Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Midweek Madness 8/20/08

Hey there scrappers! How's your week going so far?
I hope you're all getting ready for the EXCITING contest that MOSD will be having soon. You won't want to miss it!

Today I wanted to talk a bit about some tools I consider must haves when I make a mini album.
Doing any job is so much easier when you have the right tools! Here are a few things you might consider adding if you don't have them yet...

A craft knife: This is a must for working with shaped chipboard. like our Expressions word books, you need this. Once you've adhered your paper, you need one of these babies to trim around edges or to remove the excess paper from the inside of a letter. I love the Fiskars finger tip craft knife.

A sanding implement: Once you've trimmed excess paper from chipboard, you can sand off any remaining loose bits. An emery board works great. My favorite is the Basic Grey Precision file set. It comes with a variety of sized files to get in all the little nooks and crannies with ease.

A Crop-a-dile: This baby can punch through anything, especially acrylic! Use these to create your own openings to bind our acrylic albums.

A tool to apply rubons: I have a confession. Rub-ons used to be very hit or miss for me. Since I've purchased a good tool, I'm adding rub-ons everywhere. Lose the popsicle stick!

A Xyron sticker maker: these come in many sizes, so consider how you'll use it. Some are big enough to run Expressions word book letters through. How easy would it be to add paper with that baby? Even the small "x-box" size is useful for ribbon and small embellishments.

A Slick Writer: these markers by American Crafts write on everything, including acrylic. Use them to doodle, journal, or even outline the edges of acrylic pages.

So that's my must have list - what's on yours?

2 comments:

Gloria Stengel said...

Oh good list! Other must haves for me:

Staz-On ink. I love stamping, and Staz-On is the best ink for stamping on acrylic.

Bind-it-All tool. I love to bind my own mini books and love the look of the Bind-it-all O-wire.

And a tool I want to buy is a corner rounder that can punch thru acrylic and chipboard! There are several on the market now...so I need to shop soon. LOL

BTW - what rub-on tool do you use. Rub-ons are still hit/miss for me!

And I also vote 2 thumbs up for Xyron! I have 3 sizes. LOL

Debbie said...

I'm so in love with my Basic Grey rub on tool. It has a ball point that rubs smoothly and a burnishing tool on the other edge.