Help, I'm not a celebrity and need a list of basic tools for card making!

Welcome to my very first blogpost, I am so excited to finally be here!

So, as this is my first time here how about I share some knowledge with you? When I was first inspired to try and build on my (very basic) card making skills, one of the hardest things I found was finding a list of tools every card maker should have; so I've compiled my list of tools I think should be on that list. Every papercrafter will have different ideas on what they think is 'essential', but I think this list is pretty much spot on for me:

• Bone Folder: essential for creasing and reinforcing folds
• Trimmer: for good clean cuts, that can be achieved quickly and accurately
• Score Board: essential for box making, with cardstock or speciality paper
• Cardstock: for card bases etc
• Stampsets incl. sentiments: choose only ones that you absolutely love, where ideas on how to use them come to you freely. Don't forgot sentiments too, it's easy to think you won't need them, but so often a card can look like 'something's missing' without one
• Basic black ink: black goes with everything, darling!
• Scissors: essential for snipping out images etc
• Liquid glue: um, for sticking - it also gives you an extra second or two to move things if not quite straight!
• Embellishments: e.g. Rhinestones, ribbons, buttons

Here is a card I made using only what I've suggested -

Pretty cute, but missing something, huh? With this in mind I would add a few more bits to that list of basic tools:

• Ink Pads in some of your favourite colours: who doesn't need more colour in our lives?!
• Punches: these are fantastic time savers; also Stampin' Up! (SU) do matching stampsets and punches - known as bundles, when bought together (they also do bundles using framelit dies, instead of a punch, to be used in a big shot machine)
• Dimensionals (or 3D foam pads): these are great for giving some of your project pieces a little height e.g. flowers etc.

So, with these extra bits, here is the finished card -

This pic shows how a dimensional works -

If you would like to recreate this card, here is a list of Stampin' Up! products used:

• Whisper White cardstock (106549)
• StazOn jet black Ink Pad (101406)
• Rhinestone Basic Jewels (119246)
• Petite Petals Bundle incl. stampset and punch (Clear mount 134822, or Wood mount 134821)
• Perfectly Penned stampset (Clear mount 122892, or Wood mount 128703) RETIRING JUNE 2014
• Strawberry Slush Ink Pad (131178)

Click HERE to go straight to my online Stampin' Up! store, peruse at your leisure, pick and choose your own goodies to play with; and please, do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions.

Thanks for stopping by!

Nina x