Card Maker Suggestion of the day..... Paper cutting

Hello. I am not one to post tips and suggestions on my blog, but I have one today that I really kind of like and thought would be helpful to all the paper hoarders out there that are card makers. This wouldn't work for Scrapbookers. 

I am a sucker for the 12x12 pads. Especially when ACMoore and Michaels have them for 5$-7$. I have been known to buy them for 10$ too. And as many of you know.....how much of that pad are you going to use? When I sat down to try to use up a 12x12 pad, I was half way through a 36 page pad and had over 60 cards. (this was at christmas time and I challenged myself to use the whole pad...I never finished it) 

Anyway, back to the suggestion....ACMoore had a bunch of 12 x 12 American Crafts pads on sale for $6.88 and they had a coupon for 25% off even sale items. ($5.50 with tax)

{Stack 1}

{Stack 2}

So I bought a few of the pads and took them over to STAPLES. As you can see in the second stack, I have two Stampin' Up! 8 1/2 x 11 packs too. These were the white and natural confetti and I never used them (had them for years) 

Now to the GOOD part...Staples has this neat machine that cuts paper. I am sure other office supply stores have it too, but what I did was I asked them to cut each 12x12 pad in 4" intervals (giving me 3 pads measuring 12" x 4" each) I asked them to cut the SU paper packs in half giving me two stacks of 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" paper. Each cut was 2$ BUT they can put a few pads on top of each other per cut and if you have a rewards card, it is less. So at the end of the day, 11 of the 12 x 12 pads and two packs of 8 1/2x 11 cost me $16.88 to cut to the sizes I asked for. I would have spent that in cutting blades if I cut all of that paper (Not to mention the TIME that it would take me).

 The best part is, now I have 3 pads that I can swap with friends if they did the same thing, or just give as a gift to a friend when I go to stamp at their home. It is easier to take more paper on an all day crop because you only need 1 of those pads to make so many cards. So this is what I had when they were done cutting them:

THAT'S A LOT OF PAPER!!!!!!  JUST SAYIN'....

I hope that someone will like my post out there and it will help people share their paper so we can cut down on all of that paper in our craft rooms...kitchens...living rooms...kids bedrooms...he he he.   Who am I kidding, I am a paper addict. Nothing will help me cut down.