I don’t know about you, but one question I get asked the most when I am teaching card-making classes is “What supplies do you use?” I love to see everyone bring their essential supplies to my classes because it’s always so interesting to me what everyone uses. Some people use those old photo squares to adhere their layers, some people cut cardstock with scissors and a ruler (GASP!) and what I love is no two people have the same supplies.

Today I’m going to share with you MY essential supplies – just tools – and I would love to hear what you think! For the most part I have purchased all of my supplies from my LSS, but I will try to give you some links in case you want to try some of these products out for yourself. And FYI, I’m not endorsing any products for compensation, I genuinely love these tools and after 5 years of card-making have deemed these MY FAVOURITES!

1. Ott-lite. I remember when I used to craft underneath my dining-room chandelier. Stamping was a night-mare, colouring was worse… I couldn’t see anything clearly. The Ott-lite is beautiful, sunny light and I love it for two reasons: clarity while I’m crafting, and lighting for my photos.
2. Crop-a-Dile Corner Chomper. It’s a corner rounder that goes through multiple layers of cardstock, chipboard, metal, ANYTHING your heart desires, as well as cleanly cutting a single sheet of cardstock. No effort to squeeze, and two sizes of rounded corners.
3. Marvy Squishy Scissors. I do have a number of pairs of scissors, but these are my go-to pairs for cardmaking. I have one pair for paper, and one pair for ribbon (I’ve tied a piece of ribbon around the pair for ribbon), this keeps the blades sharp. NEVER MIX YOUR PAPER SCISSORS WITH YOUR FABRIC SCISSORS. Trust me. I’ve had these for 2+ years and they’re still as sharp as the day I bought them.
4. This to That foam adhesive by American Crafts. The. Best. Dimensionals. Ever. They are easy to pick up, easy to peel off the backing, sturdy, thick, and very strong. I buy them in bulk when they’re on sale because I never, EVER want to run out of these.
5. Glue Glider Pro. I have found this to be a really great, quick adhesive. It’s like a small ATG gun. You buy the gun/glue together one time, then when the glue runs out you buy refills. The one thing I’ll say is the refills aren’t cheap, but I love it enough to suck it up and pay the price. I don’t know about you, but I’ve tried every adhesive under the sun and when you find something that works you stick with it, no pun intended!
6. Sookwang Tape – some of you may call it “scor tape”. If you use this to glue something down, it’s not coming off. Period. lol.. It’s seriously strong adhesive. I love it for ribbon, altered items/mini albums, adhering heavy layers. It’s great stuff and available in lots of thicknesses.
7. Tonic Guillotine (pronounced GEE-uh-teen with a hard “G”). How many trimmers have you purchased in your crafty lifetime? This is probably the 10th trimmer I’ve purchased and it’s definitely my last. It cuts straight, there’s an extension arm so I can measure up to 12x12 when I need to but it only takes up 6x12, it NEVER goes dull (no expensive replacement blades) and it’s very sturdy. I’ve had it for about two years and I’ve had no problems with wear-and-tear. The only downside is it’s more expensive than your standard trimmer, but you will NEVER have to buy another blade ever again!
8. L Letterpress cleaning cloths. Cleaning stamps has been an experiment in patience. Like trimmers and adhesives I think I’ve tried everything from spray cleaners to scrubbing pads to baby wipes to washing by hand. I like the baby-wipe method the most but was frustrated with small fibers left behind on the stamp. The fibers would get in the way of a clean stamped image often and I was looking for a new solution. Enter letterpress cloths. They are exactly like a baby wipe but the formula is made to remove ink – not poo (click to see a comparison)! The cloths also give off very little fibers so I am totally happy! I reuse the wipes until they are dry or un-useable and I am still on my first box of wipes after 6 months!

So there you have it! If you have any questions about the products I’ve mentioned feel free to leave a comment. If you’re curious about anything else I use on a regular basis (inks, embossing gun etc etc..) again, just leave a comment.

I hope this has been helpful… Thanks for stopping by!