Craft Product Reviews

Ideal if you love papercraft, these corner and border punches from Fiskars are designed to give you the most out of your tools and space.

Corner Punches

Cutting an even rounded corner can be a tricky task to get right, but is as simple as can be with the rounded corner punch. The decorative corner punch gives an ornate looking corner with one easy punch, ideal for creating your own greetings cards and stationary. The nifty 2-in-1 design system means that you can make small and large cuts of the same design with one tool, offering double the functionality while saving precious desk space.

Border Punches

These punches are light weight but can cut through heavy card sheets, making them very durable. Simply slide the paper along the punch, to create a running pattern. The decorative punch will give your paper a stylish edge, whereas the weaver punch, cuts dashes along the paper, making it perfect for weaving ribbons through.

These punches are available to buy from Fiskarsnow.

You may think embroidery looks tricky but, as we discovered when we were sent a Sublime Stitching embroidery kit, it's as easy as can be.

From first look, you may feel overwhelmed and think your project will take ages to complete, but once you get started, it comes together really quickly. The kits come complete with all the supplies you need, including an adorable pair of pink embroidery scissors, a rainbow of embroidery floss, and iron-on ink patterns. Though the projects come with designs to use, the layout is completely up to you, so you can really get creative.

Just make sure to practice ironing on the transfers before you begin, because it can be a bit tricky. No doubt, by the time you've finished your kit, you'll be addicted and want to embellish everything you own with your newly acquired skills. Both addictive and therapeutic, it's a great hobby to pick up while watching TV or listening to crafty podcasts.

You can pick up your own kit now at Sublime Stitching.

Fiskars make two ranges of scissors, classic and non-stick. We road tested them both, to see what they had to offer.

Classic Scissors

Comfortable to hold, not only are these blades super sharp, but their tips are cut to a very fine, sharp point. These micro-tips allow for precision cutting, making the most detailed, delicate and smallest cuts possible. Ideal for working with stencils or in other papercrafts, these scissors would be any scrapbookers best friend.

Non-Stick Scissors

If you've ever tried cutting through stickers, tape or glued material, then you will know how annoying it is when your blades become clogged up and wont cut smoothly anymore. For that reason, you will love the new non-stick scissors range from Fiskars. Using the same technology as non-stick cookware, this design feature will make tidying up after sticky projects as simple as wiping the blades with a damp cloth.

Not only is this paper trimmer portable, but it comes in a really cute design. Cutting up to 10 layers of paper at once, it comes complete with a nifty smudge guard, rubber feet to keep it steady, and extending measuring arm, so that you can trim larger pieces without needing a bigger trimmer.

Hard wearing and resilient, the trimmer has a reversible cutting bar and a detachable blade, so that you can replace blunt blades and use specialized and decorative rotary blades. Create a zig-zag with the Pinking blade, wavy edges with the Scallop and Wave blades, or create the look of ragged paper with the Deckle blade. With additional blades to perforate and score, this trimmer is very versatile.

The trimmer and additional blades are available to buy now from the Fiskars website.

Both innovative and intuitive, these fingertip control tools offer a much greater degree of control, making common tasks like cutting as simple as running your finger along a piece of paper. Such a simple idea, every crafter should have some.

Mini Rotary Cutter - ideal for cutting patterns, the blade glides smoothly across the paper and, with the finger control, you're far less likely to go off course.

Craft Knife - this cutting knife cuts so smoothly and is a lot easier to hold than a standard knife, as it doesn't have a big handle to get in the way. The blade is nice and easy to replace too.

Swivel Knife - the perfect tool for cutting curls, swirls, or cutting zig-zag shapes, as you can change direction without lifting or repositioning the blade.

Craft Tweezers - these are really comfortable to hold and they make picking up small items a lot less fiddly than with normal tweezers.

Self-healing mat - not only does this mat heal itself after cuts, but each side is coloured differently, so you can pick the colour that best suits your mood. Ideal for snapping photos for your CO+K projects.

All of these tools are available to buy now from the Fiskars website.

Bring spring in to your home early with a Brini Maxwell and Felix Populi crating kit for making a daisy embroidered wall canvas. We were sent a kit at the CO+K office, so we gave it a spin.

The kit includes all the materials, minus the wood frame (but you can use an embroidery hoop), needed to create the canvas and the instructions will teach you how to do three different types of stitches, including the very nifty French knot, which we are ashamed to say we'd never tried before. This was a quick and easy kit to follow and the whole thing only took about an hour an a half from start to finish.

This would be a great gift for someone wanting to learn how to embroider and the finished product would be make an ideal Mother's day present!

You can pick up your own ornament kit from Felix Populi.