While you could dive into the world of paper crafting with a pair of scissors, some construction paper and a bottle of white school glue, a few basic paper crafting tools can really take your craft to the next level. By investing in a few beginner cards making supplies, you’ll be creating projects with professional results and a lot less frustration!

Here, I’ll walk you through the basic tools every beginner needs, plus my recommendations for the best brands.

PAPER TRIMMERS

A paper trimmer is a must for card making and scrapbooking. It keeps your edges straight and square and makes cutting so much faster. You can find some pretty inexpensive (but perfectly effective) ones at craft stores. Your paper trimmer should have a trimming tool (for cutting paper) and a scoring tool (for creasing paper).

CIRCLE PUNCHES

I have a small collection of circle punches that I use often. Two of my punches were labeled with the size, which I liked so much that I ended up measuring the size of my other punches and writing the dimensions on the bottom with a permanent marker.

I would recommend getting a variety of sizes of circle punches. They’re great for layering papers for tags and other embellishments on cards. Circle punches come in a wide range of sizes — I have a teeny tiny hole punch that I love, too. You can see it below on the left, compared to a standard size hole punch on the right. Cute, right?

STAPLERS

Every paper crafter needs a stapler, and I love this little stapler by American Crafts. I usually use it to attach small tags or other ephemera to gifts bags and cards. The size adds a special touch to every project. The thin design helps you to get into tight place, that would be hard to reach with a regular stapler.

ADHESIVE RUNNER

When attaching photos and paper to cards, scrapbook pages, and gift bags, you can’t just use school glue or tape. What you want is something lightweight but strong enough to hold paper together. An adhesive runner, like American Craft’s This to That, does the trick. This adhesive runner has a solid glue pattern, though the brand also makes a similar tool with a dotted glue pattern, which I think works great.

Before trying this tool, know that it’s not strong enough to hold everything. I don’t use it for gluing on thick embellishments like chipboard or holding together any 3D projects like boxes.

SCISSORS

Scissors are useful when cutting templates into smaller pieces. Scissors are also easier to use to cut out round objects, which is sometimes difficult with a knife.

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