Monday, September 5, 2011

A Tool For Each Job. The Many Types Of Scrapbooking Cutters – Part 1

By Janette Miller


Folk who don't take part in you probably need is one pair of scissors to chop out your paper shapes. It surprises them that this is not the case. There are such a lot of different cuts and shapes and levels of precision it's quite difficult to do it all with some scissors without having to sacrifice quality.

For those people new to scrapbooking, here's a description of the indispensable cutting tools I use.

Scissors

I have two pairs of scissors that I use in my scrapbooking, these are my general pair and my precision tip scissors. The general pair gets used on all kinds of materials, ribbon, cardboard, thin plastic, leather and the like.

The precision tip scissors are only utilized for paper. Cutting different materials can dull and affect your scissors, leading to tearing and poor cuts when it comes back to paper.

As a side note, if you need to sharpen some scissors, you can cut through some tin foil to re-sharpen them.

Rotary Cutter

A rotary cutter looks a little bit like an air hockey puck. These are wonderful things, ideal for cutting out curves and circles on flat paper. There's very little resistance because of the way the cutting mechanism works.

Its truly something you should check out in a store.

Exacto Knife

Exacto knives or scalpels are great for extremely precision cutting. Extremely sharp and very pointy, these really come into their own when you want to chop out exact and little shapes in tight areas. As an example, if you were cutting out little stars or triangles in a high school scrapbook, an exacto knife is your best tool.

While you won't use it all of the time, when you need it, you really need it.

In the following article, we'll be taking a look at the more advanced cutting tools available to scrappers and how they can not only save a little time but make your albums look better than ever!




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