It's a Tricks of the Trade Tuesday...

Have you ever spent days, weeks or even months looking for your last one of these...

only to find it wrapped around the brush of your vacuum cleaner

or

floating in the dog's dish with the white tag chewed off

or

to find a whole little collection of them in the cushions of your chair upon Spring cleaning???

If so, don't feel bad...join the club!

Here are a few tricks that help locate these stinkin' little necessities of that needle art

called

punch needle...

Trick #1 -

Replace the white tag with a much larger, fluorescent yellow sticky tag...you know the kind you label garage sale items with. This little trick was passed onto me by my 80 something year old mother a few years ago. She sent me a sweet little note with the above little suggestion and a sheet of bright yellow stickers to boot...Thanks Mom! While she never did quite conquer punch needle she was darn sure she was going to be keepin' track of her threaders!! Her little suggestion, in her hand-written note, ended in a double explanation point. She always, always draws a smiling mouth under her explanation points...

something like this

!!

U

only in handwriting...Mom was ahead of times and didn't even know it.

Don't have any labels...

Trick #2 - Well, how about nail polish? Bright nail polish, the brighter the better! A few coats of bright nail polish also helps to locate these little suckers.

Don't paint your nails??

Do you own any buttons? Do you have boxes, jars & tin upon tins of old buttons as I? Are you feelin' a bit creative??? Well then trick #3 is just for you...

Trick #3 - Well then, how about stitching a couple of your favorite old buttons to the tag of your threader. Remember the brighter the button the better. Simply hand sew the two buttons together with the white label sandwiched between the two buttons.

And taadaaa...

I not only have a threader I can see, but a threader one can hear when the dog is crunching upon the button, or the little "tinking" (is that a word?) sound it makes when falling to the floor. Yeah I know...first its the sight that goes and then it's the hearing (*sighing*)...isn't growing old lovely???

Happy Punching,

Brenda

P.S. should your threader succumb to the beating brush of your vacuum or your dogs next doggy treat...we do sell these on our website in packages of 2 for $2.50!!