Tool Time Tuesday

My latest purchase of scrapbooking supplies was spent on this product - the Crop-a-dile. Actually I was down to the end of my customer card at the local scrapbook store so I had $20 off any product. This baby only cost me just under $10 CAN. Great buy. To me, it is definitely worth the $30 at full price. It has a 1/8 and 3/16 punch on each side and an eyelet/snap setter. I admit I love the hammer. I really like to bang out those eyelets and not be constricted by how close it is to the edge. Silent setters never interested me in the slightest. Well I thought that if I bought this thing I should try it out. Since I am going through adhesive like crazy I thought I would save some and attatch my main image on the covered notebook on the right with eyelets. Since I adhered the eyelets before covering the notebook cover the desired area were not too close to the end of the page and it was a bit cumbersome for that reason. The actual attaching of the eyelet was very easy on both the eyelets and my hands. I do prefer the hammering method but would definitely use my cropadile if the desired area were close to the edge or if I can not hammer because Lavinia is asleep. The great news is that I did not buy this product for the setter though. Last year I went through a number of punches making paper bag books and this year I broke another punch while making my covered notebooks for the craft fair. I had heard that the Cropadile was made for heavy-duty use so I decided that after spending way over $30 in punches that had broken and trips to the scrapbook store to get them, the Cropadile would be worth trying. With my covered notebooks, I added chipboard to the front and back and because of my previous punches limitations I would have to punch all separately and the pressure would reek havoc on my hands. I knew this was the product for me once I used the punch the first time. It went through the paper cardstock, and chipboard with ease. It says that you can even use it on tin. I have not tried but I do believe that you could. I made all of these mini covered notebooks (stacked in the pic) and 3 large notebooks in one evening. Before having the cropadile I would do two notebooks in one evening. I recommend this product to anyone making mini-books and covered notebooks. If you only make cards or scrapbook pages unless you are really into silent setters, I would stick to a good quality punch.