Product Review – Basic Grey Precision File Set

Today I am beginning a new bi-weekly series: Product Reviews. I will be reviewing products that I currently own and have been using in my personal projects, not ones solicited from manufacturers, so my reviews will be based on my crafting experience of the last few years.

From the manufacturer: Explore the “sharper” side of scrapbooking with the Basic Grey Precision File Set. All of those tiny ruts and spaces are finally within reach. Perfect for smoothing or distressing chipboard, plastic, paper, metal.. all with “sharpening” results. Each file in the Basic Grey Precision File Set features a rubber-coated grip for comfort and ease-of-use.

I confess that I not only love tools and gadgets, I also love to add distressing to my projects. So buying this set was a no brainer for me! I found the set easy to use, and it lives up to its promises. With two large flat files, and four smaller precision files, I found that I was able to get into even the tiniest spaces between my chipboard letters and shapes. The flat files are perfect for sanding the bigger areas, like the edge of cardstock, chipboard and patterned paper. I’ve used the larger files on Core’Dinations cardstock with a great result!

A few examples:

After covering this chipboard album with patterned paper, I was able to get a nice even finish on the edge with the flat file.

Other uses for the files include

Distressing the edges of photos
Filing off the little “nubbies” that stay when you press a shape out of a die cut sheet
Filing away painting “oops” on the edges of items

The files are easy to hold and use, and more comfortable than using a piece of sandpaper. They are very effective, it just takes a couple swipes to get a smooth finished edge. And the sound it makes while filing is less grating than sandpaper. I highly recommend this set!

Hanukkah is a great reason to pull out your cross stitch fabric and thread and stitch up some fun seasonal cross stitch patterns.

If you have trouble spelling Hanukkah (I know I do!) you’ll want to stitch up the How Do You Spell… project from SKB Cross Stitch Design. This one includes a bunch of different ways to spell the holiday, along with some symbols like a dreidel and menorah. (Technically I think all the ways to spell it are “correct.”) The pattern includes full, fractional and bask titches, and measures 8.5 by 7 inches, or 21.6 by 17.8 cm. It has the date for 2004/5785 but you can easily change the year or leave that part off.

Another project with some fun word play is the Words to Live By chart from Sam Brie Stitches. This one includes Hanukkah related symbols and word presented crossword puzzle style, which is fun to stitch and to display. The design uses 10 colors and measures 74 by 103 stitches. It’s shown worked on 18 count fabric.

I may have shared these before, but the Hanukkah patterns from the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery are so cute they’re definitely worth sharing again. Happy Hanukkah features a menorah, dreidels, gelt, stars and candles, and it fits in a 6-inch hoop. At 75 by 75 stitches, it comes out to 5.4 inches/13.4 cm on 14 count Aida or 28 count linen. They also have this cute little dreidel stamp cross stitch pattern, which is 39 by 49 stitches, or 2.8 by 3.5 inches (about 7 by 9 cm) on 14 count Aida or 28 count linen.

Works By ABC has a lot of great patterns for Hanukkah, but here are just a couple to get you started. The Rules for Dreidel design is fun for kids and adults and shows the different sides of the dreidel and what it means when you land on them. The stitch count is 62 by 94 and its shown worked on 32 count linen. It calls for three colors. I also like this menorah one, which measures 44 by 49 stitches and uses two colors along with coordinating seed beads. On 32 count linen as shown (equivalent to 16 count Aida) it measures 2.75 by 3.1 inches, or almost 7 by 7.8 cm.

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