Craft Glossary

Your Guide to Crafting Tools and Terms

A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z

A

Acid-free paper: Paper with a neutral or basic pH level (7.0 to 9.0), is less prone to yellowing or deterioration, and will not harm photographs that are attached to it. During production, the paper is treated with a mild base (calcium carbonate or magnesium bicarbonate) that neutralizes the natural acids in the wood pulp. This extends the life of the paper, reduces the production expense, and makes it more easily recycled. Acid-free paper may be identified by the “infinity” symbol.

Acrylic paint: A fast-drying, water-soluble paint containing pigment suspended in an acrylic polymer emulsion. It can be diluted with water or other mediums, and becomes flexible and water-resistant when dry.

Adhesive: A bonding agent (glue, to the rest of us) used to affix one item to another. For crafters, adhesive choices include tape, glue, epoxy, glue sticks, hot glue, rubber cement, and spray adhesives, depending on the materials to be joined and the strength of the bond that is needed.  See Craft Glossary entries for each type of adhesive.

Adobe Photoshop, or Photoshop: A software program for editing photographs and graphics. Its many functions include cropping, re-sizing, rotating, drawing, erasing and colorizing. Available in most computer stores and at www.adobe.com.

Altered Book: A found book, embellished through collaging, stamping, or other decoration to express an artistic idea or narrative.

Appliqué: An added decorative element, as in needlework, made by cutting pieces of one material and applying them to another.

Archival paper: An especially permanent, durable acid-free paper, used primarily for publications of high legal, historical, or significant value.

Art deco: A style of design and decoration popular in the 1920's and 1930's characterized by designs that are geometric and use highly intense colors, to reflect the rise of commerce, industry and mass production.

Art nouveau: A decorative art movement that emerged in the late nineteenth century, characterized by dense asymmetrical ornamentation in sinuous forms, it is often symbolic and strangely erotic.

B

Basecoat: The first layer of paint applied, usually a neutral color to provide a consistent background.

Base Line: In lettering or text printing, the line on which the main part of a letter (excluding ascender and descender) rests.

Batik: A technique for dyeing fabric by which the parts of the fabric are covered with removable wax to prevent absorption of the dye.

Beading: Ornamenting an item or fabric with ion with beads. Also called beadwork.

Binding: Attaching printed materials between covers, as in a book.

Bleed: In printing or painting, a feathery effect caused by ink or paint spreading from the image into the paper.

Blotting: Gently pressing a brush against a paper towel to remove excess moisture.

BMP: In computer graphics, BMP stands for bit map, a file format for an image made up of dots or pixels. More common image file formats today are JPEG, TIFF, PNG and GIFF, because they can be manipulated with less distortion.

Bone Folder or Burnisher: A flat piece of plastic or Teflon (yes, you can still buy them made from bone), round at one end and pointed at the other. It is used for scoring and folding paper, and burnishing.

Brayer: A small rubber "rolling pin" used to smooth surfaces, flatten paper, or apply paints or inks.

Bristol board: A high quality heavy weight drawing paper, sometimes made with cotton fiber prepared or glued together, usually with a caliper thickness of 0.006" and up, used for many types of two-dimensional artwork.

Burnish: To rub or polish to a smooth, glossy finish.

C

Caliper: A tool for measuring the distance between two opposing sides of an object or objects. In crafts, it is used to measure the thickness of paper, in thousandths of an inch.

Calligraphy: The art of creating beautiful or elegant handwriting.

Capital: Upper-case letter, also known as a majuscule.  See Craft Glossary entires for serif and sans-serif.

Card Stock: A sturdy paper, available in a variety of weights, colors and textures.

Casein: Colored pigment with a milk-based binder, which can be applied opaque or as a thin glaze.

Casting Resin:  A clear, polyurethane liquid that hardens to a clear solid plastic when mixed with a chemical catalyst.  It is used to embed objects in a molded shape, or to add a thick protective coating to a surface.

CD-ROM: Short for Compact Disc-Read Only Memory. Originally designed for music storage and playback, they are now used for all forms of binary data. CD-ROMs can hold a lot of information–the equivalent of about 300,000 pages of text–which makes them ideal for storing or transporting large files like images. They are not “read-only” anymore, and CD-ROMs can be purchased with reading and writing capability.

Ceramic paint:  Solvent-based opaque color for crockery, glass, metal and other non-porous surfaces.  

Clay: A naturally occurring material, composed primarily of fine-grained minerals such as hydrated silicates of aluminum, which is malleable for sculpting and hardens when dried or fired.

Clip Art: Generally refers to simple, line-art or illustrations that can be used for a variety of decorative purposes. For an exhausting history of the term, visit Wikipedia.

Cloisonné: Decorative metal work in which metal filaments are fused to the surface of an object to outline a design that is then filled in with enamel paste.

Cold Pressed: A paper with slight surface texture produced by pressing the finished sheet between cold cylinders.

Collage: Papers, found objects or other ephemera glued to a flat surface.

Complementary Color: Each primary color (red, blue, yellow) has a complementary (opposite) color made by mixing the other two (red and blue mix to purple, which is the complementary color to yellow, for example).

Construction Paper: An economical, coarse and sturdy paper that comes in a variety of sizes and colors.

Contact Paper or Adhesive Vinyl: A sturdy, self-adhesive plastic film, sold in rolls or by the foot. There are many colors and patterns, but the clear version is excellent for laminating and protecting paper. Con-tact Paper is the brand name of the product first introduced by the Kittrich Corporation in the 1950s.

Crackle Finish: A three-step painting process that results in an aged, weathered appearance. There are kits commercially available at craft or hardware stores.  If you are adventuresome, try making your own crackle medium from our Craft Recipes.

Craquelure: The pattern of fine cracks that appear in varnish over time. The effect can be imitated to give a surface an aged appearance. Craquelure varnish kits are available in craft stores.  Or you can make your own.  See our Craft Recipes for more information.

Craft knife: A short, sharp cutting blade mounted on a pen-like metal handle. Many types and sizes of blades and handles are available. Also known by the name of its primary manufacturer, the X-Acto Knife.

Crimper:  A tool that operates much like a mangle or clothes wringer, that wrinkles paper into a corrugated texture.

Crop: To trim away the unwanted parts of an image. With a printed image, you can manually crop with a pair of scissors, paper cutter, or craft knife. With a digital image on your computer, you can crop using the tools in an image editing program such as Corel, Kodak or Adobe Photoshop (See Glossary for Adobe Photoshop).

D

Decorative-edge Scissors: Scissors with patterned blades for cutting paper or fabric.  Many designs are available, from somewhat random deckle-edges to scallops and zig-zags.  See Craft Glossary entry for Deckle Edge.

Deckle Edge: The feathery, uncut edges of paper, often used for books printed on hand-made paper, invitations and stationary.

Decoupage: The Victorian craft of cutting out images or motifs from paper, gluing them to a surface, and covering them with a protective coating such as varnish.

Die Cut: A method for punching out shapes from paper or fabric, by using a metal form that is called a die.

Digital Image: An electronic photograph taken with a digital camera or scanned from an original document. It is composed of pixels, the smallest units displayed by computer monitors. Each pixel is assigned a tonal value (black, white, a shade of gray, or color) and is stored in binary code (zeros and ones).

Dimensional Paint: Thick acrylic paint traditionally used on fabric but sticks well to most surfaces. It usually comes in squeeze bottles and is available in many colors and styles, including glitter and glow-in-the-dark. Also Known As: fabric paint, puffy paint or foam paint.

DPI or PPI: (dots per inch, or pixels per inch) Measures the resolution of a scanner, printer, or image. The higher the DPI, the more dots (or pixels) per inch, the sharper the image. Images used for magazines and other print media typically have a high resolution, such as 300 dpi, versus a low-resolution image on the Internet of 72 dpi.

Dry Embossing or Relief Embossing: Achieving a raised image on paper by placing the paper over a stencil, and rubbing with a stylus. The decorative effect is caused by the subtle shadows of the raised or relief design on the paper.

E

Embossing Gun: A heating tool that directs hot air to a specific area. The hot air melts embossing powder, creating a slightly raised surface on the design.

Embossing Powder: A quick-melting, colored powder used to create a raised design in rubber-stamping. It is sprinkled on a wet, inked design, and then heated with a hot-air embossing gun which bonds the powder to the surface. Available in many colors and granulations.

Encaustic Painting or hot wax painting: Using heated beeswax infused with colored pigments. The resulting paste is then applied to a surface such as wood or canvas, where it can be sculpted with metal tools, brushes and heating tools. Other materials can be layered in the wax for a collage design.

Ephemera: Ephemera is anything short-lived. In crafting, it means paper materials that were created for a single practical purpose, with no thought that they would be saved or preserved. Artists may use ephemera, such as vintage postcards, stamps, advertising, or other illustrated material, in their collages or other artwork.

Epoxy: An adhesive composed of two liquids, a resin and a hardener, that when mixed together, harden to form a strong bond. Epoxy is suitable for bonding porous and non-porous materials.

Exemplar: Something that serves as a model to be copied. In crafting, an exemplar is most often an alphabet in a decorative lettering style.

Extender or Retarder: A product added to paint to slow its drying time or vary its transparency.

Eyelet: A small metal ring, designed to reinforce a hole in paper or fabric.  See Craft Glossary entry for Grommet.

F

Faux Finish: A decorative painting that imitates the look of a natural material such as marble, wood or yak hide.

Felt: A heavy, non-fraying, fabric generally made from wool with other manufactured fibers. The fibers are locked together in a process utilizing heat, moisture, and pressure to form a compact material.

Felt Side: The top side of the paper, usually providing the best printing results.

Fixative: A sprayed-on sealer, like lacquer, used over pastels, charcoal and watercolors to prevent smudging.

Foam Core or Foam Board: A stiff, resilient and lightweight board of polystyrene laminated with paper on both of its sides.

Fonts or Typefaces: Designs for alphabetic and numeric characters. Unusual fonts can enliven your journals, scrapbook pages and other artwork. You can choose different fonts in your word processing program, order special fonts on CD-ROMs or download them off of the Internet.

Found Objects or : Common items that an artist or crafter collects in daily life for using in craft projects. See Craft Glossary entry for Ephemera.

Fused Glass: A decorative glass created by stacking thin sheets of glass and fusing them together in a kiln (1100 degrees to 1500 degrees).

G

Gel Medium or Polymer Medium: A thick, colorless liquid, used as a paint additive, protective finish, or adhesive.  

Gesso: A thick white fluid, made from chalk or plaster and glue. It is used to prepare surfaces for painting or gilding.

GIF: A computer file format used for images, short for graphic interchange format. Usually pronounced "jiff," GIF is widely used to format images that appear on Web pages because they compress the image data for faster downloading. GIFs only allow for 256 colors, so they are most often used for illustrations rather than color photos.

Gilding: Applying metallic foil to a surface.

Glassine: A smooth, semi-transparent paper.

Glaze: A transparent, diluted layer of paint used to accentuate textures or modify the overall color.

Gold leaf: An extremely thin tissue of gold used for gilding.

Gold leaf wax:  Non-tarnishing metallic dust suspended in a soft paste wax.  Apply with a finger, brush or cloth to any surface and buff with a soft cloth.  It can be thinned with turpentine.

Gloss: A reflective, shiny, surface. In crafting, it can be achieved through the choice of materials or the addition of glossy coatings such as varnish.

Glue Gun: An electric tool for heating and applying adhesive. Several adhesives are available in the form of solid sticks of glue. Once cool, these adhesives are very strong and are suitable for bonding heavy objects.

Gouache: An opaque, water-soluble paint usually made from Gum Arabic and pigments.

Grommet: A ring or eyelet of metal, often used to reinforce a hole.  See Craft Glossary entry for Eyelet.

Gum Arabic: A water-soluble, glossy, pigmentable medium derived from the Acacia tree. It improves the bonding qualities of inks and watercolors.

H

Handmade Paper: Paper made by spreading wet wood or paper pulp on a porous screen in a mold, pressing and drying the resulting mat.

Hot Glue Gun:  See Craft Glossary entry for Glue Gun.

HTML: Short for Hyper Text Mark-up Language, a set of universal codes used to create the layout and content, text and graphics in website displays. The coding is written between left and right arrow symbols (< and >), which are not visible in the resulting web display.

I

Ink-jet printer: Computer printers that spray ink onto the paper, as opposed to a laser printer which fuses powder (toner) onto the paper with heat. Ink-jet printers are generally less expensive, but the inks are not always waterproof or long-lasting.

Ink: Colored pigment suspended in soluble or insoluble binders, used for printing, writing or drawing.

J

Joss Paper: Gold and silver paper burned by the Chinese in spiritual ceremonies.

JPEG or JPG: A type of computer file format used for photographs and other images. An acronym for Joint Photographic Expert Group, JPEGs are the most widely used format for digital images because they are compressed for easier transmission and storage.

K

Kraft paper: Strong and relatively coarse, Kraft paper is usually a brown color but can be bleached white. It is used for paper grocery bags, corrugated cardboard, large envelopes and other packaging.

L

Laid Paper: Paper with a grid texture and strong grain running in the direction of the sheet.

Laminator: A tool or machine that bonds a thin sheet of plastic (laminate) to paper or fabric, creating a protective, glossy surface.

Layout: The arrangement of heading, text, and artwork on a page.

Light Box or Light Table: A tool for viewing transparencies or for tracing images. It is a box containing a light source (usually sunlight fluorescent) and a translucent glass or plastic surface.

Lightfastness: The speed at which pigments in inks, paints or materials fade in strong light.

M

Majuscule: Capital or upper-case letters.

Marble Paper: Paper that has been marbled or marbleized, a process involving submerging the paper in a water solution containing non-soluble inks or paints (grated oil pastels will work, too) floating on the surface which stick to the paper in marble patterns when the paper is removed from the water.

Marker, Marking Pen or Felt-Tipped Pen: A writing instrument that delivers ink through a porous felt tip.

Masking Tape: Adhesive tape made of paper backed with a relatively weak adhesive. It is used often in painting, to protect unpainted areas.

Matte finish or Flat finish: A surface or coating that is dull or non-glossy.

Medium: The component of paint in which the pigment is dispersed.

Mineral spirits: an inexpensive paint thinner which cleans brushes, thins paint, cleans furniture, and removes wax often used as a substitute for turpentine.

Metal Embossing or Repoussage: Creating a raised design on thin metal sheets by hammering or pressing from the reverse side.

Metal Scriber: A tool for marking lines on metal, or for embossing.

Metallic Paint: Tiny metal flakes suspended in a translucent paint or other an aqueous binder. Metallic paint can be subject to tarnishing, so it should be coated with a protective gel medium.

Methyl Cellulose or wallpaper paste: A thick, spreadable adhesive which dries clear. It is used for archival mounting and paper maché.

Mixed Media: The craft technique of using several different media, such as paint, paper, rubber stamps or inks on a single surface.

Mod Podge: Brand name for PVA (Polyvinyl Acetate, the base of white craft glue) gel medium, specially formulated for use in decoupaging. It is available in gloss or matte finish, as well as an acid-free version.

Montage: A collage made of photographs or illustrations.

Mosaic: An art medium in which small pieces of colored glass, stone, or ceramic tile called tessera are embedded in a background material such as plaster or mortar.

Mylar: Transparent or opaque polyester film often used as a protective covering for photos and album pages.

N

Nap: A soft or fuzzy textured surface on fabric or paper. Also, a pleasurable activity after a particularly intense afternoon of crafting.

Nib: The tapered or sharpened writing tip of a pen or quill.

O

Opaque: A non-transparent or non-translucent surface or coating.

Ox Gall Liquid: A transparent extender for watercolors which improves flow with a pen or brush.

P

Pantone Matching System (PMS): An internationally recognized system of over 3000 pre-mixed colors representing shades on both coated or uncoated stock, along with the precise printing formulas to achieve each color.

Paper maché: A craft construction material consisting of small pieces of absorbent paper (like newsprint, stuck together with a wet paste like glue, starch, wheat paste or wallpaper paste. The crafted object becomes solid when the paste dries.

Parchment or vellum: A hard finished paper that resembles animal skin, used for documents, such as awards. A favorite of calligraphers because of its smooth, buttery texture.

Pastel: A chalk-like art medium in the form of a stick, made from powdered pigment and a binder. A fixative, like lacquer, must be applied to the finished artwork prevent smudging. The word pastel is also used to indicate a pale tint of a color.

Paste-up: Assembling the individual elements of a final print layout. See Craft Glossary entry for Layout.

Patina: A film, often green, that forms on copper and bronze as a result of the oxidation of the copper due to weathering. Various chemical treatments will induce colored patinas on new metal work, and it is often imitated in antiquing and painting techniques.

pH: A measure of the concentration of acidity or alkalinity in paper, calibrated from 1 pH (high acid content) to 14 pH (high alkaline content). Buffered papers range from 7 to 9 pH.

Pixels: The smallest picture elements of a digital image. Each pixel, or dot, image has a specific color and intensity level. The more pixels or dots per inch (ppi or dpi), the higher the resolution.

Ply: A single layer of paper.

Polymer Clay: malleable modeling clay that is hardened by baking.

Polymer Medium: A protective acrylic liquid used as an adhesive for light- to middle-weight papers or as a varnish for decoupage. It is available in gloss and matte finishes.

Pounce, Pouncing or Stippling: Creating the effect of texture by lightly and randomly applying paint with a brush or sponge, allowing background color to show through. In calligraphy, pounce is a fine powder used to absorb grease from paper.

Primer: The initial coating or color, prior to final painting that provides the surface with the right absorbency and color. See Craft Glossary entry for Base Coat.

PVA or Polyvinyl acetate: The chemical base of archival white glue that dries transparent. Mixed with gel medium, it becomes water resistant. It is commonly used as an adhesive and also coating for decoupage. See craft glossary entry for Mod Podge.

Q

Quadrille Paper or Graph Paper: Paper that is printed with a faint grid pattern, used for design layouts and embroidery patterns.

Quilt Binding: A strip of fabric that is sewn on the edges of a quilt to cover the raw edges of the quilt top, batting, and backing.

Quilting: The craft of assembling two layers of cloth filled with a plush material and binding them together with stitched designs.

R

Rag Paper: Paper made from 50% to 100% cotton or linen fiber.

Recycled Paper: Paper made from post-consumer waste paper which as been chemically processed, bleached, and reduced to pulp.

Ream: 500 sheets of paper.

Repoussage: See Craft Glossary entry for Metal Embossing.

RGB: Stands for Red, Green, Blue. In web design and design for computer monitors, colors are defined in terms of a combination of these three basic additive colors.

Rice Paper: Any of several lightweight Oriental papers. It can possibly contain rice straw or rice starch.

Rubber Stamping: Using carving tools to carve your own design or a found design into stamp material such as soft vinyl eraser-like substances.

S

Sans-Serif: Letters without a serif (foot), such as Helvetica. (See illustration)

Scanner: Computer equipment that operates much as a photocopier, capturing images in a digital format of pixels. The resulting computer files can be seen and manipulated with an editing program such as Adobe Photoshop. See Craft Glossary entry for Adobe Photoshop.

Scrapbooking: Preserving pictures, clippings, or other mementos in an artistic manner by mounting them in books.

Scumbling: Semi-opaque or thinned colors loosely sponged or brushed over a surface so that some of the color beneath shows through.

Sealer: A protective coating applied to surface before and after painting which prevents chemical reactions between the paints and the surfaces

Sequin: A small shiny disk of plastic, often sewn on cloth in mass quantities as decoration.

Serif: The foot on a letterform, such as found in typefaces like Times New Roman. (See Craft Glossary illustration for Sans-serif)

Shade: A darker color made by adding black.

Silicone rubber sealant or adhesive: Strong adhesive that can also be used to create raised, embossed texture to a surface.

Sizing: A liquid additive during paper-making or applied to paper after it has been formed, which conditions the paper surface and controls the paper’s ink absorbency. Sizing materials include rosin, glue, gelatin, or starch.

Stamp Positioner: A tool for positioning rubber stamp images.

Stencil: A template made by cutting a design in a stiff material like paper, plastic, cardboard, or metal. It is affixed to a surface and paint or ink is brushed or pounced over the stencil to create the design on the surface below.

Stippling: A drawing technique consisting of many small dots or flecks to construct the image; technique of using small dots to simulate varying degrees of solidity or shading; to paint, engrave, or draw by means of dots or small touches of the brush, pen, or other tool. See Craft Glossary entry for pounce.

T

Tagboard or Posterboard: A lightweight cardboard that comes in a variety of colors and sizes.

Tea dyeing: Imitating the look of aged, yellowed paper or fabric by soaking it in strong tea for an hour, drying and pressing it.  Darker spots can be created by letting the tea bag sit on the paper for 15 mnutes. Scented teas like herbal or spice teas will leave a lingering aroma.

Tempera: An opaque, water-based paint that is water soluble even after drying. See Craft Glossary entry for Gouache.

Template: A pattern or gauge use for reproducing a design or cut.

TIFF: An uncompressed file format for images. TIFF files are large, but are good for intricate images or photographs.

Tint: A lighter color made by adding white.

Tissue Paper: A lightweight, translucent paper.

Tracing paper: A lightweight, translucent paper, heavier than tissue paper, used for transferring designs by tracing.

Transfer medium or transfer solution:  A powerful solvent that reactivates the ink in toner-based photocopies, enabling the image to be transferred to paper, fabric or a hard surface.

Translucent: Between transparent and opaque; objects can be seen through it but without clarity.

Transparent Tape: A strip of clear plastic film backed with a pressure sensitive adhesive – basically, Scotch Tape.

Trompe l'oeil:  French for "fool the eye." A two-dimensional representation that is so naturalistic that it looks actual or real (three-dimensional.) This form of painting was first used by the Romans thousands of years ago in frescoes and murals.

Typography: The arrangement and appearance of characters in printed matter.

Tyvek fabric:  Sheets of bonded spun polythene fibers.  It will bubble and distort when heated, resulting in an alligator-skin texture.

U

Unryu or Dragon Paper: A strong, lightweight acid-free paper with a swirled texture, used in origami and paper crafting.

Upper Case: Capital letter or majuscule.

V

Varnish: A protective coating used over a finished painting or object. Varnishes are available in water-base or oil base varieties, as well as glossy or matte finishes.  See Craft Glossary entry for Craquelure.

Vellum: A heavy weight, translucent drawing or crafting paper. See Crafting Glossary entry for Parchment.

Victorian: Belonging to the highly ornamented style of decoration popular in 19th Century England, during the reign of Queen Victoria.

W

Walnut Ink: Derived from walnut shells, this ink is available as a liquid or a crystalline colorant to be mixed with water.

Wash: A thin layer of diluted paint or ink.

Watercolor: A water-based, translucent paint usually made from pigments, gum Arabic, and water.

Watercolor Board: A piece of 100% cotton rag watercolor paper, stretched and affixed to a rigid ply board.

Watercolor Paper: A 100% cotton rag paper that comes in multiple weights and surface textures.

Waterleaf: An absorbent paper, like blotter paper.

Watermark: The translucent design or name that is visible when paper is held to the light.

Waterslide Decals: Images that are printed on a clear film on a backing paper. You soak the decal in water to release the backing, and you “slide” the image onto a surface where it dries and adheres. A very popular decoration in the ‘40s and ‘50s.

Wearable Art: Clothing, jewelry an accessories that have been decorated or embellished.

Wheat Paste or Wallpaper Paste: A liquid adhesive made from flour and water, and commonly used book binding, decoupage, collage, and paper maché.

X

X-acto knife: See Craft Glossary entry for Craft Knife.

Y

Z

Zebra