Ok--so here's the thing I shouldda known...

...and I can't help but laugh at myself ---NOW!!! If you've been in any of our classes, you've heard us talk about and have maybe even used the trick of putting a mouse pad under the paper you plan to use to stamp that large image on. If you've not been in one of our classes, you might be shaking your head and saying "huh?"--so let me explain.

I first learned this trick from Marion who worked way back when at Stamp Works in Wilmington. I was a "newbie" stamper then. She taught me that, if you have a stamp that is a large image, if you will place a mouse pad under your paper and then stamp, the mouse pad will "fill in" any inconsistencies in the table top and you will get your full image stamped. Tables and things are not always perfectly flat as we would like to think. So if you've ever stamped an image and gotten half of it--well, maybe this was the reason. Now...fast forward a few gazzillion years. Saturday I was stamping Christmas cards. I was not using a large stamp at all but for some reason...my images were not fully stamping out. I got out the mouse pad. No help. I moved the mouse pad to the left, right, up, down---still no better. Geez-it wasn't a big stamp---what's the deal. Then, and only as a last resort....i moved the stamp PAD. I had the pad on the table and was just pressing the stamp down into it and then stamping (sometimes I lift the pad and ink the stamp in my hand...) Well, evidently it wasn't my paper but my pad that was on an uneven spot-therefore the stamp wasn't inking properly and my images weren't coming out. DUH!!! I felt like an idiot. But at least I learned something new.

So-that's my tip for the day. Gonna go catch 10 minz. of z's before I have to get ready for work. Feeling a little rough around the edges today. Until next time, happy stamping and scrapping. Blessings, Sharon