You Can Craft! reviewed

It was about this time last year that I bought the first issue of Let's Make Cards, a magazine and folder of stash combined. I was new to card making and the first issue had really great stash with a Christmas theme: Magic Mesh, die cuts, metal charms, sequins and so on. It made some fabulous cards. The second and third issues, however, were disappointing, and the magazine didn't motivate you to do much beyond sticking die cuts to card blanks and scattering a few sequins around.

So when I saw issue 2 of "You Can Craft," from Future Publishing, I saw a virtual copy of Let's Make Cards in terms of execution. It's shrink wrapped (to stop pilfering at the store), has a magazine, 20 card blanks and a selection of papers and embellishments.

As Christmas puts so many demands on the card maker's stash pile, I bought it to see what it was like.

The stash is not dissimilar to Let's Make Cards. The papers are much better quality. Interestingly, it was not Christmas themed (presumably issue 1 was).

The magazine itself is far superior. It has lots of templates at the back and with these and the papers enclosed, you can get quite creative. The contributors include "names" like Judy Balchin, Shimelle Laine and Jane Dean, and while the articles aren't bylined, I could see where some of the designs originated. A guitar template, for example, had Judy Balchin written all over it. Here's my interpretation. I love the fact the templates are neatly sized at 100% already (who has time to hover at the office photocopier?) and I used tracing paper to reproduce the design.

There's also a great cupcake template - cupcakes are so "in" right now.

So for a beginner, or someone wanting a stash injection and some new ideas, this is a well put together magazine and good quality stash.

Top 10 Magazines - revisited

A few months ago I gave a top 10 (or was it seven?) of my favourite card making, craft and scrapbook magazines. It's changed a bit since then, as I've become more knowledgeable about what I like to do and which magazines provide the right content at a challenging level. It's become a top six now, as I only (only?) get six magazines a month (although if you add on my other titles like She, Eve and so on it goes up to 10 or more....yikes).

So what have I dropped?

I don't get Let's Make Cards now, although I'm still tempted when I see it in Sainsburys. Diving into the envelope of stash that it comes with is like delving into a Lucky Bag. The standard of stash has deteriorated quite a lot. Usually it's just a few die cuts and some sequins now, whereas issues 1 and 2 (particularly the first one, last Christmas) had really lush stash. I don't think it's worth the money now unless you're a beginner without much stash of your own. The card blanks fade and lose their colour very quickly too.

I don't get Crafts Beautiful or Quick & Crafty now: too many projects that I wouldn't contemplate doing, like painting on teacups, knitting and jewellery making.

Simply Stamping, sadly, went out of business, which was a shame because I find that most of the stamping in magazines is too simplistic. I like to be challenged.

I rarely buy Simply Cardmaking and Papercraft, and Complete Cardmaking. I bought the latter a few weeks ago, after not having seen it for months. It was disappointing because instead of grouping the cards by technique, as they used to, eg serendipity, shrink plastic, they were grouped by type of event (birthday, get well, etc) - in other words like any other magazine, and not giving you a clear picture of what you might achieve with shrink plastic from beginner to advanced.

Another one I rarely buy now is Cardmaking and Papercraft. I bought it yesterday because I was tempted by the Christmas cards on the cover. And I was pleasantly surprised. There was an excellent advanced masterclass using UTEE and I will definitely recreate that card for a forthcoming golden wedding anniversary.

Another magazine which would normally be in my top 10, but isn't, is the US publication Somerset Memories. A few months ago I came across this title when I was in the US. Fabulous! Really artistic stamping and ephemera. Well, I took out an online subscription, and received a confirming email, but two months went by and I didn't receive it. I knew from comments on UKS that US magazines usually take a while to turn up. Anyway, after three months I emailed Stampington and asked about my subscription, and they had no record of it (even though I had the confirming email). Nothing had been taken from my credit card.

I noticed in the interim that Blade Rubber Stamps in London sells this magazine so I will get my fix this way. I also tried Creating Keepsakes, the popular US scrapbooking title, but I don't like the US style much.

So here is my top 10....or will it be five?!

1) Scrapbook Inspirations: the one I call "my absolute fave." The free gifts are usually great - I have had a lot of use out of the doodling template, and I recently turned one of the free mini albums into a great present. I love the content of the magazine and there's always something that inspires me.
2) Craft Stamper: regular readers of my blog will know that it's sometimes difficult to track this one down. Not many newsagents sell it. But Blade Rubber Stamps do, and I'm now buying mine from The Stamp Bug, whose owner happens to be the editor of the magazine. Every month there is a free stamp, and I love the more advanced stamping projects this magazine carries. Lots of collages, ephemera and altered art.
3) Papercraft Essentials. I subscribe to this one and it came today. Oh goody! Really excellent wide selection of projects for all abilities, and always has a good selection of free papers.
4) Papercraft Inspirations. Another one that I subscribe to. Mostly cards but does include a page on scrapbooking (last time it featured a really nice holiday album by Jane Dean). The card projects are less appealing than they used to be (too easy) so I may not renew the subscription.
5) Scrapbook Magazine. I subscribe to this one because I was also finding it difficult to find. It is however very inferior to Scrapbook Inspirations, both in its design (very uninspiring front pages) and content. Again, I may not renew.
6) Beautiful Cards. Another one where the standard has dropped (or is it just me?). I love the cards of Dorothy Woods, Wendy Horrod and Alix Ward. But there are too many cards which to me are too easy: simply card blanks with stuck on paper and embellishments or chipboard letters. I appreciate newcomers to cardmaking will like them, but I think there should be more variety for cardmakers of different abilities.

If you read quite a few magazines let me know what your top titles are. We can start a regular top three or five!

Did you miss me?

Well my honoured reader, here I am back after a lull, and with new projects to share.

I was thinking of scrapping Scrap n Card Queen (in the sense of ditching it, rather than scrapbooking it) because it languishes at the bottom of the Crafty Blog listings, probably because I don't give anything away, and probably because I am the billy-no-mates of the crafting world (having never been to a crop).

But I enjoy putting it together and it's a good record of my creative endeavours so I will persevere.

Lately I have discovered the joys of mini books and I've been experimenting with Stampbord.

More on the mini books tomorrow.

Stampbord is 3mm thick smooth white board, created for stamping. It gives a clean, pristine finish and you can then use the special tools, one of which looks like a Brillo pad, to scratch away the paint or ink you have used to create detail, shadow and highlights. You can buy it from one of my favourite online craft stores, Craft Obsessions.

It's a lot of fun to use. I've only tried it on cards and scrapbook pages, but you can also turn it into jewellery.

Here are two cards I created. For both, first of all I used acrylic paint on the Stampbord, allowed it to dry, and then stamped my image on top. I used silver ink for the seashore stamp and a combination of gold and green inks for the leaves stamp. I then embossed with silver tinsel powder for the seashore stamp and clear embossing powder for the leaves stamp. Afterwards, I used the Stampbord tool that looks like an old-fashioned ink pen to scratch out some of the edging.

The seashore stamp is wonderful. It's by Stampington and comes in an innovative cube shape that has a different stamp for each facet. It took a while to arrive from the US but I can tell it's going to be a stamp I use often. I mounted the Stampbord into a turquoise card blank having trimmed a piece of BasicGray paper, topped by Lynn Perella for Stampington artist's paper.

The leaves stamp was free with Craft Stamper magazine. Each month you get a free stamp and they're very useful. The magazine is the only serious stamping title in the UK and features some great collages (and how to use Stampbord). Again, the paper I used was by Lynn Perella for Stampington. It makes me feel extremely smug when I source some US paper which I know very few crafters will have in the UK!

My top 10 craft magazines

Yes folks, it's true to say that I spend a lot of money buying magazines. Blame it on the ex-journalist in me. Initially I started buying any craft magazines I could get my hands on. I've now got to know the strengths and weaknesses of some of the titles, and have a top five I must have, followed by another five that I *might* buy, depending on how much I need a magazine fix.

Once I've read the magazine, I tear out any scrapbook LOs or cards that I really like and file them; I also write down names of any stash I like in a notebook, ready for my next online order.

On a recent trip to America, I discovered some great US titles and plan to subscribe to one or two of them.

I think all the magazines would be improved by more objective product reviews. Let's Make Cards surprised me in their last issue with a comparative review of die cutting machines. I'd begun to suspect that magazines weren't doing reviews for fear of upsetting advertisers. I'd also love to see articles on making the most of stash: how about a designer visiting a crafter, or crop, and taking the challenge of turning some of their unused stash into cards or pages? I have plenty!

So here is my current Top 10:

1) Scrapbook Inspirations. Like its title, the magazine is inspirational and I've torn out many lay outs with a view to copying aspects or unashamedly scraplifting. Really good free gifts too. I loved the mini album, and the white felt brackets.
2) Scrapbook Magazine. Some of the issues are outstanding, some are so-so. Always a must have for me.
3) Somerset Memories (formerly Legacy). Gorgeous, sumptuous US magazine. More focus on art, which for me is an interest. And the current issue has lots of inspirational personal journals.
4) Craft Stamper. Our most serious stamping title. Some beautiful work, and what I like about it is that they supply a definitive list of materials needed for each project, plus The Stamp Bug provides a monthly kit of one of the projects so that you can get started right away.
5) Papercraft Inspirations. Also from the Future stable. Has some excellent cards and tutorials. Covers scrapbooking too. I subscribe to it.
6) Papercraft Essentials. The best for tutorials. I've tried several techniques with guidance from this magazine including Iris folding, acetate and shrink plastic.
7) Beautiful Cards. Love the cards from Alix Ward and Wendy Horrod. I subscribe to this one. The Christmas cards are always fabulous.
8) Simply Cards & Papercraft. Going out of favour with me, too many twee stamping projects. Would like them to be a bit more difficult.
9) Let's Make Cards. I always wonder if I'll buy the next one, but so far I've bought every issue. I just can't resist the mystery bundle of stash. I don't always use it for cards now but it's useful for scrapbooking. After the first two issues the stash went downhill. Now it's just "so so" die cuts and a few sequins. The magazine is improving greatly but the card projects are a little easy.
10) Cardmaking and Papercraft. I was disappointed with the latest issue and probably won't buy it again. The projects are often too easy. I do like what Judy Balchin does, particularly the glass painting.

I'm not keen on Quick & Crafty or Craft Beautiful. Too many painted vases and beads. I hardly ever see Simply Stamping, if it still exists (they need to improve their distribution) but I liked the variety of stamping projects.