A to Z Challenge - 2019 - T is for Tools

For the letter "T" in the 10th Annual A to Z Challenge I am talking about tools.  Every good craftsperson has their tools.  My husband was a mechanic and he has a garage full of tool boxes with multiple varieties of tools.  The neighbors come by asking for this size wrench or that type screwdriver and he has them all.

I have my tools too.  Of course I have the standard pens, markers, scissors, ink, stamps, all that stuff.  I showed them a little bit in my post for the letter "S" last year when I talked about the Scrapbooking section of Michaels.  These are a few of my more specialized tools. 

The first is my Slice machine.  Many (most) people have the Cricut, Sizzix or a version of them to make their die cuts and alphabet letters.  The Slice machine came out about 10 years ago or so and I was so excited to get one.  It is a portable machine whereas some of the others are not.  I can use the Slice to cut out lots of different letters and shapes for almost any theme.  It comes with a design card that plugs into the machine.

Design cards

 Once the card is inserted you have lots of options to choose from.  I used this guitar to make the guitar embellishment I talked about yesterday in the "Special Order" CD Music mini.

It goes from 2 to 4 inches.

 Each card comes with a booklet that shows all the designs you can make.

 These are two journal tags I made using elements from the Slice design cards and then stamped some lines on them for the writing.

Unfortunately the company that made the Slice went out of business and the Slice is no longer supported by anyone.  I will be sad if something happens to mine.

We R Memory Keepers is a company that makes a lot of punch boards that you can use to make things as well.  This one makes envelopes, bows and boxes.  On the inside it tells you what size paper to use for whatever size envelope, bow or box you want to make and then just by punching the paper at certain points and then scoring and folding, you have your finished product.  I haven't used the bow or box feature much yet but the envelopes I use a lot with my cards.

This one makes different sizes of frames for pictures or whatever. 

 This one makes party favor bags.  I made the orange one below.

 I have a lot of regular punches too.  Some are to punch things like flowers or leaves and some are border punches to use for making pretty borders on the page or edges on cards.

This one will take a 6 inch piece of paper and turn the edges into really detailed finishes.

This is another type of border maker from Creative Memories.  I am a consultant for them so of course I have to try out the product, right?  Next to it are two sticker makers.  You put small pictures or embellishments through them and they turn them into stickers.  

Sticker makers

Another tool I use a lot, mainly in my scrapbooking, is the stencils from Lea France.  Creative Memories just started making some too.  These stencils allow you to put a lot of pictures on one page.  I showed some examples of how I used them two years ago in the A to Z when I showcased my concert scrapbook album.  Check A for Adele.  I just got the one called "Cruise" and I'm looking forward to using that one!

 Of course there is the Fairy Tales castle!  How cool to use that for pictures of a Disneyland vacation!

The last example of tools I'll show are the templates from Paper Wishes that I used to make the gift card holders I talked about in the letter "G."  

This one made the Christmas holders

This one made the ice cream and mug holders

Those are some of my tools.  Do you use special tools in your work?  Is there a scrapbooking tool you think I NEED to try?  Lemme know.  

Quick aside, using the "tools" on WP I see I have at this moment 146 "followers" on my Word Press version of this blog and 23 on Blogger.  Can I get to 150 and 25 before the end of the A to Z?  Hope you come back tomorrow for the letter "U."

Blogging From A to Z - 2018 - S is for

Welcome to the letter S in the A to Z Challenge for 2018.  I've been making my way through the alphabet at Michaels Arts and Crafts store (thanks once again to Jacqui Murray at WordDreams for the inspiration).  This is the letter I've been waiting for the whole month!  It is the one nearest and dearest to my heart.  It is SCRAPBOOKING.  Sorry for shouting but I just get so excited!

Paper first of all.  This is the single sheet section which I rarely use because it can get very expensive at up to $1 a sheet!

These are the 8-1/2 x 11 inch packs that can go as low as $2 a pack.  That's pretty good.  It's still not my favorite though.

These paper pads are more like it.  This was a recent sale at 70% off which meant a pad of 12 x 12 papers (48 sheets) was $5.  I must confess I have a bit of a paper addiction so I have to really control myself when I see this sale.

They come in smaller sizes too.  This is 6 x 6.

Can you say tons of paper?

Such pretty collections!

I'm not a fan of Martha Stewart and don't like buying her name brand products because I don't think she needs any of my money but she does come up with some really pretty designs.  My favorite of this batch is the one on the bottom right corner.

Of course, you need albums to put the papers in.  Michaels has quite a few of those too.  My preference is 12 x 12 ring bound.  I just find them easier to add pages to and I like the way the book stays open.  

Recollections is the Michaels' brand for a lot of scrapbooking items.  These are post-bound albums which are okay if you are doing a specific theme or limited event album.  

Lots of different styles here too.

Next up is the tools.  

Paper trimmers and punches galore. 

You can find hole punches in a lot of different sizes.

Fiskars is a big brand in this area.  

So now we have the paper and the albums and the tools to cut and punch with.  Next we need some stamps.  These are clear acrylic stamps. 

Tim Holtz is a big name in this department and some of his stamps are locked up because they are expensive.  

I love this one.  "The nice nurse is on vacation" she says with the needle in her hand.  I have given a few shots in my former occupation as a medical assistant so it makes me chuckle.  There were a few patients that it would have been funny to say this to.    

Dylusions is another brand.  She is way out there with her stamps.

There are wooden stamps too.  I always find those a little harder to work with because if you don't get the stamp done perfectly the first time it is hard to re-stamp in the same exact spot.

If you are stamping, you need ink.

Some other things you can use are paints and sprays.  I love the vibrant colors here.

These are special crayons that work with water to make very interesting effects.

Stickers is another necessity in scrapbooking.  There is a vast array of themes.

Rows and rows of everything you could think of.

Travel

School

Baby

There are some VERY expensive tools you can get too.  The old fashioned typewriter has made a come back.  Who knew?  Pretty sure I'm not spending $200 on a typewriter when I can get the same effect more or less with my computer.

This is the Cricut machine.  It, too, is very expensive and it is for cutting intricate details and also works using your computer.  I haven't gotten into this one and I'm not sure I want to start.  

The Cricut machine itself can run up to almost $300.

It has its own section of tools and special papers that go with it.   

Some people have compared my scrap room to a scrapbooking store but I don't know what they are talking about:

Looking in the room from the door.

My Original ScrapBox Workbox.  They are on a 3.0 version now but I got my 1.0 on sale for a bargain.  Each one of those drawers hold some sort of craft supply.  You can see some of my ribbon hanging on the side (used Command hooks for that!)

On the right wall.  Scrapbooks in progress, my printer.  The drawers hold alphabet stickers and words and sayings.  More paper and card making kits.  My coloring books.  On the bottom right is a binding machine to make my own books. 

The left side of the room.  Those binders are from Totally Tiffany and they are full of different supplies organized by themes.  It makes it easier to find things if I have them all in one place.  The drawers underneath hold specialty 8-1/2 x 11 paper, blank photo paper and other special scraps.  The desk itself is a sewing machine table but with all those binders on top of the sewing machine I don't really sew ever.  

My paper tower.  This is most of my 12 x 12 sheets.  The box on the bottom holds some 6 x 6 pads.  I need to do some rearranging here as you can see I have no room for some of the pads I just got (see above 70% off section - LOL)

Most of my wooden stamps.  I've pretty much stopped buying wooden ones.  There is a way to take the stamp off the wooden block but I haven't started that process yet.

Some of my acrylic stamps.  I have a whole binder full of smaller ones and another container full of just Christmas stamps.

Inks

See, I have some of the vibrant paints too!

Some stickers.  I have a lot more in the binders with their appropriate theme (school, baby, Christmas, Travel, Dads, Music, Party, etc.)

Five drawers full of punches.

And just in case you were feeling sorry for me because I didn't have some of the more expensive tools, here are a couple that I do have:  

My Slice machine.  It was among the first of the die cutting machines to come out.  The company has stopped making them but I am pretty covered in supplies.  I can cut almost any shape or letter with this small machine.

This is my MISTI stamp platform.  It allows me to stamp with any acrylic stamp over and over again in the same spot.  I also have the newer version of this by Tim Holtz.  Both are staples for me when stamping.  

I didn't even touch on a lot of the things in the scrapbook section like brads and all the different markers and chalks, stencils etc.  The glitter and adhesives I covered already in G for Glitter and Glue.  I have all those things too, but figured this would be enough about scrapbooking for most people.

One of the things I've wanted to do for a while was make a video about my craft room and the way I have it organized because I know I like looking at other people's systems to get ideas.  Maybe after the A to Z stops consuming me I'll do that.

So, what do you think?  Can I rival Michaels in the scrapbook section?  I actually think, stamp for stamp, I have more acrylic stamps than they do, but they have me way outnumbered in paper and albums, for now.  Hope I haven't bored you too much.  Stop by the other S-rs and come back Monday for T - no, not the drink.


(Note:  I decided I should add a disclaimer to these posts because I certainly don't want to give the idea that I am being paid by Michaels to do this or that they are furnishing me with material.  All pictures used in this blog series were taken by me at local Michaels stores, or are my personal pictures and every Michaels store may not have everything shown.)