Sara's Blog

New Year’s Eve isn’t quite the same when you’re on an airplane. We landed in a very quiet Amsterdam on January 1, amid evidence of enthusiastic New Year’s parties littering the streets. (Apparently they set off fireworks?)

The highlight of my trip had to be a marathon Saturday-night crafting session with my 11-year-old niece Molly. This girl rocks! She made four stamped cards, beaded two pairs of earrings and a necklace, plus we tested out my mom’s inkpad collection (no small feat) and made a list of those that should be tossed or re-inked. We stayed up until nearly 11 o’clock, gabbing, making all kinds of cool stuff and taking occasional breaks for peppermint tea.

One thing she really liked was stamping on a Great Big Brad—you know, those 22mm brads? That led me to think of all the other cool things you can do with these brads, from sanding to inking to adding rub-ons, so I’ve posted a few examples of some altered Great Big Brads here. Enjoy!

Ways to alter a Great Big Brad:

1. Sand: Hold the brad by the legs, then use an emery board to sand the edges or the top of the brad.


2. Rub-ons: Attach the brad to scrap paper, then transfer the rub-on.


3. Double rub-ons: You can apply two rub-ons! Here we transferred the “2-gether” image toward the bottom of the brad, then added “sweet” slightly overlapping.


4. Paint: A quick swipe with cream acrylic paint gives this silver brad a shabby chic look (it looks great as the center of a silk flower!). Simply hold the brad by the prongs and lightly swipe acrylic paint around the edges using a foam brush or cosmetic wedge. Let dry, then attach to paper or flower.


5. Punched paper: A 3/4" circle punch perfectly fits a 22mm brad. Simply punch the paper and glue it to the top of the brad with any type of adhesive. (Glue stick works just fine.) Want more dimension? Ink the edges of the circle and/or the brad.


6. Stamp It: Insert the brad into a scrap paper, then stamp a letter, small word or even a portion of a larger image with a Staz-On inkpad.


7. Punched and penwork: Punch a 3/4” circle of paper, add a doodled border and glue to the brad.


8. Flower centers: A big brad looks great in the center of a silk flower! The brad and flower were both stamped with Staz-On.