Clearly Delightful

A RAK and an ATG tape gun HINT

Happy Monday folks!   I want to show yu a little RAK I received and then a tip for your ATG gun.

Nika sent me this beautiful cross stitch!   I put it in the frame.  She lives in East Russia and her and her husband are missionary's to that region.  Her blog is here.

A wonderful and perfect gift from a Dear Friend that I will treasure on my craft room wall!

Now for the ATG tip.

Do you have that same problem that I always have with the ATG adhesive roll always slipping half-way off the roller?  I mean, it's still on there, but it hangs over and when you turn your gun at a corner, it comes off more or almost rips, and you have to try to push it back on there... and then you are opening the thing and trying to push the adhesive back down.....  !!  I finally got so frustrated that I had to find a way to keep it on there, because it didn't matter WHAT kind of tape I bought, they ALL did the same thing.

So, here's what I did, and I have been testing this for 4 weeks.  The tape has not once veered off the roller!  So, I hope it works for you too!

First, you need a pice of thin, but still sturdy cardboard, similar to the kind you get in a pack of 12x12 paper.  The kind on the back of a notepad is a bit too thick.

1. Cut a 1-1/6" circle.  Since I couldn't use a punch, I punched out a 1-1/8" circle out of regular CS, and then trimmed a  VERY SMALL hair off  all around the punchout, and my final punch out size was about 1-1/16".  NOTE: I found that 1-1/8" was too big, and 1" was too small, so it really needs to be 1-1/16" in diameter. 

2. Trace around that CS circle on top of the cardboard and used a craft knife to cut it out.

3. Use a circle cutter to cut a 3-1/8" circle around the 1-1/16" hole, trying to center it around the smaller hole.
Here's a picture after both circle are cut.

4. Now you just push this cardboard restraint over the barrel of where the tape roll goes. (You must have a roll of tape installed before you do this)  You need to slip it under the little notch thing that sticks out, and then push it down over the barrel.  Some of the cardboard will squish up against the barrel and that is OK, because you need it to sit tightly so that it doesn't move whhile you use your tape gun.
Here's a picture once it's on.

5. Close your cover and you are ready to ROLL!  Pretty simple and cheap fix to an annoying problem!

Well, it worked for me. I hope it works for you too.
Happy Stamping this week!

I'll be back this weekend!
Laurie

I'm Rolling Clearly Now

I've added this video on 5/23/08, but there is still some good info the stuff I typed out below. I just thought the video would be helpful to someone wanting to see it in action.

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Rollagraph Memory Essentials makes a wheel handle with a clear, plastic, removable wheel base. They come in 1" and 2" widths.  The clear wheel base has a length of adhesive strip type stuff that is used to hold your clear polymer stamps to the wheel base, so that you can stamp with your clear stamps.

In this article, I've detailed some benefits, products available that work with it, and some do's and don'ts.

1. PREP: The clear wheel base comes with several layers of adhesive strip on the wheel and a protective acetate sheet to keep the adhesive stuff sticky. You must first peel the protective strip off and then you can place your stamps around the wheel. Stretch the one-piece stamps ever so slightly, this will ensure a nice tight fit. But, be careful and do not stretch too hard or you risk tearing your stamp.

2. STAMPS: If you decide to put a bunch of smaller stamps around the wheel, you must not leave more than 1/4" space in between any of the stamps. This creates 2 problems. The larger the gaps, the more chance there is that you will get ink on the adhesive strip on the wheel. And, I have found that I usually do not have enough smaller stamps to fit images all the way around the wheel, therefore rendering the wheel useless for stamping. HOWEVER, Clear Dollar Stamps has just come out with long 1 piece stamps sized to wrap around the wheels and fit the wheels exactly! These one piece stamps work perfectly with your self inking handle system as well as the Memory Essentials handle! It's easy to assemble them on the wheel as I've pictured here. Just press one end on the wheel and pull will very gentle force as you turn the wheel and press the stamp down as you go ensuring to keep the ends even when they meet. You can check them out here.

3. INK: The Memory Essentials clear wheel handles do not come with ink cartridges, so you MUST use an inkpad or markers to apply color. HOWEVER, if that aspect is not to your liking, you will be pleased to know that you can snap these babies (the clear wheel base) right into the Rollagraph and SU self-inking wheel handles you already have.  You may use them with or without the ink cartridges, however, refer to #5 below for an important tip about that.

4. TIP: Rolling the images swiftly, rather than slowly, will produce better images.  The clear wheel operates with a similar feel to the regular rubber wheels, meaning that you must produce even pressure, but not too much pressure, while rolling.

5. TIP: if you are using a bunch of small clear stamps on the clear wheels, I would recommend you do NOT use the cartridges in your self-inking handles. The cartridge puts just enough pressure on the small stamps and peels them off the wheel as you roll. An ink cartridge should only be used when you use a single long stamp on the clear wheel base.

6. DON'T LIKE WHEELS?  But you like the application that long 1 piece stamps can have? There are also 1.25 x 7", and 2.25" x 7" clear acrylic blocks (you can get them here in the block section) that you can use for the long 1 piece stamps. Some people just prefer blocks and that's OK too.

7. The last note I want to make is that some wheels may stamp better if you snip away the empty space. For instance on this Pine Forest 2" wheel stamp (to be released May 1 at Clear Dollar Stamps), the images are unevenly distributed. This is not a flaw, this is just how the images are meant to be with the tops of the trees being skinnier and the full branches are at the bottom of the stamp. I snipped away the blank space around the tree tops, and this will allow me to stamp the trees without getting ink blotches on my CS in between the trees.

For my example here, I decided to do something a little different. I carefully inked up just half of several of the images, the vase side of the images) by placing only the lower half of the wheel stamp on the edge of the inkpad as shown in the first picture. Then, I flipped the wheel around and did the same thing on a new color inkpad with the other side of the images, the flowers. 

The last step is to take your marker and carefully color the stems on this wheel. I only wanted to do 3 vases. Then, I rolled it out, cut around the images, matted and finished the card.

The finished card supplies:

• CS: Perfect plum, pale plum, pumpkin pie, and PTI white
• INK: Perfect plum, pale plum, glorious green, pumpkin pie
• ACCESS: Dew drops, Pumpkin 1/4" pie grosgrain, Bloom dots Cuttlebug embossing folder

  

Happy Stamping!