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I have been wondering about a few products, and thought you ladies may help me out with the pros and cons.
1. How is the "Tearing Edge"? Does it help---sometimes I get a little "excited" about tearing, and it turns out smaller than I wanted! Would it help me?
2. Plaid makers....easy? hard? I have a rubber brayer...do I need anything else?
3. The little mat maker? I am not one for measuring...more of an eyeballer...would that help make things more even? (see above about getting excited)
1. How is the "Tearing Edge"? Does it help---sometimes I get a little "excited" about tearing, and it turns out smaller than I wanted! Would it help me?
I have not used the tearing edge tool. I do love to tear paper and I like the look of the "natural" torn look. What I do is cut a piece that is going to be torn a bigger so I have plenty of room for tearing.
2. Plaid makers....easy? hard? I have a rubber brayer...do I need anything else?
I have borrowed a friend's plaid maker and to me it was easy to use, but messy. You will need the foam attachment for the brayer, the rubber attachment will not work.
3. The little mat maker? I am not one for measuring...more of an eyeballer...would that help make things more even? (see above about getting excited)
not sure about this one, I've never used it. I'm more of an eyeballer also.
I have the tearing edge and to make it easy, I use a small water color brush and water and go along the edge I want to tear, then put the tearing edge up against it and rip away. It is easier to use if you have a wider piece of cs that you are wanting to tear, but if it is a thin area like up against the edge of the cs, then that's when I use water to kind of soften the paper. I don't know anything about the plaid maker, but do have a brayer.
__________________ Sandy~
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11
I have all three and I think they are worth having
The Tearing Edge is wonderful... I was tear-challanged and this has saved me :lol: And don't let the price fool you... we sell a double-sided metal ruler while most others are selling a single-sided ruler for more than $20. I think standing and putting pressure on the ruler while pulling towards you gives you the best results. If you find you don't have enough cardstock to pull on easily just use your blender pen or aqua pen to dampen the cardstock along the tearing edge - this will make it easier to pull.
The Plaid Maker is great... I use my daubers instead of the foam brayer because it isn't as messy. I know many people use the sponge attachment with their brayer and have great results though. This truly makes creating plaid fun!!
The Layer Ease is fabulous... I must have even layers (the OCD in me :lol: ) and this tool really helps!!
The tearing edge is great. It does give a slightly uniform look to your tearing, but when you are tearing challenged like me...that's ok. Plus I am pretty anal and I like it to look neat.
The plaid maker makes cool paper, but is a PITA in my opinion. I hardly ever get it out and I do have the foam brayer and all. I just think it is time consuming and if you don't get it completely dried off, one water droplet will make your ink run.
Tearing Edge: expensive tool, but I love it. I hate the job I do tearing by hand, this gives me a nice straight tear edge, especially on long edges. I use it a lot and recommend it to those who don't like to tear by hand.
Plaidmaker: love the effect, pretty easy to use as long as you secure your paper to the template. It is a messy item and I have yet to demo it at a workshop due to the messiness.
Layer ease: don't have this one, have tried it out and it works well.
The tearing edge is okay, but in my opinion, it makes the tears a little to perfect or contrived looking. I rarely use it.
Just recently got the plaid maker and I love it! It is quite messy though, and I would recommend buy 2 foam brayers so you can work without waiting for the first one to dry.
Layer ease is pretty cool. I don't have it yet, but I've used it. So far it just hasn't been something I feel like I've needed.
Tearing Edge - LOVE IT! I use "regular" tearing and the tearing edge - the TE when I need it to be uniform and very straight. I've used it a lot and sold it a lot.
Plaid Maker - I love this tool although I hate it using the brayer. I like to use the sponges - it works best when your stamps aren't too inked up so that it's almost dry as you "smear" it on. I have always been a sucker for plaids so I really have to hold myself back from making EVERYTHING with the plaidmaker..LOL!
Layer Ease - I like this for uniquely shaped things but I think I've used mine three times...
__________________ Staci Cannady
"Once the mind has been stretched by a new idea, it will never again return
to its original size."
--Oliver Wendell Holmes
The layer ease is great when you want a really nice finished look, but sometimes if your initial free hand cut is crooked, the more you layer it, the more noticable. I love it though. It has been a life saver on tags,etc. It's well worth the $$ if you are a perfectionist.
I was very sceptical of the tearing edge as it seemed like a big waste of $ to me - but saw it used, tried it and found it great! However, I agree that the tear does look a bit uniform, but it does almost guarantee you'll get it right instead of wasting a load of cs because the tearing goes wrong.
I was very excited about the plaidmaker until I tried it. It was very time-consuming and wasted a lot of ink. Just my opinion. Love the results other people get with it, though - it's just not for me.
TE: I mostly prefer tearing cardstock by hand because I like the uneven look of it, but we used it at convention for vellum, and I really liked it for that... I have had poor results trying to tear vellum by hand.
LE: I have it, have never used it.
Plaidmaker: I love it! I don't really find it messy at all. I use sponges, so the ink does not get all over the plastic as much as it did when I used the brayer with foam attachment. I just use moist paper towels to wipe it off afterwards. My upline demoed it for our group a few months ago, and she just wiped it off on her jeans (she's casual that way).
Do you think it's worth it??
