Creative Hot Marks.....not so hot

Thanks for visiting Craft Critique! If you've come here from a search engine or from a direct link, you might be missing out on more content! Please visit CraftCritique.com. And for more amazing content such as projects, artist interviews and more, sign up for our Monthly Newsletter.

Reported By: Heidi Kingery

Walnut Hollow is the maker of the tool Creative Hot Marks. This is something I have apparently been oblivious to while staring down all the products week after week at Hobby Lobby. I never noticed it was there and had never even heard of it. That is, until my loving hubby bought it for me for Christmas this year. “Aww, thanks honey! What is it?” I say. He proceeds to tell me all about it, having obviously spent a lot of time deliberating before he put it into the cart. On some level, I think he bought it for me just to ‘see it in action’ because as soon as I opened it, he plugged it in and tried it out. Men!

I pulled it out myself for the first time last week. I read all of the directions and tips, along with a ‘project and tip’ sheet that you can find for free in Hobby Lobby too. Here is what the Hot Marks comes with:

• The Hot Marks tool (heats to 750 degrees so it’s not suggested for children under 12) and stand

• 15 scrapbooking points including: mini flow point, universal point, calligraphy point, tapered point, shading point, hot knife point, trasfer point, heart stamp, circle stamp, flower stamp, swirl stamp, leaf stamp, square stamp, star stamp, and triangle stamp

• Plastic case with dividers to carry your tool and tips, along with several more items of your choice

The tool retails for around $30 and you can also buy alphabet stamps seperately that will fit the tip of the tool on their website. The alphabets retail for around $26 a set. They also have project ideas and a full catalog on their site. It advertises itself as being great for paper, parchment, cardboard, leather, fabric, wax, foam, rubber, gourds, soap, and more. It can be used to write, mark, melt, transfer, cut, seal, stamp, emboss, and brand.

{stamps by Queen Kat Designs}

Before you even plug in the tool, you need to decide which tip you would like to use. The box tell you what points work best for the projects you are doing. Once you screw in the preferred tip, plug it in, and turn on the switch located on the cord. It takes around 2 minutes to heat up to the degree that you can use. After you have that taken care of you need to be sure you have a glass mat or glass from a picture frame to use underneath whatever you are doing. You have to have a glass piece under, otherwise you will damage whatever surface you are working on. Lay your project on the glass and get to work! Once you are done, turn the tool off and let it sit for about 10 minutes before switching the tips (if you choose to use other tips). I would let the tool sit for 15-20 minutes before placing it back in the case.

I was most excited to use the tapered point so I could make my own pouch! I pulled out a clear plastic envelope that I had gotten a stamp set in before (yes, I save everything!) to test it out. To say the least, it was harder than it looked! Free handing a shape (I had samwhiched a small artificial flower in between the sheets) was practically impossible. Well, maybe I should say practically impossible to look nice. So, I decided to change to the universal tip and pull out a piece of glass from a smaller frame I had laying around and use it as a guideline because I did not have a metal ruler. Now, that looked much better! I made this little shaker box using Queen Kat Designs stamps, glitter, and the universal point on the tool.

I tried several other points and found them hard to use, especially the ones intended for writing. The lines were not smooth and my hand got tired from trying to go back over what I had written again and again to make it look right. In the end, it still did not look nice enough to use on a card or scrap page.

Although Walnut Hollow has several other tools that have gotten wonderful reviews, this Creative Hot Marks is not my cup of tea. There are several projects they suggest that I haven’t gotten the liberty to try, such as the image transfer, because I lack a laser printer. I also do not work with leather or wax for my projects. I would suggest if you are thinking of purchasing this product, find all of the reviews you can and see if you have a friend that has one so you can test it out. As a card maker, it will most likely collect dust on my shelf.

Tell us what you think! Do you have one that you absolutely love? Why do you love it and what points do you disagree with me on? Or do you have questions that I didn't address in the article? We want to hear from you!