This post contains affiliate links. I was given a CutterPillar Pro ABS paper trimmer. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Please see my disclosure policy.
One of my goals this year is to make scrapbooks for my grandchildren. I don’t talk a whole lot about scrapbooking here but it is something that I enjoy doing in my “down time”. I made scrapbooks for each of my children when they were growing up and I remember how excited they were to see the pages added to their special, personalized books.
Since my daughter didn’t seem to inherit my love of crafting (I know, right???), she is thrilled that I’m going to make these scrapbooks. And I can’t wait to get started.
In fact I’m going away to a 3-day, 2-night scrapbooking weekend and that’s exactly what I’ll be working on. Have any of you ever gone to such an event? (By the way, if any of my local readers are interested in attending this scrapping weekend, let me know and I’ll get you the information.)
I went last year for the first time, and boy was I unprepared! These woman are serious scrappers! I felt like such an amateur ; ) There they were with their tables all organized with lamps, shelving, laptops, electronic cutters, and storage units of all shapes and sizes holding all of their abundant supplies. I had a tote bag, snacks, a bottle of wine, some card stock and a pair of scissors.
Just kiddin’ ; ) I did take my Silhouette. But while they were creating beautiful cards and scrapbook pages, I was working on blog stuff. Pfft. Not this year!
Nope, not this year. This year I’m prepared! And wait ’till everyone sees my new paper trimmer!
Let me tell you about this paper trimmer and why I had to have it.
It’s big and stable. For some people that may not be a good thing. But for me it’s perfect and here’s why. I use card stock. Thick, heavy card stock. I’ve said before that I may have a little problem with double-sided card stock. I seem to collect it. And I save the scraps. You never know when you may need it ; )
And the card stock that I “collect” is 12″ x 12″ and often times has that manufacturer’s strip on one edge. You know what I’m talking about? So it’s actually larger than 12″ x 12″. And that card stock fits into this trimmer – no problem. And I said, I save paper scraps.
My box of paper scraps was overflowing so I gave my new CutterPillar Pro quite the work out.
The blade will never need replaced. It’s a gear-driven rotary blade that passes smoothly by a stationary blade and gives the cleanest cuts. It’s wonderful. It literally glides as it cuts. It is so smooth. You know how you can hear paper trimmers cutting? – that “ripping sound”? This is not like that.
I’ve never seen anything like it. It cuts the tiniest slivers – so thin that the paper curls!
Another big deal for me is the LED light. The light actually shines up from underneath the paper and you can see exactly where it’s going to cut. The older I get, the harder it is for me to see so that light is a big bonus for me.
The ruler guide is another feature that I love. Both the rulers and grid are embedded right into the mold for increased accuracy and longevity. I followed CutterPillar’s suggestion and applied black craft paint so that I can see the marking easier. If your eyes are young, you may not need to do this but it made the increments so much easier for me to read.
If I could just make one change to this paper trimmer, it would be to add some sort of hinged paper holder guard thingy to hold down the paper to keep it from shifting.
Other than that, this paper trimmer is perfect and I highly recommend it. Like I said I have the big Pro model. But there is a smaller, more portable model that would be the ideal size to take to crops.
Both of these CutterPillar paper trimmers are available on Amazon. But the kind folks at CutterPillar are offering my readers a 20% discount if you order from their site and use the coupon code: create&babble This discount is good until April 6, 2017. (I also noticed that they have free shipping!)
Speaking of scrapbooking and cropping weekends away, one of of the gifts I received for Christmas this year was this Crafter’s Shoulder Bag:
This bag would be perfect to take along to the scrapbooking weekend. But I remembered seeing how much “stuff” is taken to these scrapping weekends and knew that one bag wouldn’t be enough.
So I bought these two companion pieces:
We R Memory Keepers – 360 Crafter’s Bag
We R Memory Keepers Crafters Tote
Now I’m packed and ready to go!
Kinda helpful I guess. But a problem sometimes or it is just me who doesn’t like this. Dunno. Hahahaha.
you should also take space and budget into consideration. You can opt from automatic versus manual, low versus high capacity and stationery versus mobile models. In this case, you should ensure that your chosen cutter is able to work for anything you need to cut.