I got more birthday goodies yesterday... my packages were delivered from Ebay, and I got a present from my mother. She sent me a DVD of Seven Little Australians (that should be nice for when I'm feeling nostalgic for Australia...) and a book of Suduko puzzles. I just hope it's a BEGINNER'S book or I'll be stuck on the first one. I'm hopeless with numbers and mathematics... From Ebay I got a box of seven assorted coluzzle templates and a cutting mat - the person said they just couldn't get the hang of it and looking at the templates I can see why. They only used one, for a 'goodybag' and they must have been trying too hard or not using the right cutting mat because they hacked up all the corners! Actually I think they were trying to cut the template on the cutting mat they gave me, which is NOT the special foamy one... put the template down on a regular cutting mat and it's a #@%$ to try and use, but as soon as you sit it down on the special white foam mat it glides along perfectly. Still, even with the beat-up template it was a bargain - I paid $20 for seven assorted templates, which retail between seven and ten dollars each. One of them was still in its original packaging (ironically, the tag template I bought in my starter kit, so now I've got a duplicate), and four of the others hadn't even had the plastic coating peeled off for use. My other Ebay box is a collection of Fiskars stuff that somebody said they weren't using... I got a fiskars paper trimmer with a fold-out measuring arm and a special angle measuring plate, a box of texture templates that hadn't even been used, with the little texturing tool you're supposed to use with them, a fiskars shape cutter with its spare blades in the compartment, and four starter templates. All for $25 including postage! The texturiser is pretty hard work to use so I'll only be using it very sparingly but if you tape it to the paper it comes out very nice. The shapecutter takes a bit of practice to work out... I haven't really got the hang of it, except that I've realised that you have to push it away from you in an anticlockwise direction, not pull it towards you. If you pull it forward clockwise it just shreds the paper... It does make a good cutter used freehand too - I was dubious but you can cut very intricate shapes with it and the large circular guide makes it very controllable. So I think I got my money's worth :) I've gone from having a shortage of cutting and shaping tools to having an overabundance!
- posted
17 years ago