Martha Stewart Paper Trimmer

Reported by Christian Tamez

Paper crafters know how important their cutting tools are. Scissors, rotary cutters, crafting knives, all have their spots in my crafting arsenal. More recently the Martha Stewart Paper Trimmer came into my possession and I was excited to give this new tool a try.


Set up is simple; right out of the package you can use the paper trimmer to either cut or score on a piece of paper up to 12” in height. Built into the machine is a convenient compartment to store your extra blades. For longer pieces of paper you can extend the arm of the paper cutter out to accurately measure 10.5” from the cutting/scoring blade. There's also a grid indented into the surface measuring every half inch for accurate paper placement. I thought the design of the paper trimmer was great and I loved the compartment for the blades.



Now when it actually comes to trimming paper, this little tool worked great. When you go to use the paper trimmer, it feels very stable. The blade housing slides easily to smoothly cut your paper. There are also four anti-skid circles on the bottom so it won’t move around on whatever surface you’re cutting on. The blade housing sits on a track within a clear ruler that comes down to secure your paper. In addition there is also a magnifying glass built into the blade housing so you can clearly see the numbers on the ruler.


Switching out the blades is simple, and seems to be very safe. When not in use the blades are housed in a plastic disc holder that also serves to install and remove the blade from the blade housing. Once you insert and lock in your blade, you simply slide off the plastic disc and put it in the little storage compartment until you’re ready to take out your blade.


So far I’ve mainly used the paper trimmer to cut paper for my cards. I easily and quickly cut out the many rectangles I needed. I had much better accuracy using the paper trimmer vs. my traditional rotary cutter and ruler methods.



I’ve also used the trimmer to cut paper into strips which I then punched out with one of my punches and used it to decorate one of my cake stand tiers.



Pros:

• Makes paper trimming fast and easy
• Portable design
• Built-in storage for extra blades

Cons:

• The arm only extends 10.5" rather than 12"
• The scoring blade works best on thicker card stock
• The half inch grid was nice, but I think a quarter inch grid would have been better

Do you have a favorite way to trim your paper? Do you have the Martha Stewart Paper cutter, and love it like I do?


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Martha Stewart Crafts HSN Sneak Peek

Reported by Simone Collins

While on our trip to NYC for the taping of the Martha Stewart Show Craft Hour, we got some very special sneak peeks during our tour of the Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia offices. Not only did we get to see some upcoming ideas for new Martha Stewart Craft products but we also got to see some of the projects that will be tonight on HSN. Starting at midnight EST, you can watch Martha and Alex Perruzzi present some great deals on her popular tools, embellishments and unveil a few new kits.

Lucky you, the awesome craft staff at MSLO let us shoot some sneak peeks to share with our readers. They are a bunch of amazing artists and crafters, and their work is always inspiring, like these awesome projects that show off all the ways you can use the Martha Stewart Score Board. 

You can create a whole lemon-themed party complete with decorations, invitations, and favors so simply.

These great projects mostly feature the Aster Deep Edge punch and the ways in which it was used are just genius. This punch will be exclusive to HSN.

Create a gift box topper, garland, or card with this easy to use punch. And we just love the napkins designed with the help of this simple punch, freezer paper, and fabric paint.

This next set of projects is going to blow your mind. These are all created with the Martha Stewart Screw Punch. Yep, that's right a simple little tool that just punches holes made all these amazing projects.

I could not get over how clever those fabric crafts are with just a screw punch, freezer paper, and fabric paint. Note to self, add freezer paper and fabric paint to shopping list, these were super popular supplies in their projects.

Remember how I said in my trend spotting report last week that lace is super popular right now? Well, it was very apparent at MSLO. These projects all use the Daisy Lace Deep edger punch, Vintage Doily Punch Around The Page, and the Scalloped Dot Square Punch Around the Page. The springy colors are very eye-catching.

The combination of the scoring with the score board and the punch on these straws are genius. And putting a bird on it always helps.

Simple party favors all dolled up by just using these delicate designs on basic paper treats.

And the last set of projects are made with what I am predicting will be a very popular kit on HSN, the Pearl Embellishment Kit.

Using the punches and pearls together turn ordinary projects into extraordinary projects. 

Gorgeous headbands and barrettes made with all the different Martha Stewart pearls. Great for all those springtime ensembles.

Take an plain old box and turn it into something amazing by just adding self adhesive pearls.

Be sure to tune in tonight at midnight EST on HSN to see these as well as many other great projects, exclusive products, and great deals.

Craft Critique Meets Martha Stewart: Part Two: The Offices

What could be more exciting than meeting Martha Stewart?  How about a tour of the Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Offices?  Yes please!  Editor Jodi Levine and Deputy Design Director Megen Lee were happy to show us around!

Dana, Sarah and Simone glow in front of the Martha Logo!

We were delighted back in November to be asked to join MSLO editors Jodi Levine and Hannah Milman in the Caribbean to test run the new Martha Stewart Craft Studio classes by Beaches resorts.  Now we are happy to call them friends in craft. So when we visited New York for a show taping, they graciously invited us for a tour of the offices to see where the magic happens!

There was a lot we were not allowed to snap pictures of: the individual offices, including Martha's clean glass office, the yummy smelling test kitchens, the dozens of inspiration boards all over the building... but we were bestowed the honor of being allowed in the prop room, with cameras!

A place for everything, and everything in it's place!

This is the room where all the props are curated.  There is a small staff that oversees this office, and we imagine they must always be dusting and organizing.  When Martha says, "Bring me that jadeite cake stand that we used on the cover in March of '93," they know exactly where that cake stand is!

It was so fun seeing items we remembered from the magazine!

We think that many of you would pay actual cash money for a trip to the prop room... we know we were overwhelmed!

Candlestick anyone?

Christian didn't touch a thing.  We swear!

A duvet for every day!

Simone chills out with some colorful glass!

Look!  Drawers full of linens!

Ooh! Ahh!

Cake Stands for everyone!

The mixing bowl and canister department

Jodi shows off a wall of walls!

Everything accomplished at MSLO happens here, the editing of the TV shows, the content of each magazine, testing recipes, designing products for Macy's and developing new crafts products.  We even got to see (hush-hush) new stamping products in the works.  We were so impressed with the hands-on approach and the real ownership each staff member seems to take over their area of expertise.

Jodi Levine, Simone Collins, Dana Vitek, Sarah Moore, Megen Lee and Christian Tamez

They've shared some wonderful stories with us about what it's like to work at MSLO.  Did you know there are only about 600 employees in the MSLO family?  Most employees wear multiple hats and seem to really love the work environment.  The open layout makes it possible for someone working on designing a new craft tool to just jog over to the design department to grab a color swatch, or for the cooks to get opinions on a new recipe.  What a dream environment to work in!

We hope you've enjoyed this fun peek into the Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia offices.  Later this week we will be sneak peeking some new products and beautiful samples being debut on HSN!  We know things!  Shh!!

Event Review: Arty Gras Celebration

Reported by Maria Del Pinto

The weekend of March 18-20, my children and I attend a fun event at our favorite art supply store in Westminster, CA. The event is the annual “Arty Gras” celebration at the Art Supply Warehouse.  People of all ages look forward this fabulous event and all the interesting schedule of workshops and demonstrations that they present each year.

This is a free event put on by the store to educate, encourage, and expose members of the local community to widen their artistic horizons.  It is a lot of fun and folks come from as far as San Diego to attend this event.  This year they had a painting competition with some pretty amazing artists who created large wall murals in a limited amount of time.  

The Official Schedule of Events and Workshops

My children were amazed at the incredible things people were making with the simplest of tools.   Our first stop was the “Amazing Human Powered Art Machine” which is a bicycle that has been remade into a human powered spin art machine. 

Human Powered Spin Art Machine

The “Human Powered Art Machine” is a reproduction of the famous retro spin art machine from the seventies. 

It is powered by a person sitting on the bike and peddling to create a rpm of 5000 to 10000, which is enough to produce dazzling spirals and streaks as the paint is squirted onto the paper.

Squeeze bottles filled with paint.

The adults and children stood outside a safety shield. Then using squirt bottles filled with different colors of paint, they created their little pieces of spin art.  

Some of the Spin Art Results

They came out very different from one another.   As you can guess, it was a challenge to get my kids to leave this fun kids craft workshop.  

Lutradur Triptych Postcard

The second workshop was  learning to make a “Lutradur”  Triptych postcard with Peter Overpeck from C&T Publishing.   This is a fun process that uses a variety of papers (Ultra-Light Lutradur, Transfer Artist Paper, Fast 2 Fuse Interfacing), inks, paints, and a hot iron to create really cool effects. 

Ultra Light Lutradur, Transfer Artist Paper, Fast 2 Fuse papers

The trick to this project was using silicon release paper which keeps the different papers from sticking to the iron or the ironing surface.  

Silicone Release Paper

The project we worked on consisted of printed sheets that had been run through an ink jet printer like the sample below.

Ink Jet Printer Sample

Below are samples of the different results you can get by using a variety of materials and inks.  The one below was heat distressed using a hot iron and a heat gun.

Heat Distressed Sample

The next sample show how it works using an ink rubbing technique.  This is a great kids art project.  You simply put a leaf upside down on some wax paper and then put a bit of paint on the leaf veins.  Gently pick up the leaf without smearing the paint and press the painted area onto some paper.  If you did it right, you have a fun leaf imprint on your paper.

Leaf Ink Rubbing Sample

The kids thought this was a fun workshop and the final postcards were cute. These products would be great for card making, altered books, tote bags, recycling old clothing, and upcycled craft projects. For homeschooling projects and teaching guides, the C&T Publishing web site has some class plans and instructions for various techniques using their product line.

The next workshop we attended was the “Visual Journaling 101” technique class with Kari Foteff  (sponsored by Strathmore).  Once my kids spotted bottles of mod podge and gesso, they were very excited to try this project.

Strathmore Visual Journal

This workshop featured Strathmore’s newest heavy-duty mixed media journaling papers that are not supposed to bleed or buckle easily with the application of various media materials. 

Kari Foteff

The journals are made with heavy-duty paper that has a wire binding that makes it easier to have the journal lay flat when open.   First, my daughter used the Mod Podge to adhere different papers to the pages.

Using Mod Podge to adhere asst papers

A water color artist sitting next to her, showed my daughter how to use the Lyra Aqua colors on the page.  She loved that effect and will probably add those colors to her birthday wish list.

Lyra Aqua Colors

The papers were put to the test, using alcohol inks, water colors, mod podge, liquitext fluid medium, and a variety of ephemera to create a special page.

Some of the finished pages

The pages below are done with paint and ordinary ink pens:

Paint & Ink Sample

One thing that I really liked is that the ink did not bleed through to the back of the page when using Pitt Artist Pens (Faber-Castell).

Applying Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen

This was a great project; all the altered pages came out great.  Since this was a fairly new product, there were a variety of different artists sitting in the workshop to test out these journals.  My children learned a lot of great tips from these folks on how to use the various supplies the store had laid out on the table to for everyone to use.  If you want to try your hand at altered art or just get some visual journaling ideas, Strathmore offers free online videos and instructions on their website.

One of the lovely things about the Arty Gras Event is that my children and I could participate in any workshop that we wanted as long as the children had an adult to help them with some of the more challenging tools (like the hot iron).  However, they also had children-orientated activities like face painting by Snazaroo, special beads, fun buttons, and more.

There were quite a few homeschool parents attending the event. They were stocking up on art supplies and gathering new ideas for their own kids homeschool art projects.  It was a weekend filled with great opportunities for everyone to try new products and techniques, as well as stock up on much needed art supplies, crafting supplies and other related products.

We would love for you to share your experiences at any local "Arts & Crafts" shows that you have attended  What was your favorite technique or workshop?

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