You can probably tell by my posts which products/companies I love, but I decided to create a post with an ad-hoc list of those that I use the most…

Stone Paper

Stone Paper from Dass Art that I have used in the past (note that they no longer have the 8.5×11 inch in stock)…

Stone Paper – 25/13×19

I have also used this stone paper from Karst

and the blank stone paper from IMStoneGifts (but they too have been out of stock for a while)

Stamps

Haha I love my stamps 🙂

But there are so many other artists stamps and products that I use- Tim Holtz, Seth Apter, Michelle Ward, Fred Mullet, Stampers Anonymous are just a few that come to mind!

Inks

My very favorite inks are Stampin Up and Ranger Distress Inks However for super fine detail, Tsukineko Versafine is my hands down go-to. I can’t live without Versamark either! Stazon and Archival inks are what I use for non-porous surfaces (metal, glass, leather). And for Metallics I mostly use Brilliance Ink, again by Tsukineko.

For spray inks I adore the Ranger Distress lines by Tim Holtz either the regular Distress colors or the Distress Oxide- even better both together! See how I use them in some of my blog posts.

Paint

I am a Golden Girl ;). I love Golden paint, mediums, etc. I love their newsletter too! I do use other paints from Liquitex, etc but for the most part I choose Golden.

Cutting

Digital Cutting

Of course I love my Silhouette Curio and the Silhouette Studio Software (I use the business upgrade)- other than the glitches I have run across! Most of the issues I have been able to figure out work arounds and have documented them in my Blog under the Category Silhouette Studio . I purchase accessories from either Amazon or Silhouette America.

I go through a lot of cutting mats. Designs just cut better with a good mat. I try to extend the lifetime with spray adhesive, but it gums up after a while and my intricate designs start not cutting well. That’s when I know it is time to reorder a new mat 😉

I cut VERY intricate designs! So cutting regular paper/cardstock seems to be a very difficult task on the Silhouette, especially Stampin Up paper and the thicker cardstock I have collected over the years. The only way I have been able to cut my intricate designs on the Silhouette is by using Yupo Paper. You can see some of the things I use Yupo paper for by viewing my Blog posts with the Tag Yupo. I am still on the search for colored cardstock to cut maybe a little less intricate designs and will update here when I find some and will post the Silhouette Studio settings too. 

I do etch on Scratch foam with the Silhouette and use this to make plates with my own designs for some of my clay work. But I will warn you- I wrecked one of my carriages on my Curio because  the etching tool dug in and got stuck. Actually, that is my assumption because I wasn’t in the room when it happened! I came in and my foam was ground to pieces and after that the carriage wouldn’t go up and down! So, fair warning- stay in the room when you are using the machine because the blades, pens, tools can get stuck on the least little thing and better you are there to stop it right away before it wrecks something!

Manual Cutting and Embossing

As much as I love my digital cutter, I have not been able to give up my Accucut and my Sizzix Big Shot. I have played around with embossing on the Silhouette, and etching leather and clay, but quite frankly it seems like a whole lot of work and a process that seems ripe with issues. It just was too time consuming and I always seemed to be fighting with a software issue, clay that would break, pens or blades that would get stuck etc. So, for embossing I mostly use my manual die cutters. I have wonderful dies for the Accucut for cards and scrapbooking, and I even have a bunch of custom dies! The custom dies from Accucut are the old style (meaning they are not thin/etched) and so they can not be too intricate. But they cut just about anything you throw at them- multiple sheets of cardstock, leather, chipboard, plastic, thin metal etc. I could not do without my Accucut!!! See what you can do with this machine in my posts using the Accucut.

Ah Sizzix Big Shot- quick, easy, versatile and, with 3d Embossing, way too much fun!! I love the 3D embossing folders and the Impresslits which cut and emboss at the same time. They can’t cut the heavy stuff like the Accucut, but they are fine for card stock. I even gave up cutting words on the Silhouette and mostly use the thin dies for this now. I have a few posts on embossing with more to come in the future!

Jewelry Tools

I own a rolling Mill from PepeTools and I swear by their Nano Saw blades. What made sawing even more, well maybe not exactly fun, but definitely manageable 😉 is the saw frame made by Kevin Potter. They aren’t always available, but if they are, then you should snag one! I’ve tried many other frames and this one is by far my favorite!

Speaking of Potter USA, their pattern plates and Impression dies are fabulous! I don’t even have a hydraulic press yet, but I use their plates and dies for clay. I also use their plates with paper, foam, and now leather. Check back in the future for blog posts featuring these bad boys!

Most of my Jewelry supplies I get from RioGrande. They are definitely a one-stop shop and the prices are good. Contenti and PepeTools are some of my other go-to sites.

One of my splurge items was a Guillotine cutter- the RIO PRECISION GUILLOTINE SHEAR 7″. I don’t use it even day, but when I use it it is invaluable! I even use it to cut bezel wire now rather than fussing with sawing or cutting with scissors and then filing and sanding- only to find out the )*#$)#*&$)! thing still isn’t square! With the shear I cut and 98% it just works! The other 2% is (Senior) human error, haha.

For hammering metal I use old tools and old irons from antique shops. The more pitted and rusted the better! In good weather I will even use the driveway or road (but don’t tell my husband or the town!)

For polishing I use my flex shaft and radials disks or my JoolTool. Mostly I got the Jooltool because it was flexible so I could polish metal and stone and clay and resin with just one machine. The Polishing wheel I used in Jewelry class did a much better job at polishing IMO, but it was very large and needed a big ventilation system! And was only good for polishing.

I have a kiln for metal clay, glass and my small ceramic pieces. I own the Paragon Caldera kiln. It stacks with different pieces, and is a fire brick kiln. Also, it seemed like it might be better if you had issues because you could just replace smaller parts. However, I mostly chose it because it allowed me to fire glass and copper as well as silver clay, and ceramic clay with some of the lower temp glazes without topping out at max temperatures all the time. It has a piece to allow you to do enamel and beads, but for serious work in those specialties I probably would get something else. I’ve never done bead work, so can’t recommend anything for that, but if I were to do more enameling, I would not use a top loading kiln like the Caldera.

Computer

Lately I have been using Lenovo laptops. They seem to be reliable and not too outrageously expensive. I usually get the ones that can also run in Tablet Mode although I have to say I rarely do that!

Printer

I use the Epson 3880 and love it. It allows me to print on larger and more varied material. I also have a Xerox 6280 laser printer. I thought I would use the color option more often, but I probably could have gotten away with just a B&W laser.

Phone

I switched from Iphone to Samsung since I am a space hog! Samsungs allow for an extra SD card for even more space! And I love the Samsung Note because it has the built in Pen for jotting quick ideas, and notes!

Web Hosting

I have been with MDDHosting for a very long time. They are fabulous! I actually have an affiliate link with them so if you are in the market for a reliable web hosting company (I swear they never sleep there!) check them out here!