WORTHY OF MENTION: SULKY OF AMERICA

If you're a stitcher, you know what a non-woven polyester stabilizer does; if you're not a stitcher, they stabilize fabric for machine embroidery stitching. Stabilizers aren't limited to stitching; they're a superior substitute for paper...they dry flat as a board, even if they're been submerged in water. Absolutely no wrinkling, buckling, wrapping or shrinking. And they're acid-free.

Sulky stabilizers are available in a wide variety of weights and types; Sulky also has several other products, many of which are suitable for paper crafting. The Sulky site (http://www.sulky.com/) has descriptions of their products and a Retail Locator for purchase sources.

Sulky Sticky Plus was used as the note pad cover and EP embellishment in the June 6 entry. This stuff is too good to be true! Paint it, stamp it, color it, marble it, stitch it, glue it, tear it, cut it, punch it, die-cut it, cut it with decorative edgers, dump EP on it and heat...you can even run it through your ink jet printer. The low-tack adhesive on one side adheres to porous and non-porous substrates and tolerates heat. No stash should be without it.

Sulky Cut Away Plus is the heaviest stabilizer Sulky offers. One of my favorite uses for this product is as the 'paper' when making paste paper. I call it Really, Really Faux Paste Paper cause I don't use paste (an acrylic medium tinted with reinker is my choice), but paste could be used. And when dry, there's not a wrinkle to be seen. As the name implies, this stabilizer is cut, not torn. Although it's too thick for most hand punches, die cut machines slice though it in a snap.

KK 2000 is an exceptional spray adhesive...no odor, no fumes and non-toxic. The stick is gone within a couple of days when used on porous surfaces (paper, fabric, etc.) but keeps on sticking (sorry, couldn't resist!) on non-porous surfaces (plastic, glass, etc.). Thanks to the propellant, the can is much smaller than other spray adhesives.

Sulky Paper Solvy and wrapping tissue paper create paper castings in a snap. Place two layers of white tissue paper, a layer of Paper Solvy, and two more layers of twhite issue paper either over or into an object (stamp die, cookie mold, paper casting mold, etc.). Apply either plain water or water tinted with a dye reinker to the layers with a disposable foam brush. Do not apply too much water, only enough to evenly dampen all layers is necessary. Gently push the damp layers over (or into) the object with the tip of the brush. Leave the layers on the object until almost dry. Gently lift the layers and continue drying on a raised surface (the bottom of a plastic berry box is a good 'drying rack,'). You guessed it...Paper Solvy is a glue-paper that disolves with water. Easy peasy!

Guess you could call Sulky products Paper Friendly! Hmmm....