Looking for square tiles

For the tiles: any art supply store (ie Dick Blicks) will sell matboard. This can be measured and cut into squares of any size with a knife or (with great difficulty) scissors.

For the labels: I use Avery full-sheet label paper (item #5265), available at any office supply store (OfficeMaxx, Staples).

Suggestion: Stick the labels on one or both sides of the matboard and cut through them to save time.

The best rotary cutter for the money -- strictly in my experience, but I do own 3 -- is the Fiskars 12" Home/Office Rotary Paper Trimmer, as seen here:

http://www.fiskars.com/en_US/office/lookupItem.do?cat=3&itemNumber=45577

It is important not to confuse this with any of Fiskars' "Personal Paper Trimmers," which is code for "can't cut anything."

It depends on what you mean. Actual mat cutters (as in the tool called that) usually only cut at a 45 degree angle -- looks great for matted pictures and lousy for most game bits. There may be certain models that can rotate up to 90 degrees, though, in which case they'd probably be fine. One advantage of the X-acto knife is that the blades are cheap.

You can also use a handheld rotary trimmer and a steel rule, but it's a personal matter -- I don't like them as much, myself. Always feels like less control.

Nothing online. I buy mine at the local art supply store as it's cheaper than the chains (Michaels, etc.), strangely.

-- Matthew

Can you explain more what a mat board is. I searched on the Internet and it appears the type of cardboard used in frames?

Generally how thick is it? How flexible?

Also what is a rotary paper trimmer? I looked at the picture of one on the web and it appears a lot different than my paper trimmer I have at home. How does the rotary exactly fit in the picture?

Is it possible to go ahead and use a regular paper trimmer on mat board.

Thanks,

DarkDream

Note, too, that matte board comes in different thickness, and can very quite a bit. Some is as thin as "poster board" while some is nearly as thick as two Carcassonne tiles.

As Oracle mentioned, the rotary part is essentially a sharp wheel that you roll across the paper with some force. The trimmer I mentioned above has a great rubbery surface on the bottom of the bar that holds the paper firmly in place while you drag the wheel across it.

It cuts thick things just as well as thin, and because of the way the bar holds the paper in place, if for some reason the first pass doesn't completely cut through, the second pass will be in precisely the same place so the result will still be incredibly clean.

The only downsides of the rotary trimmer to speak of are:

1. The cut is a half-millimeter or so from the bar, so it will take a few cuts before you figure out precisely where it cuts.

2. There is a very small amount of "give" in the roller, such that if you press hard one way while dragging the cutter across it will cut in a slightly different place than if you press hard the other way. Again, this is something that takes a few cuts (maybe a couple of dozen) to learn how to completely accomodate for.

Overall, though, it's just amazing. Third best thing I ever purchased for prototyping (behind my Xyron cold laminator, which is in turn behind the number 1 item, my HP Color LaserJet 4500).

-- Matthew

Note, however, that this isn't the same trimmer.

It looks close, but there are some definite visible differences: no blade storage, different cutting area, different bar to hold the trimmer blade, smaller handle to grab while trimming. There may be other differences that I can't see, whether in construction or what have you.

I'd guess that's why they have the best price -- different product. :)

-- Matthew

The best price I found for the one I mentioned (after a quick search, so I'm sure there are other spots) was $49.75 at Office Depot:

http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do?level=SK&id=654806

The best prices I've seen was at Costco. This was just a couple of months ago, and IIRC it was $37-$39 and came with a bunch of extra blades.

-- Matthew

Guillotine-style paper trimmers (of the non-professional variety) are usually hinged on one end or the other. When you cut thick materials or multiple sheets at the same time, the friction from the type of cut tends to pull on the papers. Because the hinge is on one end it tends to slowly twist the paper as you pull. The thicker the item (or the more sheets) the more the twist.

Professional guillotine trimmers/cutters slide along while they press down, such that they can cut a ton of sheets at once while providing almost no distortion. Digital versions of these are even more precise.

Rotary trimmers don't distort the paper position to speak of, especially with the nice rubbery material on the bottom of the bar of the Fiskars cutter I mentioned.

The distortion I mentioned can range from "no big deal" to "these cards are all different sizes and are nearly impossible to shuffle." That's why I* recommend a rotary trimmer.

-- Matthew