Hi! Thanks for having me on your forum I'm a newbie here (first post). But I''ve been referring to this thread as I want to make a grave maker for a deceased pet. I wondered if anyone with some concreting knowledge could help me to choose the right material to use? I'm in Australia too, so some of the materials are named differently. I've tried regular concrete (the pre-mixed kind with gravel in it) I found the gravel made it lumpy and difficult to get a nice impression with the letters. BTW I'm using the Milestones plastic letters. My next try was with mortar (i'm sure it's called the same thing over there - here is Aus it's cement and sand) the result was better, but the block itself is pretty crumbly and I'd love to achieve a perfect smooth top and crisp letters. Can anyone help? I have heard on another forum that people have used 'vinyl' cement, but I've never heard of it - maybe it's called something else over here - and can't find it in my hardware store. Thanks very much :D

This message was sent to me by Barbie: Stamps that do not stamp clearly by barbieboop Why? Could be for a few reasons.. Try pressing harder Large stamps work best if you stand up and press them Stamp large images over a mouse pad or fun foam sheet Stamp lg stamps image side up and use a brayer to press the image onto the card. Some stamps get warped. The foam between the wood and the image gets smooshed. So, you can use a mouse pad to stamp on or remount them. Change the foam. New stamps and bold images sometimes need to be stamped a few times to get a good image. Allowing the ink to stain the rubber. Some images need to be lightly roughed up with fine sand paper. Some images have Âedges that stamp along with the image. Trim this portion off with an exacto knife or with sharp scissors.. If you can. Or. You may have to pull some images off the wood and trim the Âedges off then remount that image. Hand carved images stamp best the more times they are used. Or heavily inked. hugs, barbie

Love the sticker storage ideas!! I was just looking for a way to organize my ever-growing collection! Scissors storage...a couple of ideas here. If you've got room, a corkboard with hooks in it works great to hang on the wall. If you're like me and don't have the wall space, go to WalMart or any store like that and go to the home organizing section where they keep all the little plastic-covered wire shelves you can get for organizing kitchen cabinets. They have one there that has square holes perfect to hold a single pair of scissors. I have mine stored in them and it works great! If anyone wants to see what that looks like, click on the link below. As for paper scraps, I do like most everyone here...I have them in ziploc bags...but I keep mine in a 3 ring binder organized by color. I have 2 binders, one for plain colors, one for printed paper. I make punchies as I need them, and the extra ones I end up not using go into an empty film storage can. I keep whole sheets of paper in hanging file folders in a milk crate. My rubber stamps are stored in a box exactly like my punches. I don't know what the best way is to store them...I'd like to hear some ideas. I don't use mine very often, and I don't have any that are too expensive, but I'd like to keep the ones I have in nice shape. Anyway, hope something there helps...love organizing threads!! --Becky T. Here is a link that might be useful: Becky's Scrapping Area Pictures

Forgot to add that Walmart has the cutest foam stamps for 27 cents each. Things like footballs, scoccer balls, images of a little girl and boy, flowers, stars, hearts, moons, pets, animals, etc. They look to be just the right size for scrapbooks and are a LOT cheaper than rubber ones. They are located in clear canister type bins in the fabric dept. Penny