New Toy Tuesday: Scoring Board

Christy New Toy Tuesday, Reviews 14 Comments

Ugh. I know, it’s Wednesday on the east coast. And the quality of the pictures you’re about to see is laughable. It’s been a long day; both of my cameras had dead batteries, and the one that charged fastest was of course the crappy one. Please forgive me.

Today I’m showcasing another tool that I use almost daily: the scoring board from Martha Stewart Crafts.

I won’t quite go as far as to say this is a must have item. There are plenty of ways to get a good score without buying another tool. My dad–yes, my dad–scored all of the programs for my wedding using an Exacto knife and a straight edge, and I guarantee he did a better job than I ever would have with this board. Engineers are even more particular about straight lines than scrapers.

That said, I love this thing, and I don’t know how I ever lived without it. The scoring board opens up a world of possibilities that goes way beyond folding cards in half. So if you have a Michael’s coupon, and about $12 eating a hole in your pocket, this would be my first recommendation.

The trenches are spaced every 8th inch across the entire board, so you know you’ll always have even folds.  It also has storage space for the envelope template and scoring tool. I will say that the scoring tool that comes with it is flimsy and will start to hurt your hand if you’re working thick cardstock or making a lot of score lines. I use a stylus with a round tip as an alternative.

So what can you do with it? Well first, it’s amazing for envelopes. Like I said, it comes with a triangular corner template that lets you perfectly position and measure paper for making envelopes of almost any size. I made this one to match the teabag fold card I made a couple weeks ago. You may also remember my mini photo folders, which I could not have done without this.

I also made this cute little fan embellishment–it took all of 2 minutes. Just take a 1″ x 11″ scrap of paper, and score every half inch on one side. Then flip it over and score in between your first set of lines. Fold like and accordion and tape the ends together. Secure the back side with a pop up dot, and the front with a button and a glue dot or Glossy Accents. Easy Peasy.

And of course, this is a quick easy way to add texture to your cardstock. Here I crosshatched lines at every half inch onto a card backing. I’ll make something out of it tomorrow.