Category: tips

on the joy of a freshly sharpened pair of kai scissors

This is going to sound silly, but you just don’t appreciate a pair of scissors as much as you do when they’ve just been sharpened. In my world, growing up, you just don’t do things like that…You just suffer with dull scissors. I didn’t even know until probably college that scissors could be sharpened!

Anyway, years ago, I bought a pair of rubber scissors made by Kai. I had read they were the best scissors for trimming rubber stamps and I found a pair on sale (because I was very poor back then) so I got them. They were great. I must have bought them 10 years ago, at least. Well, they just haven’t been cutting very well lately and I remembered that Kai offered a sharpening service, so I went and sought out their website. Which says nothing about sharpening service, by the way.

But I called and spoke with Jim and he said it was $5, which included return postage. I received them the other day and just this morning, tried them out. I trimmed my new Cat’s Pajamas margarita stamps and I couldn’t believe how smoothly and quickly those thing went through the rubber. I had to be really careful not to slip and ruin the image!

So let that be your lesson for today kids. First of all, buy a pair of Kai scissors for trimming your rubber. And send them to be sharpened, when needed, over to Jim at Shear Precision Scissor Co. You’ll be so glad you did!

Tip: Save Everything!

Tonight, I was working on a project where I needed to stamp outlines of squares onto my surface. Not having that kind of rubber stamp, I knew if I could only find a square gift box or similar somewhere in my stash, I’d be set. I found a 2″x1/2″x1/2″ (approx) matchbox in my “trash” cabinet! I spread acrylic paint onto some waxed paper and made a makeshift stamp pad. I stamped the end of the matchbox cover onto my project! It was perfect!

The best part was while I was stamping, I wondered where the matchbox came from. I realized that I picked it up in a restaurant in Kansas City when I worked for Hallmark Cards around 1998. I kid you not, that matchbox went from Kansas City, to my home in Albuquerque, then moved back to New Jersey with me, where I moved two more times and now it’s settled in Colorado, where I’m at my second address.

The point is that you never know when something is going to come in handy. As long as you are collecting a stash and you have the space for it and you USE stuff from it, it’s never a waste of time and effort when it comes to your altered art. 🙂 Whenever you are about to toss something into the trash, take a second look at it. Can it be used as a stamp? Try it out! Not only are you expanding your design potential, you’re saving that stuff from going into the landfill. I’m starting a drawer called “Weird stuff to use as stamps.” Comment and tell me what you’re using!