Crop-a-dile
When I first heard about the Crop-a-Dile from We R Memory Keepers in January, I will admit that I was skeptical. I figured that a gadget that looked like an oversized hole punch that punched holes and set eyelets wasn’t really that exciting. After hearing friends’ rave reviews, I decided that I would have to try one out for myself to see if it was really worth all of the hype.
I would like to share what I have learned about the Crop-a-Dile after purchasing it and using it myself. I would strongly encourage you to try out a few eyelets on scratch paper before you use it on a layout. I ruined one eyelet before I figured out the correct way to set them.
Pros:
Punches both 1/8-inch and 3/8-inch holes.
Sets all types of eyelets. Yes, all of them. Even oversized and odd shaped eyelets.
Very little pressure is needed to squeeze the handles together.
Punches EASILY through several different types of materials such as chipboard, leather, acrylic, fabric, and tin. Of course, cardstock and vellum are extremely easy to punch.
This is a completely silent punch. I have been using Provo Craft’s Silent Setter, but the pressure need to make it work was a bit much for me. I rarely used eyelets because of this. The Crop-a-Dile is so quiet – a must when scrapping near sleeping children!
Cons:
Limited reach. This reaches less than 2 inches from the edge of the page. I suggest that if you really need an eyelet set in the middle of a page, then you would set it on a coordinating piece of cardstock and then adhere it wherever you need it to go on the page.
Hard to see directions. The directions come with pictures showing which way the heads of the tool should be turned and the pictures are hard to interpret. After some trail and error, I just figured it out myself.
The price. This retails for $26.99, which is usually a little high for me. But I was able to use a 40% off coupon at a local scrapbook store and that made it a reasonable price.
Overall, I highly recommend this product to anyone to liked to use snaps or eyelets because of the ease of use and silent setting this product offers to the user.