For this week’s Meet it Monday, Jenny introduced us to a fun new tool: the Sew Easy Stitch Piercer from We R Memory Keepers.  By using the Sew Easy Stitch Piercer and Piercing Mat, you can easily create a perfect stitched look to your paper crafts without having to drag out the sewing machine!  The Sew Easy line also features a variety of attachment heads and threading floss to achieve almost any look.

A card embellished with the Sew Easy Collection

 Today, we’re giving one lucky winner a large Sew Easy starter pack!  The winner will receive:

• Sew Easy Piercing Tool
• Sew Easy Piercing Mat
• Sew Easy Needles
• 8 Packs of Sew Easy Floss (assorted)
• 6 Sew Easy Attachment Heads (assorted)

To enter, leave a comment below telling us how you would use the Sew Easy Collection.

Giveaway (Sweepstakes) Disclaimer:

• Odds of winning are based on number of entries.
• This giveaway begins: 1/13/12 and ends: 1/16/12 at 9am EST.
• To enter this sweepstakes, leave a comment on this blog post.
• One comment per person, please.
• The winner will be contacted via email
• The retail dollar value of this prize is worth: $70.00
• No purchase is necessary.
• You must be a US resident aged 18 years or older and live in the Contiguous US to be eligible to win. Sorry, my international friends!

Craft Test Dummies featured review!

So many of us like the look of stitching on our paper crafts….but it can be tricky to get that look “right”- uneven stitches, problems piercing the paper, inability to make those cool designs. Now, though, there is a cool tool on the block from We R Memory Keepers- the Sew Easy Stitch Piercing Tool that make it tons easier to add that special touch.  Let’s give it the CraftTestDummies once-over and see how it really works!

To use the product successfully, you MUST have both the Paper Piercing Tool and the Pink Piercing Mat.  The tool itself is made of plastic and has 2 parts- the handle and the piercing roller. It comes with a straight line for creating french knots, a running stitch, or backstitch.

To use the tool, you position a piece of paper on top of the mat and apply pressure to the handle while rolling the tool forward or backward. The spines in the roller will pierce the paper and get it ready for you to sew with a needle and floss.

Steady pressure and not moving too quickly works best.

The big question in my mind was “What kind of papers will it work with?” First try with scrapbook-weight paper, and that was easy-peasy.

Nice, clean holes all the way through the scrapbook paper.

So I gave it a good work out on some other papers, as well:

Core'Dinations Cardstock also worked well.

A more complex pattern, on a card blank.

What I found is that thinner paper works best, especially with more complex patterns. Now, after I tested the tool, I actually got to do some stitching! I used the Sew Easy Needles and the Sew Easy Floss. Both were high-quality and easy to use- and certainly on par with other flosses I’ve used.

I really liked that there were diagrams on the package to show you the ways you can use the pierced holes to make a different stitching patters. Here’s how my stitching samples turned out:

From top: a card blank, scrapbook paper, Core'Dinations cardstock, foamies.

You may notice that I even tried the Sew Easy Paper Piercer on a sheet of Foamies! While it did NOT pierce the foam sheet all the way through, it left deep enough indents so that I could use a regular embroidery needle to follow the pattern.  Fun, right?

I used the Sew Easy Paper Piercer to embellish a simple thank you card.

I’m excited to play with it more and add cool stitching to my cards, tags, and scrapbook pages.

What ways could you use the Sew-Easy Paper Piercer?

Let me say that I’m generally NOT a scrapbooker but I am a lover of history. My favorite kind of history is family history. My family and lots of others. I like hearing or reading the personal stories. I feel a strong connection to women who came before me – how they lived, worked and mothered.

So with all of that in mind I wanted to create a keepsake book that will explain, long after I’m gone, where I came from.

This is a really great project to involve the children with, especially as family members they don’t see often gather together for the holidays. It’ll give them a sense of connection and help them understand HOW their mom or dad are related to all those people.

Supplies:

• Cinch Bookbinding Tool
• Cinch 8×8 Book Board
• Cinch Binding Wires - .75 inch Black
• DCWV – The Linen Closet 8×8 Paper Stack
• Chipboard Alphabet Letters – or any letter of your choice
• Peltaloo Chantilly Collection – Mixed Velvet Hydrangea – Blue - other embellishmens to fit your look
• Scrappy Cat Stamp Collection – Patterns
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink – Brushed Corduroy
• Darice Permanent Adhesive Double Sided Tape Roller
• Photos

The first thing you’ll need to do is scan and print several photos as you won’t want to use the originals. I printed an old one of what must have been a family reunion way back when, one of me, my parents on their wedding day, my father’s parents and my grandmother’s parents just to get me started (I created extra pages to go back in and add photos of my mother’s family).

For the cover I chose the paper I wanted for both the front and backside. I adhered the paper to the book binding board with the double sided tape runner. Then I added an area of light gesso to the front cover with a semi-dry brush. Once that dried I stamped a couple of areas with a Scrappy Cat Stamp and the Tim Holtz ink. I also added a page from an old Farmer’s Almanac (because my family were farmers) and some alphabet stickers. I gessoed over the plain stickers and then antiqued the edges with the Brushed Corduroy using a cotton swab to get the edges.

To create the pages I chose the papers and taped them, wrong sides together to make a sturdy double sided album page. I added photos, and aged papers keeping in mind not to get too close to the left side of the page where the Cinch coils will go.

Don’t get too fancy with the embellishments at this point as that’ll just make it more difficult to punch the holes in later. Just get a general idea of how the album will be laid out.

Now, it’s time to punch the holes so you can put the album together. I watched the WRMemory Keepers Video Tutorial on YouTube and read over the instructions first. Make sure to practice with a piece of paper before you begin punching holes in your pages.

The Cinch has an area that holds the wire for you while you put your pages on. Remember to put the back page on first – as seen in the video. You can pick it up once all the pages are on the coil to make sure it will close and be in the right order before you close the wire. It’s that old “Measure twice, cut once” mentality.

Then move to the back of the Cinch to close the coils (the inside back of the book is shown in the above photo).

All that’s left is to add names, birth and death dates, personal stories or memories… and of course, more embellishments.

And now you have a one of a kind, personal album to share with your family. This is a great project for remembering those who have come before us and to share with our children and grandchildren about the people who came before THEM.

The added bonus is that the older people in the family may remember those in the photos and you may have an opportunity to learn even more about your heritage. Be sure to keep a video camera on hand to capture any of those great stories.

TIPS:

Black Photo Corners would add a great antique touch to this album.

If you are worried about getting 8×8 inch paper lined up EXACTLY right when using permanent adhesive, go ahead and buy the 12 x 12 Paper Stack and once you have everything stuck together, THEN you can cut them down to 8×8 inches.

The set comes with a large mat, three finger caps, a paddle, tweezers, and a press wand. All are non-stick and heat safe- up to 600 degrees!

I love the extra-large mat- it’s over 14 inches wide! It’s a great work surface.

You can see that cooled globs of glue peel right off!

The Pressing Wand lets you

If you work with a glue gun, you are certainly going to want a set. The mat is also great for protecting your work surface while painting, too!

Click over to my blog to see how I used the Hot Glue Gun Helpers to make a Spring Kissing Ball!

Martha Stewart Crafts Leaf Stamp and Punch

Using the Martha Stewart Crafts Leaf Stamp and Punch

When using the stamp and punch together, it’s much easier to stamp first and then punch. Stamp your piece, then place in the punch, turning the punch over so you can line up the stamped art with the cutting edges. I love the possibilities the Martha Stewart Crafts Leaf Stamp and Punch allows. There are so many combinations to create really wonderful leaf accents for all your projects.

Check back tomorrow for a fun Thankful Wreath project featuring this tool.

If you are unfamiliar with the Around the Page punches, or are wondering how they work, you’ve come to the right place.

Let’s take a closer at the punches, first. As mentioned above, it is a two-piece set, but you can buy the border and the punches separately, too.

The corner punch is pretty standard- the image is set at an angle. But unlike most of the corner punches I own, the Martha Stewart Crafts punches has little “wings” that pop out when you want to use the punch, but then fold back in to make storage easy. Brilliant!

 

These “wings” guide the paper and fold in for storage.

The border punch built to be almost fool-proof. The punched image is foiled onto the top of the tool, with images also printed on the deck. This allows you to line up your image with your punched paper for perfect repeats. There is even an image guideline for the corners, so that everything is lined up perfectly.

 

Use the images on the deck to perfectly line up the paper.

 

This photo shows what it looks like when the image is not lined up properly.

And again, this deck flips up for storage- so instead of having to store a punch that is 5 3/4 inches long, it’s a compact 3 5/16ths. These are small details- but the design really is thoughtful and those details can make the difference!

 

Border punch with sides folded up for storage.

You can use these punches for so many things! We’ll get to some projects and techniques soon, but here’s a sneak peek!

Last winter, I got the chance to attend the Craft and Hobby Association conference and trade show and of course, I always want to know what’s new from ProvoCraft. The new Cuttlebug V2 was just launched, and the lovely Maggie LaMarre took some time with me to make this quick overview video:

I hope you are excited as I am by the Cuttlebug- the most efficient, cost-effective die-cutting machine around! We’ll have some great projects coming up using it, too.

Happy Scrapbooking Month!

Flash forward to today. Lamination STILL makes sense for many business and craft applications. While ID cards are a must in most workplaces, think a little more broadly….

• ABC books for infants- drool proof!
• Themed place mats for kids- just wipe clean!
• Create handmade, sturdy bookmarks.
• ATC’s or calling cards.
• Make papercrafted items sturdy enough to make into magnets.
• Protect book covers.

This unit is lightweight and relatively easy to store. It’s so easy to use! Just load you item into a laminating sleeve, then feed it through the machine. You don’t need to use any paper carriers! It has 3 settings- one for 3ml hot lamination, 5 ml hot lamination, and one for cold laminating.

I’ll have project for you soon- but in the meanwhile, check out this bookmark I made:

This bookmark with four layers of cardstock!

There are so many fun uses for the Purple Cow Laminator- stay tuned, we’ll have some great craft projects for you soon!

Disclosure

Just a snippet of what we saw today:

Paula from Purple Cow

Here’s Paula from Purple Cow, showing off the new Free Style Mouse cutting kit. I hope to get a video of this, but visualize a mini rotary cutter in a safe plastic sheath. Press down and the blade activates, release and it goes back up into the protective dome. Now imagine that you can swap out the straight rotary blade with a deckle, perforation, wave or other blade without worrying about cutting your fingers! That kind of explains it.

It will cut craft metal (and metal cans), fabrics, papers, cardstocks, etc, all without templates so you can truely “freestyle”- pick the shape YOU want. It will also work with the Purple Cow cutting guide, though, if you want perfectly straight cuts. So flexible and cool!

I also peeked over into the Cricut display…and there it was- the Cricut CAKE. Yup, you heard it, a Cricut designed just for cake decorating. Move over, Cake Boss! Of course, this booth was mobbed and I only got one picture…but there’s always tomorrow!

New- Cricut CAKE!

Since it’s been a looooong day, I’m going to save a few tasty morsels to share with you tomorrow: stop back in for the lastest CHA trends!

Darice Hot-Fix Rhinestone Setter

I fully admit it, I am a bling girl!  I love the sparkle and shine of glitter, rhinestones, and crystals.  I’ve been eyeing up the Darice Rhinestone Setter for quite some time now wondering how it would work along with my many paper crafting projects.  So I ordered this tool along with a package of Multi 4mm Hot Fix Crystal value packs.

Once my package arrived, I could hardly wait to rip it open and take my new bling beauty for a spin.  What fun we would have together creating sparkle and shine together.  The first thing I noticed was the lovely purple color of the tool.  I am a pink girl at heart, but purple is a close second and this color does not disappoint!  I love that it has a stand included so when you are heating your tool you do not have to worry about scorching your work surface.

The next thing I notice was the great variety of tips included in the package.  You simply screw in a new size when you want and then can fasten any size hot fix crystal or stone that you want.

I have to admit that one of my crafty tool pet peeves is the fact that plug in tools have a short cord.  Not the Darice Rhinestone Setter!  The cord was plenty long to reach all the way to the top of my work surface and give me plenty of slack to work with.  I really appreciate this in a tool.

So I plugged my tool in to the outlet and set it up on my work surface on the handy stand.  I then selected the tip that would work with my 4mm Darice Multi Hot fix stones and screwed it on to the end of my tool.  The package instructions say to heat it up for 2 minutes before using and I decided to give it 5 minutes. Then I simply picked up the stone I wanted and attached it to the chipboard floral piece that I had been working on.  You simply lay it down and kind of slide it right out of the tip as you push the tip off to the side.  You do have a couple of seconds to move it around a bit before it is cool and secure.

Remember not to touch the tip and also let the stone cool for a few minutes before touching that as well.

I was not sure how well this would work with paper.  I knew it would work well with fabric of course.  I would suggest if you are using it with paper that you work quickly and not linger too long with the hot tip next to the paper for too long as I am guessing you could in fact scorch your paper, although I had no trouble with this.  It does remind me a bit of a wood burning tool so I am guessing it would not be too long before a scorch mark would appear.  Working quickly on paper should not be an issue.

I am so glad to finally be the proud owner of my very own Rhinestone setting tool!  This works amazingly well for my paper crafting needs!

Do you have a Hot-Fix Rhinestone setter? What do YOU “bling up?” We’d love to hear from you!

(See Lisa’s Altered Flower Box Craft and the snazzy crystals she used on it!)

FTC Disclosure