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HELLO Giveaways! | Tools

Giveaway Day 29
ByHeather Bailey August 29, 2013

I take a sketchbook with me everywhere I go, even if I'm just heading
to the gas station to refill the tank. I had lovely thoughts to share
about keeping a sketchbook and how pivotal this is for anyone with
artistic ambitions or creative hobbies.

But then, my husband went outside to change the brakes on our car,
leaving me to write out my lovely thoughts in the midst of a storm of
children, which storm has blown my concentration right out the door. The
teenager is writing a physics paper and packing for an overnight field
trip tomorrow. The middle child is sick and needs medicine and love. The
baby has torn his diaper off so many times, that I am now letting him
sit naked on my lap and watch Jay Jay the Jet Plane while I type.

I may not retrieve those lovely sketchbook thoughts till
another day. Just know that the thoughts are there. I am passionate about
sketchbooks. You must, must, must have a sketchbook—so I went and got one for you, along
with a big pack of pretty, colored pencils.

It doesn't matter if you can draw. You need a place to capture your
creative brainstorms. Write it down, draw it out, or risk losing it. I
also picked up a colored pencil blender pen for you, a solvent-based marker meant for blending wax-based
colored pencil pigments. This is something I have never tried before, so
I got one for me too. We'll find out together.

If
I'm preaching to the choir, and you're already amply equipped with
sketchbooks and colored pencils of your own, take a shot at this
giveaway anyhow. If you win, then you can gift the prize to a creative friend who
needs to hear the gospel truth about sketchbooks.

As you know, I have some big introductions to make this week. I
tidied up my sewing area this morning to make way for a full weekend of
projects—assuming the baby keeps his diaper on and no unexpected
strike-offs arrive at the door.

Just going with the flow. I'm grateful to have that flexibility.
Speaking of flow… I better go put a diaper on this kid. I'm testing my
luck at this point.

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HELLO Giveaways! | Tools

Giveaway Day 16 — A Big One
ByHeather Bailey August 16, 2013

When I say that I'm friends with some cool people at some cool
companies. I mean, wow. I put out some calls, told everyone I wanted to
have a big Thank You Party for my readers, and look what's coming in.
Today's giveaway prize is another big one.

This incredible machine here is called the Cricut Expressions 2.
It is an electronic cutting machine. Digital designs are plugged into
the system on cartridges and out come perfectly-cut pieces. Pieces of
what, you say? Pieces of cardstock, chipboard, sheet magnet, foam, felt,
balsa wood, vellum, cling vinyl, fabric and more. That's a lot of
creative possibilities.

This
Cricut is a free-standing machine that is easily operated using
touch-screen technology. You don't have to have a computer. From what I
read, this is one of the easiest cutting machines to operate and there
are a number of video tutorials and reviews posted online if you're a
visual learner.

Included with the Expressions 2 machine is their Cricut Essentials
cartridge which includes hundreds of designs and a Cricut Alphabet
cartridge. Beyond that, Cartridges galore
are available separately from a variety of designers. The machine
features a cutting area as large as 12" x 24" and it will arrange
multiple items for you in order to prevent waste.

Great for crafts, party decorations, card-making, scrapbooking, fabric
applique, product packaging, valentines. I can think of so many fun
things to do with a cutting machine. What incredible technology to have
on hand.

Oh! And Cricut is also including a bundle of iron-on vinyl in three colors—winner chooses the colors.
Wait till you see what you can do with this iron-on vinyl. Holy cow.
You can customize tee-shirts, pillows, shoes, sports jerseys, hats,
handbags, Christmas stockings—anything. To see images of this
heat-transfer film in use, visit Cricut's iron-on vinyl product page, then click on each color of vinyl to pull up project ideas.

With so many functions and uses, it's quite impossible for me to cover it all in this one post. I recommend you visit their "New to Cricut?" page, the Cricut Blog, and the Cricut Forum if you want to delve in to the details and see all that the Cricut Expressions 2 can do. Cricut is also on Facebook (a great resource), Instagram and Twitter, so go say hello.

All in all, today's generous prize is a $345 value. Thank you, Cricut! To enter for today's
giveaway, leave a comment here on this post. One entry per person.

Be sure to include your email
address
so we can contact you if you win. You don't have to type your email
address into the body of the comment if you entered it in the email-address
field on the comment form; I can access that info from behind the scenes. Today's giveaway will close at 11:59pm PST on Sunday 8/18/13.
(This is a big one and it's Friday—so I'm giving you all weekend to
enter. This means it will overlap with Saturday's and Sunday's
giveaways.) Watch for the winner to
be announced early next week at the bottom
of the post.

For more info on these August HELLO Giveaways, click here. Please
share the word. We have lots more in store for you this month.

Good luck!

xo—Heather

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Tools

Chef’n Spatulas
ByHeather Bailey March 11, 2011

A few years back I picked up an oddly-shaped silicone spatula on sale at a fancy, local grocery store. I was intrigued by it’s double-ended design and the claim it was heat-resistant to 650º F (340º C). It worked so well as a spatula for baking and also as a stirring tool for cooking that I hustled back to that store and purchased the only other one left. These are now among my favorite, everyday kitchen tools.

The spatula is reinforced down the center with a super-strong, super-stiff metal bar. The silicone at either end is flexible, but not too flexible. It scrapes up brownie batter like nothing else.

I am glad to have tracked down the company’s website so easily. It turns out they have a ton of nifty tools based on the same concept. Look at all of these options and colors! My exact spatula is no longer in the collection, but it is most similar to the clear design below.

Who knows, it may no longer be my favorite once I have my hands on that violet one above, or perhaps the red one. It looks like they are available on Amazon for $10 to $13 each or so.

Here are the product names for easier hunting:

1. Chef’n Switchit Flex Wide (pink + 3 other colors)

2. Chef’n Switchit All Purpose (violet + 7 other colors)

3. Chef’n Switchit Spoon/Spatula (yellow + 5 other colors)

4. Chef’n Switchit Spreader (red +7 other colors)

5. Chef’n Switchit All Purpose (cream + 7 other colors)

6. Chef’n Switchit Flex Spoon (blue + 7 other colors)

7. Chef’n Switchit Slim (green + 7 other colors)

8. Chef’n Switchit Long (clear + 5 other colors)

And check out this groovy salt and pepper grinder — it’s a bunny and you squeeze it’s ears!

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Tools

Stuff for Stuffing Stuff
ByHeather Bailey April 2, 2009
I'm
in the home-stretch of a many-months' design project. With a name
chosen, a logo and some final print-outs, my next fabric collection
will head off to the mill and my brain will be my own again. I've been
twittering as a welcome distraction. Next I'll need a new phone plan
so I can twitter from anywhere. Then I can get input on whether to buy
the yellow shirt or the blue one, have help choosing a dessert at the
grocery store, or discuss any number of random ponderings while on the
go.

For instance, I've been thinking about Magic Shell
a lot lately — well, more than usual, which is never — probably
because ice cream consumption increases in direct proportion to an
increase in workload. Magic Shell can't be natural. But, it sure
tastes like chocolate and not as much like plastic as I'd expect. I
twitter-tweeted my love of Magic Shell and WhipUp twittered me right back a link to a make-your-own-Magic-Shell recipe here.

For my last 2009 MOT post, I'm singing praises for the Stuffing Fork by Barbara Willis — my favorite tool for stuffing stuff with stuffing : )

— like pincushions, dolls, toys, etc.

This
simple tool is awesome. You can use it to push stuffing into just the
right spot. And for teensy stuffed things, like doll fingers and
noses, the small Stuffing Fork
is great. If you poke the fork into a small tuft of stuffing and give
it a twist, you can maneuver your stuffing bit in place. They really
are great.

We just stocked a handful of each size, large and small, in our store (10% discount here
till April 5th). I have an old-school, wooden-handled Stuffing Fork
that's been well-used and well-loved for the last decade or more. Now
I've upgraded to these new ones which have a molded plastic handle and
are even better — a necessary tool for your sewing arsenal.

And
because April is upon us, I'm going to bullet-list out a few more tools
I love, then call it done for the year. Totally random though. No
rules.
- Color Munki. New tool for us. But you should hear Isaac's shouts of
  'whoa!' from the other room. When you're in the design business, color
  calibration is big.
- Great Lash Mascara. Tackiest packaging, but good mascara.
- Beeswax for thread.
  For quilting or applique, if you run your thread through beeswax &
  press it before sewing, your thread will be stronger and will suffer
  less wear when pulled through the fabric stitch after stitch. I'll
  blog about this one in more detail sometime.
- Water-soluble markers.
  For marking match points or drawing tailoring adjustments in sewing.
  Or for drawing out an embroidery design onto fabric. Where were these
  when I learned to sew with chalky, messy, white tailoring pencils?
- Art Gum erasers.
  I have these erasers all over my studio. When I only had one or two,
  I'd lose them, or the dogs would chew them up. Isaac bought me 10 at
  once and now I'm all set. Having an abundance of good erasers is a
  luxury anyone can attain.
- Pentel Twist-Erase mechanical pencils.
  My new favorite pencil, because the eraser actually lasts for a while
  and can be re-filled. Of course, as a result, my art gum eraser
  collection hasn't been as important lately. Dave says this pencil has it's own following.
- Typepad. I've used Typepad from the beginning and have always
  been impressed with their interface, customer service, customizability,
  upgrades, etc. And I've never had a post go missing. This is the second or third time they've featured my blog on their sign-in page and I'm completely honored.
- Twitter. I've always described blogging as a form of conversation, and micro-blogging is even more conversational (see tweets in my sidebar). It's been less than a week since I started twitter-chatting, but what fun.
Okay, so I'm off to polish up a logo for the fabric collection, then
it's back to a more normal pace — and a movie & a milkshake. Any
movie recommendations?
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Tools

The Pen is Mightier than the Spatula
ByHeather Bailey March 17, 2009

Isaac loves to cook. His sister, Evie, gave him a subscription to Cooks Illustrated magazine
for Christmas one year and now we're hooked. I'm pretty sure I would
never have picked up this magazine from the shelf of a bookstore. But
it's great!

Cooks Illustrated covers the science of
cooking in a fun, easy-to-follow format. In any given issue, you might
learn how to best hard-boil an egg so the yolk stays centered (helpful
for deviled eggs), or which brand of stone-ground mustard is the most
flavorful, or the science behind aged cheese. Who knows — all kinds
of interesting things. Their test-kitchen cooks tirelessly compare
techniques and recipes to arrive at the best methods and flavors. Then
they quickly outline their test results and make suggestions in the
magazine. Even better, their research and info is completely unbiased
– like Consumer Reports
for cooking techniques, food, & recipes. The magazine doesn't have
any ads and is illustrated in old-fashioned pen-and-ink-drawings, which
I love.

Anyhow. Yes, I'm recommending a cooking magazine as a favorite tool for March of the Tools. Next time you're out shopping, stop by the magazine row and take a peek through Cooks Illustrated. I love knowing the 'why' behind a good recommendation. And Cooks Illustrated is full of 'whys' — and good recommendations.

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