Cardmaking 101 – Tools for Cardmaking

Welcome to the second in my series of Card making 101 – this week I thought we would look at some of the tools I most regularly use in my card making.

 

Tools are so important, they say you judge a craftsman by his tools – and card making is a craft! I have used a heap of trimmers over the years, but the Stampin’ Trimmer is by far the best! I just love the wide foot-bed, this means that to cut a card base (which is what I use my trimmer for by far the most!) I don’t need to swing out the extension arm. Saying that I love that this trimmer extends to 14″ – way more that I will ever need. The blades are so easy to replace, and you get to choose between the standard trimmer blades or the rotary attachment!

A good pair of scissors is so important, and I would suggest two pair – a good pair of long scissors for cutting along the score lines of boxes and bags, and a pair of paper snips for fussy cutting, and detailed bits. A separate pair of scissors for cutting ribbon is also a good idea as paper will dull the blades and make ribbon cutting difficult. The Stampin’ Paper Snips are excellent, blades sharp right to the tip and comfortable hold.

I also use my scissors for picking up jewels and pearls, candy dots and other little sticky things. But I mostly grab for my paper piercing tool for these sorts of jobs, I’m sure if you have seen some of my YouTube tutorials you will have seen me do this. A paper piercing tool is also great for adding pierced details to your cards and projects, as well as getting all those fiddly bits out of your dies when die cutting.

I think one of the most important card making tools is a good bone folder. For years I had a cheap plastic bone folder, and it wasn’t until I started with Stampin’ Up! that I changed to a ‘proper’ one, what a difference! A clean, crisp edge to all folded projects, cards and boxes. My plastic bone folder has now be relegated to re-inking ink pads!

The most random tool in my kit though must be my emery board! I use this so much, and it has several uses! Mostly it gets used when my trimmer blade needs changing, when card stock starts to cut a little fluffy, an emery board is great for sanding away the rough edges. Or for when you want that distressed look. Or when you catch a finger nail with your paper snips!

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I hope you are finding these posts helpful, and if you have any questions about card making, stamping or Stampin’ Up! either drop me a message via my contact me page, or leave me a comment below