I’m often asked what basic products I recommend for memory keeping. There’s so many choices out there for tools, albums, etc – it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Here’s a list of my current favorite supplies that I use and love:
CUTTING TOOLS
Fiskars 12 inch Desktop Rotary Trimmer : There’s also a smaller travel-sized version that I use when space is an issue.
Tim Holtz/Tonic Studio Non-Stick Micro Serrated Scissors : These scissors are great for cutting a wide variety of substances from rubber to paper to plastic.
Fiskars Retractable Fingertip Craft Knife : When I first started scrapbooking I used a craft knife and a metal ruler for all my cutting. These days I use the trimmer suggested above but still use my craft knife for lots of tasks – most especially when trimming edges on minibooks.
Silhouette Cameo : This is something I’ve just started using recently. It’s an electronic die-cutting machine that connects to your computer. You can use digital designs, create your own, and use fonts from your computer. You can see an example of how I used it with some of my digital files here.
ADHESIVE
Scotch Permanent Adhesive Dot Roller : Perfect little permanent dots, this is my everyday adhesive.
Scrapbook Adhesives 3D Foam Squares : These are my favorites for “popping” an element off a page. I especially love using these with photos.
ALBUMS, CARSTOCK, PAGE PROTECTORS
We Are Memory Keepers 12×12 3-Ring Albums : I’m now using We Are Memory Keepers albums for my scrapbooks. Their page protectors are really excellent – nice & thick. Other colors and sizes available here.
We Are Memory Keepers 12×12 Divided Page Protectors : These divided page protectors fit 12, 4 inch x 6 inch photos. I love to mix in a variety of different sizes and pocket configurations into my albums.
American Crafts 3-ring 12×12 Albums : These albums hold all my layouts up through 2009.
Read more about my approach to organizing my albums here.
Bazzill Orange Peel Textured Cardstock White 12×12 : My go-to cardstock for most of my layouts. I mainly use white, cream or kraft (paper-bag brown) for most of my layouts. 8.5 inches x 11 inches in this same texture is available here.
PENS
American Crafts Precision Pens : .03 is my favorite size.
ATTACHMENTS
American Crafts Silver Mini Brads : I use these all the time for attaching papers and other bits to my projects.
Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher : The size of these staples are my favorite – much smaller than standard size staples.
PUNCHES
Marvy Uchida Clever Lever Extra Giga Craft Punch : This is my go-to square punch. The actual punched square measures just a little over 2.5 inches x 2.5 inches.
We Are Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile : This is the best tool I have found for punching holes through chipboard and plastic. I use it mainly as a hole punch but it also sets eyelets.
Corner Chomper : I use this for most of my corner rounding. I use the 1/4 radius for all my Project Life photos.
CAMERA, PRINTER, SCANNER, SOFTWARE
In addition to the tools listed above, here’s a look at the technical tools I’m currently using:
- Camera: Canon 5D, iphone 4, Instax Mini
- Lens: Canon 24-70L, Canon 50mm 1.4
- Scanner: Epson Perfection 2480 ( model discontinued )
- Printer: Epson Stylus Photo R2000
- Photo Paper: Epson High-Gloss Premium Borderless Photo Paper
- Computer: Mac
- Photo Editing Software: Photoshop CS5, Photoshop Elements ( mainly for tutorials, free trial available here )
- Photo Organization: Aperture
From time to time I share additional products that are inspiring me in series called Three Things. You can view past posts here.
