hi guys this is kate from tested with my favorite things of 2021. uh you've probably seen a few of
these things in some of the videos i've done this year and you know the whole point of favorite
things is just the stuff that you keep going back to so if you've seen any of the projects i've done
i think a few of them i've mentioned this pva glue i can't get enough of it and the more people i
talk to about it the more uh tell me that they're huge fans of it so i just have to make sure
everybody knows this stuff is amazing it is ph neutral and that means it's archival quality so
whenever you're doing a project usually with some sort of paper involved it means that you
can use this and it will not yellow it will stay good over time you're not gonna have to worry
about that amazing project you did that then you know a year later starts to look
yellow and dingy and just doesn't hold up so this is really easy to use it's essentially
like a white glue so it cleans up very easily it's water-based and you know i don't really
worry about the toxicity of something like this it has enough viscosity in it it's strong enough
that when you're doing something like a paper model kit and you're worried about the parts
holding together it actually really does cement them together even if the paint's not dry yet so
there's a lot of benefits to this glue and i just can't get enough of it this is the only
one i have used personally so there might be other brands i can't attest to who makes
the best one but this is the brand i use and i love it so definitely one of my favorite things
all right i would say another thing featured in one of the videos i've done are these sizzix
tweezers here i have a lot of different tweezers usually i use them for a variety of purposes but
there are a number of times when i need something that's just a really fine tip precision tweezer i
don't want the nubs on the inside i don't want them to be too big and bulky or you know fumbly
with whatever i'm doing especially if you're doing little paper cutting projects or dealing with any
kind of miniatures so these scissors or these tweezers are meant for i believe scrapbooking um
which you know hey use whatever tools you can it doesn't matter what what market they're for and i
truly love them it's just it makes your job so much easier especially if you're like me you
end up having paint and glue on your fingers all the time so if you need to pick up a part
and you don't want to leave a mess behind this just makes it that much easier i especially
love the bend in here so it makes it a lot easier to pick things up without having to
tweak your uh your wrist too much and of course they come with this plastic protector for the
tip there i'm sure i'll end up losing it like i do with most things but it's nice to have that just
in case i i don't poke myself on the very sharp tip here so these sizzix tweezers have just been a
lifesaver all right next up i have this speedball lino cutter i don't know if any of you have had an
occasion to use one of these but it's something i've used since probably high school and i just
never really gave much thought to but they're so versatile there's so much you can do with them
don't think that you're just stuck with linoleum cutting which is what they're meant for if you're
doing print making something like that you'll have a big square of linoleum and you'll use
this as a tool to carve out your design you can essentially stamp with it well there's
any number of uses that you can use this for i end up using it for things like foam cutting
i actually this year used it for carving my pumpkin it was really great for doing detail
where you just want to peel off a little bit of the surface so if you've never seen one before
this is a speed ball so the great thing about it i don't know if you hear it
all of the bits go inside this handle and to me that's like this genius because it
means that i don't have to worry about storing them somewhere else i don't have to worry about
losing them which is usually what happens so you unscrew this base here you can dump them out
there are any number of different shapes that they come in be careful they are essentially uh little
razor tips or cutting knife edges here so you pick which one you want um maybe i'm gonna choose this
v-shaped one and you come up to the head and it's essentially a collet you know just like you're
using some sort of a dremel tool or anything like that you slide the non-razor end into
the top there once you get it fit snugly down you screw this back down so it's tight and
you put this back on and now you have a nice handle and a razor tool so you can carve through
things again you can carve through foam whatever material you need maybe you want to add some neat
texture onto some wood that you're doing maybe you want to carve out a channel in some styrene
there's any number of uses they also have like basically a scalpel tip here
so there's just a lot of different uh uses for this and it's really nice you can get these at
any art supply store as well so it's kind of nice to be able to have easy access to them i
highly recommend you give it a try they're fairly inexpensive so it's kind of fun to do with younger
kids too if you have a project that you think you might want to try now these are one of my very
favorite things uh they are just a pair of needle nose pliers i found them in a tool box that was
given to me so it's just sort of a free tool that came along with the toolbox and i thought you know
i'll keep them around but i have plenty of pliers i don't need anything different really but i
quickly found that these are my new like favorite pliers they are what i keep in my go-to tool bag
there's something about the length the sheer length of the nose on these needle nose pliers
and just how light and small they are i can do so much more with these than i can with any
other tool there have been a lot of jobs too where somebody's like oh i just can't get at something
i can't get into this area or i just can't get a good grip on it and i always pull these out
and they end up falling in love with them as well now these don't actually have a brand on them so
i can't tell you who made this exact pair but if you just search for extra long needle nose pliers
you will find many pairs that look very similar to this something to look out for is
how dainty they are all over it's not just that they have long thin nose but it's actually
kind of a small handle you'll find these a lot of times in like small machinist tools
stuff like that but uh i just truly love these i measured them and this is a six inch pair
for what it's worth a lot of listings will tell you how how big it is and the um nose
themselves are about two inches long just for your reference but they're just so darn useful
i can't get enough of them hopefully if you ever check them out you'll like them as well
all right last up we have these klein tool bags as you can see i have them in a rainbow of colors
the thing that i like the most about these aside from them being very durable and very pretty they
come in any number of colors you want is that it allows me to organize things even if i can't
see what's inside of them i usually will use the color coding system to remember it is something
that changes a lot so maybe it's not a bin that i want to put a permanent label on it tends
to be something like if i've got a traveling job and i need to pack up a bunch of my tools
i will do one tool bag full of pliers and one tool bag full of cutting tools and one full of
gluing instruments and this one here actually is one of my most constant ones this is the
bag i keep full of all of my most used tools so i'll put in a matte knife and some pliers
and an x-acto blade and maybe some extra glue or whatever i tend to need at the moment some pencils
some nippers all of that and then that way i know no matter what i'm doing if i just grab
this bag i'll probably have whatever i need right next to me it also saves if you've got a really
nice shop organization system right you've got a pegboard with all of your things displayed nicely
you've got special drawers for everything you've got special bins for everything and yet there's
like one or two items that you're just always gonna want by you anyway so i tend to keep those
in here now klein tools they make a number of amazing products i have a really big white klein
tool bag that you might have recognized from your grandfather's having i know mine had one
and even that it's such a big bin that if you throw too many tools in there it can become a bit
of a jumble so just having this is really nice to be able to organize things um again i find a lot
of different uses i think this one currently has my yeah my airbrush in it so i'll i'll just pick
whatever i need sort of organized that moment and i'll use these bags to do that and then when i'm
done i can unpack them put everything in its proper place and have them ready for whatever
the next project is these are truly invaluable to me it's really great to just be able to have
something that lasts the test of time i don't have to worry about it i can throw them around
they're not going to snag or tear or anything like that they're just really fantastic all right these
were my favorite things of 2021 we will link to some of the videos i mentioned where i used some
of these favorite things and i hope that you sent along some of your favorite things maybe uh you'll
get some holiday ideas out of these and you can gift to someone special in your life take it easy