UMount Meets Tim Holtz

Ok....spring "cleaning" + post man delivering goodies from Ebay.... = UMount meets Tim Holtz....

I realise that "equation" may need a leeetle bit of explaining....I am still organising my craft "stash" (the spring "cleaning").... But with most of what I was doing (digging out stuff I've got stored up and getting it in a more "ready to use" state) done...I've changed tack to getting my craft equipment more organised... (OK I admit it... I got distracted by the mail delivery! And one of the parcels was a bumper stash of Tim Holtz binder refills...)

 "Just the thing"  I thought... "for the sizeable collection of UMount sets that I have crammed (along with other unmounted stamp sets!) in a Really Useful Box in one of my Deluxe Foldaways..."  ) Soooooo... here I am "fussy cutting" my sets of UMount. One of the things I loooove about this make of stamps is that whilst they are deep cut into the rubber (giving really good prints)... they come all on one sheet of rubber, that is super easy to cut  with just a pair of ordinary medium sized general purpose or kitchen scissors (don't go trying to use itty bitty scissors that you might trim your fingernails with, or specialised craft scissors with nice sharp blades that will end up getting blunted by the rubber and be no good for giving precision cuts when you need them in textile or paper crafts...) meaning that you can cut them as you want... "Fussy cutting" is a technique used in patchwork/quilting... where you neatly cut around images on a piece of fabric that you want to include in your design that would be ruined by tradition cutting methods. The basic idea I think could be legitimately referred to when cutting round stamp rubber (Either to convert ones beloved wooden blocked stamps to unmounted... because lets face it, it would be bordering on CRIMINAL to lose the trove of creative possibilities in them simply because one needs more space.... Or because they are already unmounted but come as a sheet...) Personally if text is included I tend to separate it out... giving more creative possibilities (for backgrounds for example) unless it just undeniably goes with an image...

Anyway... I am preparing my UMounts for storage in Tim Holtz binder refills (There's even a space for the oh so handy "coloured in examples" cover sheet! That genius of a crafty whizz Mr Holtz thinks of EVERYTHING!) ... I may be some time... :D