It really bothers me when I buy a craft tool and then for one reason or another I don't use it for its intended purpose and I know this happens to a lot of other crafters too. Recently, however, I realised that some tools can be put to good use even if not for the one they were meant to. Here are a few examples. I hope this helps you make the most of those craft tools you bought and never use or use very little.
Fiskars shapes templates
I have 6 of these and I use them to cut paper and cardstock but also to cut fabric/felt. What I do is place the template on the fabric/felt and trace the shape with a pencil or sewing chalk or I trace it onto vilene, iron it onto the fabric/felt and then cut the shape. The one I use the most is the one with the different size circles.
Fiskars embossing stencils
I'm not very good at embossing and so don't use these much but I realised that I can actually use some of the shapes to cut elements out of cardstock, fabric and felt. A few days ago while making one of my owl cards I needed to cut a tree branch but I don't draw...I remembered that I have this Christmas embossing stencil with a very nice branch which was exactly what I wanted. Again, I used the embossing stencil to trace the shape of the tree branch onto the cardstock, cut it and used it on my card.
Eyelet setters
I like to use them to cut little circles out of felt or cardstock which I then use as eyes or as flower centres.
Heat gun
As I said above, I don't emboss much as I'm not very good at it which means that my heat gun does not see much action. However, recently I made several cards stamped with bleach and my heat gun proved very useful as it allowed me to blow dry the bleach instead of having to wait for it to dry naturally.
If you have any other suggestions on this topic I would love to hear them.
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