Yay or Nay?

Think I MIGHT actually hate my ATG gun- the one that every RAVES about. I wanted to love and i have TRIED to love it. The roll of adhesive gets stuck—- constantly. I find it heavy and bulky and the glue kind of rolls up and gets all over the place.
I bought it when everyone else bought it about a year ago and thought I could get used to it. I feel guilty for not using it- I really wanted to join the ATG gun bandwagon and I spent a ridiculous amount of money on it. It sits on my craft table unused and making me feel bad. FLY Lady would tell ne to give it away- it is neither useful OR makes me smile

To be honest I started out scrabooking in 2001 and was a Creative memories consultant and loved their tape runner- the original one. I always liked tape runner style of adhesive for my card making and scrap booking. The only one I ahve found that comes close to the CM tape runner is Tombow Mono and E-Z Runner which might be my favourite of the two however you can’t refill them- so I pretty much stick to the Tombow….

Am I the only one???? Do you LOVE or hate your ATG gun????

Do you have any cutting file suggestions? I would love to hear your ideas for cutting file designs- please either post in comments section or email me.

Useful Links:
Create-A-Face software

Printing Your Own Scrapbook Paper- Use Make the Cut to Print your Own Scrapbooking Paper!

The kits comes with VERY basic stuff- ink, squeegee, screen design, black ink and 3 colour ink pad- this looks VERY basic to me. Big complaint seems to be that you can’t make your own screens (Tho I think you could make with vinyl cut out maybe? )

If you are on a budget these are the basic tools to start with:
Scrapbook Essentials:
Album ( I recommend 12×12)
Good quality pen/marker for journalling. I like basic black to start. I also find I grab a nice blue or pink often.
Paper Trimmer
Corner rounder
Craft scissors
Scrapbook Paper
Adhesive for mounting photos and embellishments.

List of Best Scrapbook Tools and Reviews

What Are The Best Scrapbook Albums?

There are 3 main types of scrapbook albums.

Post-bound albums: My favourite to use is Pioneer. There a inexpensive and look great. They come in wide variety and can be found where most scrpbooks supplies are sold including Micheal’s, Hobby Lobby, Joann Crafts, etc. I like these because you can slide coloured or patterned card stock in to use as background paper- and you can move around your pages easily. Something that is near impossible with strap hinge scrapbook albums

Strap-hinge albums: These albums have flexible plastic straps in the cover that run through wire loops embedded in each page. Main brands are Westrim and 12 x 12 Coverset. Quality wise they are expensive but I like the best. The advantage to strap hinge albums is they lay nice and flat when open and air high quality, They are a pain in the neck tho for expanding pages and forget about moving pages around! You have to buy Creative Memories products through a rep ( similar to Tupperware or Pampered Chef) and may not be accessible to some people.
Amother downside is you have to “wallpaper” coloured cardstock or print if you wants something other than white, black or neutral as background.

3-ring binders or D-ring binders: Are very popular- I don’t like the look of them myself but they are economical and easy to use. The D-Ring also lets pages lay flat. Two brands are Hiller and We R Memory Keepers . I have been very happy with We R Memory Keepers. They work just like standard binder.

Best Pens and Markers for Scrapbooks and Cards

Best scrapbook tools can be pretty subjective but I have used ALOT of different products . Markers and pens are used for both enhancing designs/stamps and for journalling. If you are just starting out it can be very very overwhelming. I would keep things simple or you will get frustrated.
Any good quality acid free pen with fine tip is great to get you started. Pick up some colours if you would like to get fancy. A lot of people love gel pens because they show up well on coloured paper.
Bold tip markers can be used to accent pages. If you love to play with markers by all means go ahead.
If you think you might get into stamping and using markers for shading and serious accenting- especially ig tou plan on making cards then right now the hot markers to get are Copic. You can get the more expensive Copic Sketch markers or more affordable Copic Ciao.
I have several of these that I pick up. The sketch are refillable and the quality of both is superb.
I enhance my marker collection with believe it or notBic Mark-it Markers. I love the colour selection and compared with price of Copics can’t go wrong! If you are starting out I would invest in a set of the Markits and then you can build your Copic selection up.

Best Paper Trimmers for Scrap booking

Some things you don’t skimp on and a paper trimmer is a scrapbook tool that you will use most often- get a good one! . This will be your most used tool so don’t hesitate to invest in one or more of these. I have several different brands and was long obsessed with find THE perfect paper trimmer!
I LOVE Making Memories Trimmer and if I had to pick one this would be it. It is extremely well made and sturdy. I love the metal work surface and using magnetic ruler. Self sharpening blade is amazing. It is fairly heavy and some might not like this if taking to crops- for me I find INVALUABLE.

I also have one of the most popular , Fiskars and Fiskars Portable Paper Trimmer
Both are good and easy to pack along when taking to crops.

Another great paper trimmer for scrapbook making and cards is if you;re looking for best scrapbook toolsPurple Cows 12-Inch Two-In-One Scrapbook Combo Trimmer
It is also a lttiel on the heavy side but a great tool. It works as both guillotine style paper trimmer and rotary blade. You can cut thick cardstock and chipboard with this easily, One of the best features of this trimmer is Purple Cows Interchangable Blades. Cut straight, deckle, scallops, etc and more perfectly straight . I LOVE this paper trimmer as well.
.

Best Craft Scissors for Scrapbooks and Card Making

Cant have enough of these as they get lost all the time . Invest in pair of decent quality scissors that you will only use for your paper. Small ones are easier to manage. A good buy is Cricut 7-Piece Tool Kit for Cricut Cutting Machines. I bought mine at Wal-Mart for $10.00. You dont have to use with Cricut cutting machine!
It comes with 7 tools including great pair of scissors, boning tool ( for scoring and making folds in cards) various hooks and scrapers- perfect for lifting off tiny stickers or removing mistakes. This was a really good investment and woudl highly recommend.

Best Scrapbook Paper

There are zillion brands. Make sure they cardstock you use is think enough to hold weight of your scrapbook embellishments. You cant go wrong with Bazzill cardstock and Core’dination for solid colours.
There are so many great quality printed papers but a few stand out. I love pretty much anything by Basic Grey. The quality is fantastic and I love their designs. I usually buy paper packs from them. My favourite designs have been the Basic Grey 12 Inch by 12 Inch Sultry Collection Pack and I love their Halloween paper pack- Eerie Collection Pack (basic grey )
. they have GORGEOUS Christmas collections in particular Jovial Collection Pack (Basic Grey)

Best Price I have Seen on Cricut Cutter

Big Lots has Provocraft ‘s cricut create Cutter on Sale for 99.00 . Reg price is 184.00.
It includes Don Juan Cartridge and 6×12 cutting mat.
Couple that with SCAL software or some Great deal this week on Cricut’s Cartridges and you have everything you need for some great scrapbooking and card making this Christmas.

I quite like the size they have now but see lots of uses for this ew larger size. Maybe not so much on card but will also work well on scrapbook pages.

One downside is the widest it will cut is 10 inches. However- there is no cutting mat which is huge deal for me! You can also “tell” the machine how many of an image or letter you need AND paper feeds from tray like a printer, So, you can but a bunch of paper in there and walk away.
It also looks like it may do print and cuts and you do not have to chaneg blade. Not clear if you can print in colour or just Black and White.

The images are stored on an SD card and the Craftwell company has stated that are looking to figure out a way for eCraft cutter users to share there own images, so maybe you will be able to design your own?

Here is what the eCraft cutter can do:
Cuts paper and cardstock , fabric, and magnetic material.
Works without a cutting mat
No need to change blades
Works without a computer
Can cut multiple paper pieces or roll of paper similar to a printer ( I am wondering what happens when you cut 100 of something- does it jam up?)
It is very fast.

I don’t think it cuts chipboard .
.
Looks like there are several different models. One at 199.00 US and one at 249.00. I THINK the only difference is that more expensive one has a colour LCD screen.

I have no clue when this will actually be available to purchase. As of now the pre-loaded SD cards retail at 29.99.

More info:
http://craftwellusa.com/pages/products

The Letter Press Starter Kit for Quickutz Epic 6 will be approx. 69.00

The combo kit- containing BOTH the Letter Press Starter Kit and Epic 6 will be 149.99

You will also be able to by sets of printing plates- done by theme. The average cost if a set is 24.99 USD.
The themes are Holiday, Everyday, Baby, Wedding and Celebration.

One thing I don’t like about the Epic is size of platforms, They seem HUGE compared to Cuttlebug ( they Quickutz Epic 6 platform is 13 inches long) . So I am bit worried about the portability of it.

I am anxiously waiting the bigger machine- the 12 x12 one but that may not co me out until the Fall/Winter so this will do for now. The thought of being able to emboss 12×12 sheets of paper… OH MY!

Create Rhinestone Patterns Using Digital Cutter

You can now create beautiful and elaborate for rhinestone designs AND then using a rubber template and special rhinestone transfer tape add to your fabric and iron on!

At first when Sandy posted I thought oh, that’s interesting I could design a template for rhinestones. But after further reading I realized WAIT y you can actually design file then physically add the rhinestones using KNK and special rhinestone-y tools!
Are you kdding me! The ideas are endless. Forgot the Yazu- and boring t-shirt silk screen – we have sparkling Rhinestones!

Scrapbook Die Cutter is selling all the tools you need – including packets of Rhinestones at a very affordable price.

Sanyd has all ready started writing tutorial on how to use KNK software and digital cutter on her information packed blog read more about it HERE .