An image of Zack Buchman who is a designer and entrepreneur, based in New York City.

Getting to Know Zack Buchman: A Journey Shaped by A Passion for Puppetry

John - Gentleman CrafterLeave a comment

A while back I did a series of posts with the catch-all title of “Worldwide Wednesday” where I interviewed folk from around the world and from a diverse range of create genres and whilst it fizzled out a while back, mostly due to “life” getting in the way, that spark to reignite this form of content literally dropped into my inbox with an email from Zack Buchman.

As the founder of Uncute™ and Furry Puppet Studio, Zack Buchman has spent years creating puppets, creatures and characters for television, music videos, brands and all sorts of projects in between. So when his email dropped into my inbox, I was curious so I popped together a list of questions and sent them over. What came back was a life story that I think you will agree is fairly unique.

Come with me on a journey as we get to know Zack, his beginnings, his influences, his achievements and his determination to live a creative life!

Trust me, you will be in awe.

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Canvas Workspace for Web Is Retiring - Here’s What We Know

Brother Announces End of Canvas Workspace for Web — What ScanNCut Users Need to Know

John - Gentleman Crafter3 Comments

If you use a Brother ScanNCut machine, there’s some important news you’ll want to be aware of. Brother has officially announced that the web version of Canvas Workspace will be discontinued in October 2026.

Before anyone panics though — this isn’t the end of Canvas Workspace itself, and your projects aren’t disappearing overnight. In fact, Brother appears to be shifting toward a more desktop-and-mobile focused ecosystem built around Canvas Workspace PC and Artspira.

Here’s a simple breakdown of what’s happening and what it means for ScanNCut users.

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Thumbnail showing a distress ink blender, online blend generator and the title, "New - Perfect Distress Blends".

New Online Distress Ink Blending Tool

John - Gentleman Crafter14 Comments

With 73 available colours, the Distress Ink range from Ranger Industries and Tim Holtz has to be one of the biggest and most widely used range of inkpads out there but, how many times do you want to create a blended gradient but don’t want to waste that precious ink or cardstock?

Well, I’ve been coding away and have managed to put together a nifty little tool that will help you play, visualise and test out colour combinations before you ever commit blending tool to inkpad.

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BEST CUTTING MAT ADHESIVE FOR BROTHER SCAN N CUT

The Best Cutting Mat Adhesive To Restore Your Brother Scan N Cut Mats – You Need To Know About This!

John - Gentleman Crafter4 Comments

Over the years I have been asked about “the best” this, or “the best” that and I have always found that difficult as this is often subjective however when it comes to re-tacking my Scan N Cut mats, I have found one product that is streets ahead of the others, and it will save you money!

Want to see what has me so excited … ?

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AFFINITY WEBSITE

The Future Of Affinity Has Arrived – And It Is A Little Underwhelming

John - Gentleman CrafterLeave a comment

The other day I wrote a blog post about the buzz surrounding changes at Affinity. Well, the wait is over. What was all the excitement about? A lot if you are part of the marketing team at Affinity.

Affinity now has a new logo, oh, and they have decided to give the software away for free. Well, mostly free, for everyone, forever. Not entirely sure why but, there you have it.

Anyway, in the spirit of “full-circle” and closing off the question that I asked the other day, let’s have a quick look.

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HOW TO SCORE FOLD LINES WITH YOUR SCAN N CUT

How To Score Fold Lines with the Brother Scan N Cut

John - Gentleman Crafter6 Comments

One drawback of Brother Scan N Cut machines (for some, at least) is that it doesn’t officially support the scoring of fold lines in papercraft projects. Instead we have had to rely on cutting dashed patterns, which some find unsightly.

Many folk have tried and tested a variety of “hacks” or workarounds and this is something that I have had on my “have a go at” list for some time – in fact, a VERY long time. Recently I set myself the challenge of trying out various tools for scoring fold lines in papercraft projects with my Scan N Cut – and I am very happy to be able to share those results with you today …

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