Gypsy Files Finally Used in Actual Layouts! lol

The completed January layout for my 2010 Calendar Scrapbook (except for journaling). The mats are for journaling stories and a couple of photographs. The numbers and days of the week are all welded onto a calendar grid. The mats are cut by hand. The mitten string is from Calligraphy Collection, and everything else is from Designer's Calendar. I've made 3 files available for January. The whole enchilada layout including somethings that are just there for reference, like the border strips at the top and bottom of the page and the photo and journal mats, it's very important to separate the layers before you cut using this file or it will be one hot mess. The decorative layers separated out from each other. The January 2010 Calendar Grid is the third.

I also finished the Cute as a Button Layout (I posted the original cut and gypsy file in 2009). I'm really happy with the Layout. I have a picture of DD when she was tiny and I'm cropping it in a circle to go in the Cute as a Button mat. The buttons with glitter in them are from a 3 Birds Embellishment set. The brads holding down the vellum journal mat are shaped like tiny buttons. The cute as a button gypsy file is available here.

Unmounted Stamps Solution

After wrestling with cushioned unmounted stamp foam backing with "cling" for several years I found Mount-It Glue at Club Scrap for a little more than the cost of a single sheet of that other technique. You just brush it on and let it dry.

Club Scrap has a video demonstrating how to make a glue box. It's so easy to make one and all you need is a bottle of the Mount-It Glue and a never-had-pizza-in-it pizza box. Most pizza places will sell one to you for a low cost; some will even give you one.

You spread a little glue over the top and bottom of the inside of the pizza box and wait for it to turn transparent. Put the cut pieces of the unmounted stamps face down in the box. This holds them in place while you spread the glue on the back of the stamps.

When the glue is transparent, I like to check the edges and rub off any glue that is on the sides of the stamp. Then they are good to go. Best of all, no cutting through foam sheets that coat my scissors, even my teflon scissors, with goo and no dangerous encounters with scissors afterwards trying to clean off the foam sheet glue goo lol. If this was a black and white TV commercial, this is where I'd hold up the glue and say, "Mount-It, the Safety Stamp Mounting System" with one of those teeth sparkling smiles lol.