Of My Favorite Things and Other Updates...

Finally got back on the bandwagon of setting a blog posting schedule (yay!)! So I'll jump right in, then. Can I just say how much I love Beaducation's website, products, videos, books, EVERYTHING?! I mean, I first found a few of their videos on YouTube when I was looking for some metal stamping hints, but then I started looking at all the goodies on their site and WOW. I want ALL the things. All of them. Seriously, this is probably one of the best sites for metal stamping supplies I've seen. Other sites concentrate on maybe one particular area, like stamping sets, and that's great, especially for price comparison, but Beaducation is just awesome for a comprehensive, one stop, here's-everything-you-need-to-get-started metal stamping source.

And I finally bought some stamping goodies from them a few weeks ago! Can't wait to buy more. I had to limit myself, which was VERY difficult, as it is when you're bombarded with tons of your favorite crafting goodies. So, what am I loving from Beaducation, you say?

Well...

Design stamps! I love design stamps and had NONE, so I bought my first design stamp, a heart!

I decided to keep it relatively simple and went with one of the basics for my first design stamp. This one is the Tiny Heart design stamp, and it's one made by Beaducation. It's so adorable!

I also bought some flat copper wire, which I'm going to use to make a bangle bracelet as soon as I acquire some bracelet bending pliers. For other stamping blanks, I kept it *mostly* simple to start with. As much as I love all of the fun and different shapes, I could just see myself buying a bunch of my favorites and them letting them sit and collect dust for ages because I can't think of anything to stamp on them.

So, I got a couple aluminum rectangles that I can either use for necklaces or i.d. tag-style bracelets (and I'm posting the listing pics here because it's way clearer than anything I'd be able to take right now):

Can be found here

An aluminum banner (I have a feeling I'm going to LOVE this one):

A small copper connector that is going to be a Doctor Who bracelet =) :

A copper spiral blank:

And I did go a little funky with two lightning bolt blanks (the other is brass) that I'm going to use for--you guessed it--Harry Potter necklaces. It's going to be awesome:

I also bought a pack of Pro Polish Pads, which I used when I stamped the oval tag for a Doctor Who bracelet, and that thing is as shiny as a brand-new penny. They're amazing. I even used it on the aluminum banner after darkening the letters and I didn't know aluminum blanks could be so shiny. I love these things.

I also finally bought a 1lb brass hammer from Michael's, and was able to use a competitor coupon to cushion the price. What a difference it makes in stamping! When I was trying out my heart stamp, I was having to tilt and tap the stamp in order to get all the edges and it still wasn't turning out the way I wanted! With the brass hammer, I hit it twice straight on, et voila! That's the result in the picture of the impression that I took earlier. I also finally found a decently priced screw-down hole punch at Hobby Lobby this weekend. I'm just so glad to be finally building up all the supplies I should have had when I started.

Can't wait to order some more goodies off my wish list (which, by the way, I had to make in order to ensure that I didn't go overboard!)!

What are some of your favorite suppliers, or supplies? If you're a stamper, what are some of your favorite blanks? design stamps? letter sets?