Too pretty to throw away?

Nearly the last thing I do when preparing for an event here is to clean off my own area. I was talking to a stamper about the Stamparatus Small Grid Paper (she got it just in the nick of time), and she asked how often she should replace it. I laughed and told her I use my regular Grid Paper for a long time! Here’s what mine looked like — actually pretty clean! — before I replaced it with a clean piece.

Grid Paper

In addition to cleaning a stamp before really cleaning it, I write notes and measurements and (gulp!) phone numbers. Too bad I don’t have a name with that number, and I can only hope it was a “just in case” notation!

Grid Paper (#130148) may seem like an extravagance (if you just want to protect your work surface, you could always use a piece of copy paper, after all), but you may not realize that

  • This is a big piece of “scratch paper,” measuring 11″ x 17″. There are 100 sheets in the pad, so it will likely be a long time before you need to replace it. I stamp for weeks using the same piece, only replacing it if (a) I am cleaning up for a gathering or (b) I have had a Glue Incident.
  • There are rules with imperial measures (i.e., inches) on four edges on one side and metric on the reverse. This means I don’t have to reach for a ruler, I can simply place my material against the rule on the Grid Paper. Or, I can stamp an image and easily determine how big a piece of paper I should cut for stampers to use.
  • The “grid” is 1/4″ squares. Use these squares to keep items straight and even.
  • There are heavier lines that divide the gridded area into quadrants. These allow you to find the center point of your work. The top is a centering ruler, so the vertical line (the middle of the ruler) is at “0” and inches increase to the right and left.

I think I’ve provided Grid Paper ever since I started holding classes. Sometimes stampers take home the paper at their place, which is great. Those left behind go into my personal supply!

This entry was posted in Tip and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.