Focus: Punches

Punches have come a long way since I got my first circle punch (see above :). These days it’s pretty fun to consider all the possibilities when you’re standing in front of the display of punches at the store. Some of us might be hesitant to invest, but Christine shows us this week that you can dig up those old punches you’ve had for years, and make them work. And with all the fabulous examples from our DT, you might just rush off to the store for a new one today! What a great challenge for us all.

So I love the texture that punches bring. We want to get the most out of our tool, so making 10 of a shape we have, makes us happy - if we can use it on the page effectively. Christine and Nadya both demonstrate how this can work beautifully. It can be especially great if you pull out some coordinating papers and mix and match.

Nadya’s 'Thinking of You' flower card uses the negative space – something else that is great and easy to forget. Jessica makes great use of negative space. Look closely at her layout this week. Because of the placement of the border punch at the top and bottom, it looks like she has slid a patterned sheet behind. Very cool. Oh, yeah, and Christine’s use of negative space on her Christmas layout is stunning! Very great.

It seems owls are the thing to make with punches. Jessica uses her border punch on hers to create the feather element. Cute. As far as nature goes, Meg uses that cute butterfly punch and then pulls the wings up to give make her card 3D.

Joni uses a tiny circle punch to repeat the circle element on her page. Nice. I thought about using the punched out stars from my border punch, but I’m too lazy to glue them all on. (J They were tiny!)

Layers of border punches are the thing to do these days and Jamie does it very well. Layering these borders is great and we encourage it. The paper you choose to do this can make a big difference. Amy H uses the perfect paper for her border punch on this incredible card (recognizing the strength of a breast cancer survivor - awesome card you should check out).

When it comes down to it, punches can add that extra UMPH to your page, that takes it from hohum, to fab. Pull yours out today and enjoy your supplies!