Heartfelt Inkspiration

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.

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!