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Emma Jewell

Craft terms what do they mean?


There are so many random words in the craft world that make no actual sense until you are in the know, so I've put together a craft dictionary so that you can be up to speed!

Any weird ones not in here? Give me a shout and i'll pop them in.

Weeding:

The Process of removing the unwanted parts from a vinyl or iron on vinyl design, before application.

Weeding Tools tend to look like dentists tools and are perfect for this job, but a pin or needle will do the job too!

Decoupage:

The art of layering thin paper pieces with glue to decorate objects.

Fussy cut:

Cutting around designs on decorative papers to make your own ephemera. Use small scissors to get a perfect cut.

Emboss:

There are two ways to emboss in the craft world, first up you can emboss paper and card with an embossing folder ( a plastic folder with a raised design) that you sandwich your paper inbetween the run through a die cutting machine.

Secondly you can emboss with an embossing powder a really fine glittery powder that sticks to ink, when heated it up it creates a beautiful embossed effect.

Bias:

A direction diagonal to the weave of a fabric, a pain in the bum to cut anything with!

Brad:

Basically a paper fastener with that's extra fancy!

Brayer:

A Rolling tool, often used in printing but also really handy for flattening out materials on a Cricut mat.

Cropping/crop:

A fancy name for a get together of scrapbookers- a scrapbooking party!

Die:

A metal shape that can cut and/or emboss paper and card when run through a die cutting machine.

Ephemera:

Fancy bits and pieces used in paper crafting, can be anything cute that you will probably hoard forever! Usually paper cut outs.

Grammage:

The weight/thickness of a paper. Stated in gsm, a standard piece of paper is around 270gsm.

Notions:

Usually used to describe haberdashery bits in sewing.

Stash:

A nicer term to describe the hoard of craft supplies you own.

Vellum:

Not a sheet of skin ( apparently that was a thing) a thin opaque paper (similar to tracing paper) which looks fab in lots of paper craft projects!

Bleed:

No blood involved. This is the term to describe the space around a print or cut project, that keeps the edges of a design in a safe boundary for printing and cutting.

Bone folder:

Again no bones involved. This is a tool that used to be made of bone ( now more commonly made of plastic) that helps achieve the perfect fold in a piece of paper or card

Alpha:

Alphabet stickers!

Fat quarter:

A piece of fabric that is quarter of a metre square, most usually used by quilters.

WIP:

An acronym for work in progress.

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