That's right, I'm talking about brads. These little things are a scrapbooker's best and worst friend. That's right, good and bad. You ask, why? If you've ever used one to hold together two little flowers on top of each other, they're great. To accent a layout, great. But have you ever tried to poke one through a teensy weensie hole, and the sticks bent? Or, once you have gotten it into that little hole, you've turned your work over, only to NOT be able to spread the sticks at all? Frustrating! And what's up with the painted metal brads, anyway? The paint literally glues them together, making it really inpossible to get the sticks apart! And FORGET about the mini ones. I mean, I wear cheaters as it is, I don't want to break out a magnifying glass! Now let's talk about what you use to break the sticks apart when they won't split. I've tried a pin... too short and not strong enough. I have used the precious end of my precious tweezers... don't try this at home. You'll ruin them as I did! And I have tried something that was absolutely free... my nails. Now that I don't have my fake nails, I find thin, fine nails are good for a lot of things. But NOT for splitting those stupid brads apart! I know I am not the only one who has broken one or two nails doing just this! Argh.
One more complaint. Why can't they make those beautiful decorative brads FLAT? Sure the jewel looks really pretty, but make one that is as flat as paper, please.
Here's today's tip: you can change the color of brads. Just hold a brad with tweezers, and heat it up with your heat gun. Then dip it in embossing powder, any color, and voila! The powder melts on the hot brad and you do your little happy dance around the scrap table! And it looks really cool, too.
So there's my diatribe about brads. You know what I'm talking about?
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