My All Time Favorite Crafting Tools

These are my tried-and-true favorite crafting tools without increasingly than a decade of crafting for a living.

Did you know that crafting is literally my full-time job? For over a decade now I have worked in the crafting industry through my website. I have partnered with dozens of variegated crafting companies, dabbled in nearly every type of craft and have tried a lot of variegated tools. So naturally I have some favorite tools and today I thought it would be fun to share them with you.

I am only sharing tools that I truly believe are the weightier in their class, that I personally own, use and love. If I don’t have a tool in a unrepealable category listed, it’s considering I haven’t found a well-spoken winner yet, but in the future if I do find one, I’ll update this post with any additions.

If you want to see all of my picks in one place, I created an Amazon Storefront page with links to all my favorite tools.

Silhouette Cameo 4

The Silhouette Cameo 4 is my favorite crafting tool by far. It’s so versatile and helps me unzip truly polished, professional results. I love stuff worldly-wise to cut paper and vinyl designs. I have moreover used it to cut felt. I love making stickers and tags using the Print & Cut feature. If you want a versatile crafting toy that you will play with for years to come, this is it. There are just so many possibilities that unshut up when you own a Silhouette machine. And yes, I prefer Silhouette over Cricut. Both machines cut well, but if you want full creative control, the Silhouette software is just way largest for designing projects from scratch and that’s a hill I’m willing to die on.

Cutting Mats for Silhouette or Cricut

The Silhouette trademark wearing mats are great, but I found these cutting mats on Wren for so much cheaper. I took a endangerment ordering them the first time, but they work just as well, so I’ve never looked back. If you own a Cricut, the same visitor makes these mats that are compatible.

Scraper

I got this scraper for applying wrapper vinyl, but I use it for all kinds of things. I plane used it when I installed wallpaper in our bathroom! It’s just the right size and stiffness and plane though it’s not necessary (you can unchangingly use an old souvenir vellum instead), I really do love it and recommend it if you do a lot of vinyl crafts.

Weeding Tools

When I got my first Silhouette machine, I didn’t want to spend any uneaten money on weeding tools, so I used a straight pin to weed my vinyl designs. Then someone gave me a Silhouette tool kit and wow! The vaccinate is awesome! It’s a very ergonomical shape and is much increasingly well-appointed to hold when doing any tedious, detailed weeding. They sell an scrutinizingly identical hook at Dollar Tree. I moreover love the spatula for getting tiny pieces of paper off my wearing mats. Again, you can get the whole kit from Silhouette or find one at Dollar Tree.

Best Paper Scissors

I have two pairs of all-purpose crafting scissors that are my favorites. These gold handled scissors have such a unconfined weight, finger good in my hands and bonus… they’re pretty to squint at. The other pair of scissors I have come to love are these Fiskars Mixed Media Shears. They are super sharp and have a really ergonomic handle that fits my hand shape and makes it really well-appointed to cut through plane thick material like chipboard.

Best Fabric Scissors

I’ve owned these Fiskars fabric scissors for 20 years and they are my wool favorite. My old pair squint a little different, but the one I’ve linked to is the upgraded model. The handles are spring-loaded, which makes it so much easier to cut through plane the thickest fabric. They vellicate when up without you squeeze the blades together. They are awesome!

Scissor Sharpener

Even if you’re not a crafter, this scissor sharpener is a must-have. It brings your old scissors when to life. Just slide the blades into the holes and squeeze the handles a few times and your scissors will be good as new.

Rotary Cutter, Mat and Ruler

If you quilt at all, you veritably need a good rotary cutter, mat and ruler. They help you cut perfectly square and straight fabric pieces. I have used the Fiskars Rotary Cutter since my upper school quilting matriculation and it is amazing. Be super shielding to unchangingly tropical it though– it’s super sharp and will cut you! Honestly, I don’t have a specific trademark for a wearing mat or ruler, but I do have a suggestion. GO BIG! Most fabric is well-nigh 43 inches wideness and you really want to be worldly-wise to cut big pieces, so in this instance, worthier really is better. This cutting mat is a unconfined size and price and has good reviews and this ruler is a good companion.

Magnetic Pin Holder

When I first started sewing, I had the iconic tomato pincushion. It’s fine, but you know what’s better? A magnetic pin holder! It’s so much easier to just sort of toss the pin in the right unstipulated zone and have the magnet grab on to it. Fewer pins waif on the floor or roll yonder when I use it. Mine is an old wearisome woebegone one, but the one I linked to is a cute verisimilitude and plane has a little spot to store pins.

Cute Thread Racks

My most asked well-nigh crafting item overly are these sewing machine wire thread racks. You can see them on the wall in the photo above. I got mine at a thrift store (I squealed with welter when I saw them and snatched them up so fast) but Hobby Lobby sells scrutinizingly identical thread racks and they are the only ones I can find anywhere that are similar.

Best Glue Gun

Alright, this is an important category to me. I own eleven glue guns. ELEVEN. And guess what? There’s a well-spoken winner for weightier glue gun.

My criteria? The perfect glue gun has to:

heat up quickly
have a fine tip nozzle for precise glue application
most importantly, it CANNOT DRIP

I loathe a drippy glue gun. Nothing is increasingly worrying to me than a glue gun in idle that just sits there spitting a big mess onto my table. Boo! Say no to drippy glue guns! There is a largest way to live.

I bought this glue gun considering it supposedly hit all the marks, plus it had features I didn’t’ plane know I needed—the big one stuff that it automatically shuts off without not stuff used for increasingly than 15 minutes. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve left my glue gun on for days without realizing. I am lucky I haven’t burned my house down. This full-length sold me.

I moreover love that it’s cordless and charges via USB string so no batteries are needed. It’s super handy when there’s no outlet nearby. One must be ready to craft anytime, anywhere. (Words to live by, right there.)

And the last reason this is the weightier glue gun is considering it’s pink. And it’s cute. And you know what? That matters to me. haha.

If you want to trammels out the details, you can see this magic glue gun here:

The Craft Patch’s Favorite Glue Gun

I am unchangingly trying new things and testing products, so if you have a favorite crafting tool I didn’t list or one you want me to test, I’d veritably love for you to leave a scuttlebutt and tell me all well-nigh it.