Scrapbook Supplies

I went to a scrapbook store for the first time in a while yesterday, and was amazed at all the new products! I’ve written up a short review on a few of the items I bought.

I went to a scrapbook store (Scrapbook Memories in Chelsea, Michigan) for the first time in a while yesterday, and was amazed at all the new products! I’ve written up a short review on a few of the items I bought.

I just purchased the Fiskars ShapeTemplate. I’m not sure how new they may be, but it’s the first time I’ve noticed them. There are probably a dozen or so different templates available; I got the squares and the rectangles. At the store, I tried out both the Fiskars ShapeCutter (recommended on the ShapeTemplate package) and the Blade Runner (recommended by a store employee). I ended up purchasing the Blade Runner as I was more satisfied with the control and ease of use.

Since I’ve gotten home and actually used my new ShapeTemplates and Blade Runner (by EK Success, by the way), I’m pretty satisfied with both.

As is usually my problem, I wanted the product (the rectangle template, in particular) to accomplish something a little different than intended. In order to make puzzle pages, I want to crop my photos into squares of 2 ½ by 2 ½ and rectangles of 2 ½ by 5. The squares came out fine, but I had to kind of finagle with the 2 ½ by 4 and 3 by 5 rectangular templates to ‘invent’ the size/shape I wanted. Again, they turned out okay. Another page idea I’m looking forward to utilizing my squares ShapeTemplate for is quilted pages.

A lot of constant pressure is required to keep the photo, template, and blade from slipping. By going slowly, any errors can be caught and corrected or modified pretty well. Additionally, as the Blade Runner is shaped kind of like a marker, it is important to use it vertically – if held on an angle, it will slip. It should also be mentioned that I’m usually a perfectionist, so maybe others wouldn’t see the same things I see as problems!

Overall, I have found the ShapeTemplates and Blade Runner to work pretty well. The ShapeTemplates were $5 each, and the Blade Runner was $16.50 and comes with two replacement blades. The Fiskars ShapeCutter (which I chose not to get) retailed for $20.

- 10th June 2001