Desert Island Crafts Part 7

I swopped my Cuttlebug (which I’d had for about two years) for a Big Shot after seeing it being demonstrated at the NEC with the Sizzix XL Bigz box dies – when I saw the sorts of boxes I would be able to make I was hooked!

I sold my Cuttlebug on E-bay for about the same as what I had paid for it, so I was well chuffed. I also sold two alphabet sets (which I now regret selling), this all enabled me to buy the Big Shot, a pair of extension plates and a couple of dies with very little expenditure.

The box contains my Nestablities dies – my mate Lisa nagged me for ages to get some and now I wouldn’t be without them, especially for sweetie bag tops.

The blue handbag in the corner is the new Sizzix embosser, I haven’t used it a great deal, but I intend to use it this week to make some Thank You cards.

Desert Island Crafts – Part 6

This is my gem drawer.  I cannot have enough flat back gems and pearls.  Paperchase gems are the best value I have ever found at £2.75 for a pot of over 200.

My desk isn’t complete without cotton buds for tidying up blobs of glue and an assortment of mini pegs for keeping boxes together while the glue dries.

This is my stock of white and silver card.  They are directly to my right when I sit at my desk so that I can select what I want easily.

I get all my white and cream card from The Papermill Shop online in a Megabox, usually in white or ivory linen.  I get through at least 4 boxes a year!

I cut all my own card blanks so that I can can get just the right size for my envelopes.

Desert Island Crafts – Part 5

This picture may look very boring, but it features my scoring boards, without them i would be so lost. 

The white one is by Coppernob, I use it everyday for scoring all my cards, I think you can do all sorts of fancy things with it, but so far that is beyond me.

The wooden board is what I use for making boxes, I got it from E-bay. You do your lids using one side and bottoms with the other. When I am making a box I have to experiment a bit to get the right size for what I need it for, I make a template first, which I label and keep and then make however many boxes I need based on that template.

Desert Island Crafts – Part 4

These are my small craft essentials,

Anita’s 3D clear gloss finish is brilliant for turning a cut out printed picture into a brilliant embellishment or making text stand out.

I love brown/mushroom/brownish grey fine tipped Marvy Le Plume pens for a subtle effect faux stitching, as well as white and black gel pens for edging and doodling, especially on tops to sweetie bags.

Top Tip – three tiny little dots here and there, next to embellishments or text can draw attention to that area and subtly fill in white space.  I use this trick on all of my cards. (I think I got this tip from Art Attack!)

Sakura glue pens are brilliant for applying very fine detail with micro glitter.  It goes on blue, but dries clear quickly, enabling you to apply glitter very accurately and subtly to the smallest area .

Finally, scissors, these are my two favourite pairs for cutting out very fiddle farty shapes/pictures.  I have a drawer full of scissors of all sizes – however I neglect them something rotten, one of my jobs during the holiday is to clean  all the sticky gunge off them all with nail varnish remover and cottonwool pads.

Desert Island Crafts – Part 3

Introducing my faithful cutters, I do have a couple of others but they are not a patch on these!  I have a large and small Xcut and a Dhale Trimmer.

The Dhale is my favourite for getting a perfect edge for mat and layering.  This is my second model, I had my first for about 12 years and I was gutted when it finally went blunt and fell to bits.  Locating a new one was difficult so goodness knows what I will do if it ever packs in, but I don’t care what it costs because it is the best!

I cut all my card blanks on the large Xcut – I use it every single day.  Its strong and accurate, perhaps a bit cumbersome to lift from the floor to my desk when I am working, but I couldn’t be without it.

I use the smaller Xcut for cutting smaller pieces of card and paper to size, its marked out in small squares so I am able to cut with pretty good accuracy.

Desert Island Crafts – Part 2

I would be lost without my ATG – as you can see I have one and a spare. It may look big and cumbersome but it is brilliant as it dispenses double sided tape in a jiffy.  I admit there is a bit of a knack, but when you get it there’s no stopping you.  When I am doing a production line of cards I just whizz through them.  I have one loaded with 6mm tape (you need to buy an adaptor to use this) and the other is loaded with 12mm, which I use the most. The tape costs about £1.84 for 44m which is so economical

Click on the link for more information, I have used this company many times and have always been happy with their service.

Desert Island Crafts – Part 1

Before Christmas I put together a few posts to publish over the holiday because it just wouldn’t feel right having nothing popping up here at 00.01 each morning!

So for the next few days I have selected the tools in my craftroom that I would have to have on my desert island …..

I apologise for the state of some of the stuff , you can see from the photos how used it is!

My Fine Tip PVA applicators – these give you a very fine application of glue, it is so fine you don’t get a ripple effect when you are gluing paper and the metal tip is perfect for gluing the smallest embellishment, even the tiniest gem.

The bottles come empty, I fill mine with PVA glue because it is strong and dries clear.

The pins that come with the bottles (spares are available) prevent the metal tip clogging up and don’t rust.

This has got to be the best glue applicator ever!

Click on the link for more details.