Adaptable Punches

Adaptable Punches

Day 2, Card 2!

As I said yesterday, today’s card is also based on a sketch from Becky Fleck’s Page Maps 2. (affiliate link)

The main reason for that is to show you how you can closely interpret the same sketch and get two different cards.

Now there's glitter on the sketch!

Now there’s glitter on the sketch!

Just to compare, here’s yesterday’s card:

card from sketch 1

You can tell they are based on the same sketch, but with different supplies and different techniques, they each have their own vibe.

The fun tip for today concerns those lovely decorative corner punches you’ve been putting off using. The Martha Stewart ones work well for this, as well as any punches that are designed with removable paper guides. (EK Success springs to mind at the moment.) You don’t want one with fixed guides. Well, you could use one, but that would make it more complicated.

Start by taking a strip of paper (I find scraps from previous projects ideal for this) and insert it completely into a decorative corner punch. You want the flat end of the strip to be flat against the back of the punch so the design comes out straight when you punch the paper. It’s okay, even more than okay, if your strip is wider than the punched design. After you punch the decorative corner out, you can cut off the excess sides with your paper trimmer or scissors, or even an exacto knife and ruler. You could even be a rebel, and leave the excess around the punch, so the negative image becomes the focus.

I cut my strips to different lengths, but again, this is something you can do or not do according to your own whims and design sensibilities. Just think of the possibilities of this technique. You could never have plain, boring journaling strips ever again!

Tomorrow’s card will use this sketch again, and then we’ll move onto some more fun card ideas.

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