In my last post I revealed that during the first few years of my scrapbooking adventures I used a traditional paper cutter rather than one designed specifically to trim cardstock, photos and patterned paper.
You don’t know the depths of frustration until you’ve tried to trim 12×12 paper, with a tool designed to cut 8 1/2 x 11 paper.
Thanks to Santa Claus I now use an EK Success Cutterpede for all of my scrapbook cutting and trimming. However, the Cutterpede was not the first “real” paper cutter I experimented with. My generous friend let me borrow her Fiskars trimmers when I was in the process of deciding which paper cutter to place on my Christmas gift wish list.
I wanted to share my experience with the Fiskars cutter because it was surprisingly delightful (despite the fact that I ended up with the Cutterpede). Maybe “surprisingly” is not an apt term, as the company is well-known for its line of outstanding scissors, and you’d think one excellent cutting tool would beget another.
In any event, I was very impressed with the Fiskars brand paper cutter. It easily crops cardstock and photos, as well as being able to cut borders and create frames for your pictures. What’s more, the company sells two different styles of trimmers.
The first is the personal paper trimmer line which features a base that holds the paper and a track for the blade. You simply place your paper or photo on the base and slide the blade along the track to get a straight cut. If you are working with larger pieces of paper you can purchase the model that comes with a swing out guide. Otherwise, the standard models can accommodate paper from six to 12 inches. Another noteworthy feature is the cutter’s size. It is very portable and can easily be toted to crops or other scrapbooking get-togethers.
The other Fiskars trimmer features a rotary blade for cutting. The advantage of having a rotary blade is that you reduce paper tear. In addition, you can trim up to 10 pieces of paper or 20 pounds of paper at one time. The other feature I liked with the Fiskars rotary blade trimmer is that it accommodates decorative blades, such as wave, deckle, scoring and perforating slicers.
What’s your favorite brand of scrapbook paper cutter?
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