Hi again! Today I am sharing two paper saving and stash busting tips. The first one is for saving paper when using the Slice die-cutter. I know that the big thing these days is the Silhouette machine, but I am still in the "dark ages" with my little Slice, and I figure if anyone else is too, you would find this tip useful. The second tip is one that can help you use up some of those older papers, and should come in very handy if you do Project Life!
1. Saving Paper When Using the Slice cutter
Whenever I have to cut a lot of the same shapes with my Slice digital cutter, I find it frustrating not to know exactly where to put my paper for the least wastage possible. I finally came up with a way to save myself that little frustration (yes, it is indeed the little things).
Here's how!
1. Use scrap paper to cut the shape you need. Make sure to line the cutter up exactly on the edges of the glass cutting mat when cutting.
2. Leaving the cut out design on the mat, turn it over and use a permanent pen, like a Sharpie to draw around the shape.
3. Remove the paper and you're good to go!
Now
you can position your paper over the shape and maximise your paper use!
Just remember to always line the cutter up on the glass mat edges and
it will cut in the same place. Since there are a few shapes I cut
regularly, You will see that I used a different colour for each one.
Oh and the reason it is drawn on the back is so that it's not lost when you need to clean and reapply the adhesive. I learned that one the hard way! You can always do it that way if you'll be using one shape for just one cutting session though.
So what do you think? Will this help you when using your Slice?
2. A Quick Stash Busting Tip for Project Life
Here's a way I found to save some money and use up my stash. After I downloaded a bunch of printable journaling cards for Project Life, I realised that I didn't have any cardstock weight printer paper. I really didn't want to purchase anything, and then I had an idea: why not use the backside of older patterned papers?If you're like me, you probably still have some older single sided patterned papers in your stash. I quickly rifled through and found that the back of the papers from BasicGrey were perfectly white, plus I still liked many of the patterns. So I chose the colours and designs I liked, cut them down to letter sized and printed away.
Front
The patterned back of one sheet
The great thing about this (apart from saving money and using up
older stuff) is that if I want to I can leave the backside of my
journaling cards empty on the following page. Or I can use it as a mat
for the other side.
Here's a look at how that worked for me in my album
On this side you can see the Details journaling card and on the back
You can see that I stuck two smaller cards to the patterned paper side.
I hope you found these tips helpful!