made with ribbon. You can use some no-sew iron on hem tape to add ribbon to plain hand towels to jazz up your bathrooms. Add ribbon to plain frames (using mod podge or your adhesive runner) to have an instant boutique style gift. You can pick up ribbon anywhere. My favorite place is Hobby Lobby because it is always half off and their selection is gorg! But of course Michael’s and even Wal Mart have a pretty ribbons! Of course you can always make a beautiful wreath out of ribbons too :)



Well there you have it... enough to get you on your craftin' way!