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A couple of months ago, I opened my front door to a huge box of amazingness from the folks at Xyron. They wanted me to try out the Creatopia machine, see what I thought about it and, more important, see what I could do with it.
After the jump: What is this Creatopia thing, and what can you do with it?
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So, first step's first–I set up a work station in the garage so I could lay out all of the different goodies that go with the Creatopia:
If you're a crafter, and especially a scrapbooker, this thing pretty much does it all. You want to make some die-cut shapes? Add adhesive to the back of something? Cut your paper down to size? Laminate a fake ID? Emboss a cool texture onto some paper? Done. All done, quickly and easily with this one machine and a slew of accessories you can pick up to go with it.
As I got into trying out all the amazing things Creatopia does, the garage work station I had set up became an explosion of my craft supplies.
On the next page: So it does all this stuff. But what can you do with it?
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Here's a bunch of quick project ideas I came up with while trying out Xyron's Creatopia machine. Feel free to leave comments on this blog post to add your own ideas.
1. Your basic covered coffee canister, made so much cuter with fabric and ribbon. The fabric adhesive for the Creatopia really seems to hold strongly. A wide satin ribbon laid over the raw edges of the blue fabric going around this canister cleaned it up a lot, and the little contrast ribbon on the top and bottom gives it a little punch.
2. Dress up your last-minute gift-card presents with something handmade–and add a little less last-minute feeling. I made these by laminating some fabric and cutting a decorative edge on one end. Then I sewed along the edge with my trusty sewing machine. In the long list of cans, sewing seams is one of the few things the Creatopia can't do.
3. I used Creatopia's fabric adhesive to stick two pieces of fabric together for these soft-sided glasses cases, and it worked great. For a small project like this, the fabric adhesive saved time over pinning the fabric together before sewing the outside seam, and the two pieces of fabric didn't slip around while I was sewing.
4. I took a bunch of felt triangles and laminated them with the Creatopia before stringing them together to make an all-weather party banner! It's the fun and texture of felt that you can take to any party, rain or shine! This would be a great way to make buntings using your favorite scrapbooking papers, too.
5. I used the Creatopia's permanent adhesive to stick hand-drawn cardstock labels to felt, laminate them and cut some decorative edges to create these luggage tags. You could make your own using your favorite fabrics and your contact info, and your bags are sure to stand out at the airport.
On the next page: More project ideas for the Xyron Creatopia.
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6. I was so jazzed to make these placemats for our patio table! I took some oilcloth that was pretty thin and used the permanent adhesive to stick it to a much thicker vinyl. Then I cut some decorative waves around the edges, and blammo!
7. These popsicle fans are super-cute and totally made me smile. And they were super-quick and -easy to make using various colors and patterns of scrapbooking paper, popsicle sticks, and the permanent-adhesive and decorative-cutting capabilities of the Creatopia!
8. Hands down, the classiest thing I made with the Creatopia was this ribbon-covered frame–and it was so easy to do. Raid your ribbon stash, find a bunch that look cool together, and apply fabric adhesive to the pieces before applying them to a wooden frame. This particular unfinished frame came from Michael's, and I think it was $1.
9. You could get super-prepared for next Christmas, too, by getting a jump on these easy-peasy felt ornaments. They're as simple to make as cutting felt, running it through the fabric-adhesive cartridge along with some sequins, and applying floral beads to the finished product. Add a wire loop for easy hanging, and you're good to go.
In all, I've had a blast messing with the Creatopia–while I made a ton of things with it over the past couple of months, I feel like I've only really just scratched the surface of what it can do. You can find out more about this machine and pick one up for yourself at Xyron's website. I totally recommend checking it out.
