First Beaducation Design Challange

We have been having some fun at work over at Beaducation.  Work and fun often go hand in hand in our office!
We had our first (of many, I am sure) Design Challenge!  Woohoo!
We started with this.

To see what we made, hop on over to the Beadyo Blog.

DIY Project! Make Your Design Stamp Holder for $3!!!

Pulled this one over from my other blog at Beaducation.com.  Who doesn't love a good DIY project :)


Last week we received this inquiry on Facebook from our pal Keona. Great question Keona!

Unfortunatly, no, we don't have a holder for some of those larger design stamps....but that question got my creative juices flowing. I too hate the fact that all my beloved design stamps get to stand tall and proud in a holder, while the larger stamps have to lay on their side like they are napping.

I love a challenge! The first thing that came to mind was floral foam. I headed on down to JoAnn Fabrics (just a hop and skip from our office) and bought a block.  It worked great, but it was messy. The foam kinda flakes off all over the place. I formulated a new plan, tested it out and LOOK AT THIS, a custom Design Stamp holder that cost me $3 to make!

Here is how you can make one too!  Head on down to the craft store and dollar store for a block of styrofoam or floral foam and a baking tin or some sort of box (some dollar stores might have both).

Use a knife to cut the foam to fit nice and snug into your container.  Place a stamp (image side down) at desired location in the foam and hammer them down (use a soft head hammer like a Plastic Mallet) until 1/3rd of the stamp has sunk into the foam.  Repeat for all the stamps.  Perhaps leave some space for future stamps.

I know what you are thinking..."Hey wait a second, what is that writing on the side?".  Well, since the container I chose was metal, I couldn't resist stamping on it (yes, I stamped it before putting in the foam).  Again, bring on the challenge! I had to build a strong stamping surface in the container so I busted out my Sandbag, Bench Block and any available piece of wood that would fill the left over space. I didn't get regular and strong resistance so the stamping came out uneven (depth-wise) and it was a bit awkward, but it worked! I used the Wackadoodle Uppercase and Lowercase.

Other ideas...

• Cover the foam in fabric and cut a hole for each stamp.
• Paint the foam.
• Use decorative scrapbook paper to cover your foam.
• Use a beautiful Kleenex box as your box and just cut the top off.
• Use one of the many DVD boxes in paper or even bamboo from The Container Store.
• Use a soap tray and cut your foam to fit.
• Make your own wooden box with plywood. 

We love a challenge, and we love to save money. More DIY projects soon :)
And remember, Facebook is a great place to ask a question. We promise you will get a quick and thorough reply :)

Sweet Savings over at Beaducation.com

Beaducation.com is having a Cyber Monday SALE!  We chose our most popular category... Sterling Silver Blanks.  Great time to stock up on some of those fun shapes that you have been wanting to try!  Sale is supposed to start at midnight, but Paul and I are pooped and we want to go to bed!  There is a bit of manual work to be done to post a sale.  We just finished...happy shopping...nighty night!

This sale is good on in-stock products only.  Sorry, no rain checks.

Test Gallery

Last day of STAMP SALE at Beaducation.com

C'mon now, a sale like this doesn't happen very often.  This is a great time to stock up on those stamps you have been wanting so badly :)

25% off ALL Letter Stamp Sets - yep, all!

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25% Design Stamps - 219 designs on sale! 

Our newest batch is not on sale.

Beaducation's New Digs...continued!

Hey all!  Earlier this week I wrote a post over on Beaducation's blog with lots of before and after pix of our new office.  Hop on over and check it out :)

Campin' and Stampin'

A few weeks ago, we made our annual journey to the Strawberry Music Festival.  Camp was great, music was fabulous, the weather....not so much (it snowed on us a bit!).

When the sun popped out, out came the tools and I stamped about 50 pendants for the folks in our camp.  I have discovered my new all time favorite place to stamp....ON A STUMP!

My goodness, I have never had such a successful stamping session.  The resistance from ol' mother nature was perfect.  No wobbly table, no bounce back, just a strong stable foundation from deep in the earth.  It also helped that I was using a high quality Beaducation stamps set :)