My dad has a tool shed. Well, he has three now. His favorite store is the Home Depot. He has everything ever made to do anything and he can tell you where it is, how many he’s got, who borrowed it and what projects he used it for. Heck! He probably even has the receipt, really.

Well, as I look at my craft corner and sort and reorganize, I too have accumulated many tools of the trade that I could not live without. Because as my dad says, “you never know when you are going to need it!” So this post is dedicated just to showing you some of the gadgets I have and use often. (Like father, like daughter)

If you are a hot glue gun user, this is one of the most useful investments you can make. It’s called a Hot Glue Gun Helper’s kit  it comes with these set of tools to avoid glue gun burns, you can get it on amazon on that link above. It comes with tweezers, a heat safety mat, finger protectors (like rubber thimbles) and pressing tools to save your finger ends. It’s all made from silicon and is heat resistant! For more glue gun safety tips you can  visit Pretty Handy Girl‘s blog.

Is this little kit below familiar? This great kit is a companion to the Cricut. You Scrapbookers will know what I’m talking about. It has these great “dentist” type tools to pry and press small pieces of papers, scissors, rulers, extra blades, a folder and a smoother/scraper (?) I still haven’t quite used everything in there yet.

I can’t live without these below. The air gun is for quick clean-ups of thread and lint in the sewing machine. The basting sprays is for smaller projects too cumbersome to pin and the lighter is for those ribbon ends that like to unravel.

Below are my hand tools, labeled for your convenience.

Some of my most recent acquisitions are for quilting. The binding clips help keep the binding in place while hand stitching it to the quilt and the larger clips I just started using when prepping a quilt for quilting.

I use the binder clips to attach all layers to the craft table, then I pin or spray and I didn’t have to get on my knees. See a video of that here.

This is one of my oldest tools. For years, I have always felt the need to keep sheet or pillow case bags they come complete with zippers, why would I throw these out?  I use these for scrappy ribbons, loose spools, batting strips, just about anything that you can imagine.

As I was taking pictures for this post, I realized that all my glue guns have been given to me by great people who thought I would get much more use out of them than they would. Thank you!  And I have put them to good use indeed. But I think it’s time, that I should buy my own, I am thinking about a cordless variety or a designer style that’s decorated and that would mean that I could also get a cute glue gun stand. That’s the next gadget on my list. This one below has a tutorial so you can make your own.

or maybe you prefer this style, below tutorial here.

Or  if you are not wood handy, like me, you may prefer to buy a similar one on Ebay over here.

Decisions, decisions…