Pia Overgaard: Lily Pad Cards' Blog Hop

Pia Overgaard: Lily Pad Cards' Blog Hop Ah, yes, here is a giveaway, too, though somewhat last minute, as Pia is closing the comments soon!

How To: Make your own acrylic blocks!

I am all about saving money, and as more experienced scrappers have warned me, scrapbooking/stamping/cardmaking can become a VERY expensive hobby VERY quickly. Therefore, I was trying to think of ways that I could save money.

I started out with only one acrylic block that came with my Inkinado stamps from Walmart, a 3 3/4 x 1 1/4 block, doesn't fit my larger stamps. I found an article on Curbly on how to make my own acrylic blocks, and I just had to try it out. My dad is a bit of a DIY person, so he always has random materials around. I dug around our garage, and sure enough, we had several sheets of acrylic material, about 1 1/2 inch thick.

I drew several sizes that I'd thought I'd need onto some card stock (2 x 2, 3 x 3, 3 x 4, 5 x 5, 5 x 8), and then I traced them on to the acrylic.

I had my dad help me saw them, since I don't always saw straight. We used a hand saw, and it sawed quite cleanly. There was none of the splintering that other DIY-ers had warned about.

Finally, I filed and sanded the edges. The edges were dull and opaque, which was the only drawback to making the blocks myself. I heard that passing the edge over open flame would help to clear up the edges, but when I tried it, it did not give me the result that I was expecting.

Heating it also makes it give off a horrible smell, so I decided I would rather have dull, opaque edges than the awful smell. Finally, I ran the blocks under some water to get rid of all of the acrylic dust.

And thus, here we are: a set of nice, clear, (cheap!) acrylic blocks all ready for stamping! (Excuse my messy desk, though!)

Link to Curbly directions:

http://www.curbly.com/users/diy-maven/posts/7078-diy-acrylic-stamping-blocks-zero-dollars

Another giveaway!

KatieQuarks blog, also from the Lily Pad blog hop, is giving a way a stamp set from Stamps of Life. Check her out at: 

http://katiesquarks.blogspot.ca/

Lily Pad Cards Blog Hop, Reliving Tomorrow Giveaways!

I've just been accepted to medical school! It's exciting news, but it also means that I've been so busy that I haven't had large chunks of time to work on crafting as I usually would have. Instead, I've been reading other crafters' sites, and jotting down inspiration for in my notebook, for when I have more time to craft (like this summer...).

Anyways, right now, Lily Pad Cards is having a grand celebration for their first year, and there is a HUGE blog hop of many of the top names in stamping/cardmaking. To start,  go to:
http://www.lilypad.inlinkz.com/2012/04/01/lily-pad-cards-1st-birthday-blog-hop

I was following the blogs around, when I came upon this site:
Reliving Tomorrow

I love the cute card, and the blog author is also having a give away in celebration of HER blog's birthday! Check it out on the link above!

Best,
~ZT