OTHER ARTS & CRAFTS STUFF

And we did it ourselves with this self-healing cutting mat. It's hard rubber and no, we don't know how it heals itself, but it does. Measures 11-3/4" x 8-3/4" x 1/8" thick., it's marked in 1/8" and 5mm increments and 1/2" squares, with lines for 45° and 60° cuts.

The secret is ceramics. This newly redesigned 5-1/2" long precision cutter has a ceramic point that's as sharp as an X-actly knife, stays sharp 11x longer than steel, never rusts, is non-conductive, non-magnetic, non-sparking, chemically inert and is easier to maneuver in intricate cutting patterns. Cuts paper, card stock and more easily while being finger-friendly. Pencil-style ambidextrous durable nylon handle with a textured anti-slip grip and no-roll oval design has a cap and now features a replaceable blade. A boon for crafters, and a blessing for junior crafters.

Take these (250) little translucent beads into the sunlight and they burst into assorted colors faster than you can say "assorted colors." How do they do it? Well, they're UV-reactive, that's how. Mostly pink, purple, rose, yellow and cream and they fade to a nice pearly color inside. Amaze your friends at picnics. Beads measure 5/16" dia x 1/4" with a 5/32" bore. Come with classroom application notes.

Suffer no more the tragedy of hidden pencil syndrome. This clear, flexible plastic pencil case measures 7-1/2” long x 2-1/2” wide x 1-1/2" deep, and even has a tab with a hole on top so you can hang it up and see your pencils from 6 feet away. You know what else? You can use it for something other than pencils and it won’t even notice!

Without making you go to the seashore. Our each is a 3” dia x 6-1/2” tall clear glass jar full of sea shells. You might get periwinkles, what look like augers, or sea snails. (We're freshwater folk here in Chicago, so we're kind of shell-estimating, but we’re sure they’re awfully pretty.) Number depends on size, but you’ll get 15-20 oz of shells, in a jar officially marked “Assorted.” Jars are stoppered with big corks with a little charming raffia around the neck.

So you can decorate it, you crafty thing. This tan-colored papier mache mask is 8-3/8" tall x 5-3/8" wide at the eyes, pretty much the size of your average human face. The side curves around so the mask is 1-3/8" deep. The material is 1/32" thick and very sturdy. Not crafty? Left unpainted, the mask has a certain spooky charm.

The Clay People were all gray in Flash Gordon’s world, but this 24-piece set of modeling clay comes in (24) colors, including the non-rainbowish black, white and gray because a lot of stuff is, after all, those colors. Pieces are 2/3-oz and 3/8” x 1/2” x 3-3/8" long sticks. And they’re gluten-free--says so right on the box.

What do Leonardo DaVinci, Van Gogh, Magritte, Cassatt, Monet, Renoir, O’Keeffe and Gauguin have in common? They all used this sketch pad. Or some kind of sketch like it. OK, they all sketched and someone put them on the cover of this top-spiral bound, 75-page, 10” x 7” sketch pad. Good quality, heavy sketch paper, and heavy board cover for your sketching ease.

You certainly could, but these oversized pipe cleaners are actually indispensable craft items. Our each is a pack of (100) 12" long x 1/4" dia chenilles in a dozen assorted colors, including some neons.

Very popular with elementary school teachers, these hardcover blank books let students create their own storybooks. (Middle-schoolers interviewing and making books for primary grade kids is a popular and civilizing project.) Also great for sketching, journaling or scrapbooking. Pure white blank covers with (14) sheets (28 pages) of 80-lb blank paper inside with a sewn-in binding. You pick the 6” x 8” books or the 8-1/2” x 11” versions.

These clever, 64-page spiral bound stencil books have partially finished pages that invite kids to complete them using the (50) stencil shapes on (8) pages in the back, plus the paper from a dozen pages of color patterns. Written by Sasha Morton for Babalu Inc. You pick the Nature volume, full of flora and fauna; or the On the Move volume, with myriad modes of transportation.

This potter's tool set has (10) two-headed tools, 7" to 9" long, with wooden handles, plus (1) knurled aluminum brush. The (21) heads include blades, spades, brushes, scrapers, drills and many more. Very nice set. Equally handy for other crafts, including carving and print-making.

Standard hole punches work well for bus conductors (remember them?) but crafty folk sometimes need to punch a very small hole for wires. This punch punches a hole 1/16” (.0625”) round in paper, foam or board up to 1/8” thick.

A movie about teenage gangs in laundromat school? Nah, just a handy jumbo black plastic clothespin, 6" long x 1-3/8" x 1-1/6", with a blackboard finish for writing on with chalk. Make place cards or table markers, or use them to put your name on your lunch sack or bag of chips. There are also endless other uses that’ll you’ll think of if you buy them now before somebody else gets them.

Your long boring cable-tie nightmare is over. Celebrate with these novelty zippees. All come in six-packs and are 5-3/4” long x 3/32” with an 18-lb limit. You pick: the dinosaur ties feature (2) each of blue brachiosauri, green velociraptors and purple pterodactyls; the Star ties have 1-1/4” stars on the ends--(2) each in red, white, and blue.

Our each is a pound of modeling clay, ready for pounding into shape and re-pounding, since it’s non-hardening, which means the fun never stops. You’ll get a quarter-pound each of bright red, blue, green and yellow clay in 5-1/4" x 1-1/8" x 3/4" sticks, but feel free to mix ’em up to make new colors. Non-toxic and gluten-free, seriously.

Take this one. It's a craft punching tool. Bolt one of the (3) included hole punch attachments—all small but with differing depths—onto the flexible metal arm, put the punchee underneath, and give the arm a smack. The arm is mounted on an 11” long x 1-1/2” wide x 3/4” thick base, which will be, for reasons mysterious, in a floral or butterfly pattern. We'll pick.

We’ve got some snazzy blown-glass tusk or horn pendants here. Curved to approx 2-1/4” dia, with polished steel end caps, and on very thin 17” snake chains. We’ll pick one from among (6) colors and patterns. Nice enough to wear for a night out on the town.