New Crafters Tools in Stock 30 June 2010  |  Nicola

Great news!  We've added more tools to our collection of crafter essentials.

Is rummaging through a pencil case to find your embossing pens, gel inks and watercolour pencils getting you down?  Store them (well, 48 of them actually) in this pen storage case - finding the right one will be a doddle.

The Aqua-flo waterbrush pen set is a very useful kit.  Containing three water brushes in sizes small, medium and large are great for use with our recently stocked Gelly Roll Stardust Pens (see our last newsletter for great ideas) and pigments.  Simply fill with water and squeeze slightly to add water to the brush.  It helps to take some kitchen roll with you to blot in case you over squeeze! 

The water mist bottle can be used in all manner of ways to create amazing effect.  You can spray over inked stamps to make a watercolour style effect, mix water with mica pigments and use the mister to create a wash.  You could even use the bottle as a pattern maker - close to paper for splatter effect, further away for a more subtle sheen. 

These binder rings from Crafts Too aren't an obvious choice for a crafter but we think they're just fantastic for collating all your samples together.   Remember when you were rooting through your embossing powders trying to find that colour you loved the other day?  It occasions like those when you wishes you'd made a sample to remember it.  For feltmakers it's a great way of keeping those offcuts of unusual fleece/top felts to remind you of their properties for future projects.  You could also use these as a way of binding loose paper - collate used envelopes and keep their blank sides to create a scrap note pad - now that's recycling at its best!  Our binder rings are really secure when closed and come into two sizes - 2 inches and 3/4 inches.

So, you've something to keep all your swatches and sample together but wouldn't it be great if you had a hole punch to make them all look neat?  This screw punch (you'll also hear them referred to as a Japanese Screw Punch) will punch a hole wherever you like, unlike your standard hole punches.  This set comes with 6 interchangeable drill bits (Sizes 1.5mm, 2mm, 2.5mm, 3mm, 3.5mm & 4mm) contained in the handle.  It's a perfect tool for many projects including book binding, journalling, card making etc.

Another great paper set - this one comes with three different mini tools; a cutter, a perforator and a scorer. At less than a fiver, the set is a steal and perfect for anyone needing tools on the move or entering the papercraft and cardmaking arena.

We're very excited about the dry embossing set. It contains a 9 different nibs as attachments and comes in a handy storage box.  You might have already tried embossing paper and card but have you tried embossing foil?  Get your hands a takeway foil carton, punch your desired shape (we think a standard square is a good starting point), draw interesting shapes and patterns on them.  Grab some alcohol inks, then let a few drops drip onto the foil and slowly move the ink around to cover it.  Add some more complementing colours of alcohol ink and allow them to merge where the colours meet.  The raised embossed area creates an amazing contrast and the variation in the colours are sublime.  The dried result is almost glass like.  Trust us, this is a project worth experimenting with!