Tonic 12″ Guillotine Paper Cutter {C’est Bon}

I love my new Tonic 12″ Guillotine Paper Cutter. I’ve had it for a couple months now and it is fabulous.! I was so frustrated with the amount of money I was spending on refill blades for my Fiskars Euro paper trimmer. It was great for the money, but over time, even the triple track didn’t always cut perfectly aligned cuts every time. So frustrating, especially when you are getting down to the last of your paper and just can’t redo it! You also won’t believe how fine a sliver of paper you can cleanly cut off! With my old trimmer, you would get a nasty distressed looking edge if you wanted to trim off less than 1/8 – 1/16th of an inch.

Back to the refill blade issue…. there are NO refill blades. You have stainless steel blades that sharpen each time you use it…I never need to run to Michael’s and buy refills again. With the amount of papercrafting I do, my new cutter will have paid for itself in another 3 months. Yay….what a great investment! It should last the rest of my life. Basically one thing to remember when you are buying tools…look into what is available on the market and buy the best you can afford at the time. Your work will only be as good as the tools you use!

One of the best things I love about this paper cutter is its ability to cut through many thicknesses of paper and it can even cut through chipboard easily! Yay!!!! I love chipboard! You KNOW that! LOL but I always played it safe and used pre-cut shapes etc. Now I can cut my own squares or chipboard book backings…whatever I wish! The sky is the limit, baby!

Back view – easy part storage

This paper cutter is REALLY well engineered. Have you ever had a craft product that works great but with a few extra features, would be fabulous? I just love the extra care and thoughtfulness that was put into this design with the storage, comfort and portability aspects in mind. It was obviously designed by someone who knew the papercrafting industry very well. If you are worried about cutting yourself with it…the safety bar keeps your holding hand out of the way of the blade. Even if you do touch the blade, it is a flat blade and cuts with friction. You would have a hard time slicing anything on it.

Great Features on the Tonic Cutter…

• light and portable
• fits 12 inch square paper easily…love how it also fits the 12″ paper with the extra “lip” on the bottom (i.e. My Mind’s Eye)
• imperial and metric measures on the cutter
• blade self-sharpens
• safety bar – paper slides under the clear safety bar…pressure spots for your hand keep it safely out of the blade’s way
• you can see through the safety bar for easy lining up for matting
• 1/2″ increments grid right in the plastic base for easy measuring
• easily carried by orange “handle” indentations at top of cutter
• cutting handle and measuring bar projection can be removed for easy storage….there are also great little spots on the back of the cutter for them to clip into when not in use
• comfortable soft handle on the blade
• non-skid rubber feet on the bottom of the cutter
• sturdy high-impact plastic base
• reasonably priced

Hints for Using It…

• slide paper under the safety bar and press down on the oval spots to firmly hold your paper for a precision cut
• make sure your paper is butted firmly up at the top of the cutter….this gives you a perfect 90° corner and perpendicular cut …. most of you will already know this but I have seen a few people papercrafting who haven’t
• I did miss the little grid to the right side of the blade on my track paper trimmer for cutting off 1/4″ if my layer was a little large. To do this now, simple measure the cardstock, subract the amount you want to trim off and then line it up at the correct measurement on the left side. It doesn’t take long to get the hang of it!

Where to Get it…

• Scrapbook Studio – I bought mine in-store at the Scrapbook Studio $58.95 CDN ( I lucked out and bought mine while it was on sale….yay!
• Two Peas in a Bucket and other on-line stores
• Stampin Up – check out page 184 of the brand new catty…does this look familiar? I think so! 😉 $62.95 CDN or $45.95 US

What You Can’t Do…

This article wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t tell you what you cannot do with the paper cutter. Unlike the track cutters, you cannot use a scoring blade with it. If you wish to score, you can use the end of a bone folder wtih a ruler or keep a small track cutter for this purpose. You also cannot make cuts to the inside of your paper, such as a window. If you wish to do this, you can use a track cutter (may not be the most precise method) or use a ruler and a craft knife. Perfect Layers is also a great product for this.

If you have any questions about this product, I’ll be happy to answer them by editing in at the bottom of this post. 🙂 Also, if you do decide to get one, I’d love to know if you like it too! Have a wonderful day!

Edited to Respond…

Julie asked… Does the cutter stay stable on the surface you have it on when you are cutting or do you have to make sure and keep a hand on it so it doesn’t rock or move?

The cutter does stay stable on the table but the way that you do cut, to keep the paper so that you get a precision cut is by pressing down on the safety bar (see the two oval projections) with your left hand and slicing with your right.

Libby asked… Do you happen to know if the SU one is exactly the same, ie with the little storage compartment?

I actually need a SU demo or someone who owns the Stampin Up version to answer this one. I’m pretty sure they are exactly the same but I really need confirmation on this. *****Lisa C has just replied to this…”I know that the SU one come apart the same way as the Tonic does, as this is the Tonic cutter, just done in SU colors.”

Becky asked… Do think it would fit in a XXL scrapbooking bag?

Honestly, I have no idea how big an XXL scrapbooking bag is! LOL I usually design from home. I’m fairly sure that it would…this is really quite portable! I’ll give you the dimensions and then you can tell me! 🙂 7.5″ wide x 18″ long x 2.5″ deep…hope this helps!

Karen asked… do you use it sitting down or standing up? I think I wouldn’t enjoy using it if I were always popping up and down at my desk.

I’ve used it all sorts of ways! Works great sitting at your desk, works great standing up….LOL I’ve even used it on my lap when I ran out of desk space! Can’t imagine why that happened! 😉

Terri asked… The problem I had with other paper trimmers of this type was guessing the measurement over the part where the swing arm meets the bed of the trimmer. Any comments or suggestions on this?

I had this problem myself….espescially with my Fiskars Euro trimmer. I make a lot of 5 or 5 1/4″ square cards and it could be a bit of a problem for me. The Tonic portable trimmer has the “break” in the measuring between 6″ and 6.5″. If you do a lot of measuring at those point you are fine…it is just that small 6.25 measurement you may have trouble with. If this really bothers you, Tonic always makes a great full-size trimmer with a full-size flat bed. I believe it may be more expensive and less portable but it does give you them option of which suits your needs best! HTH!