Day one..... punches

Hi and welcome to another week of posts here on the Papermaze blog. This week we are going to focus on punches. These have to be my favourite tools EVER!!!

Sitting next to me in my scraproom are two baskets full of punches.They are my go to tool everytime i sit down and do a page.



why?

Well i know the initial outlay of them can be a bit daunting, but the amount of use i get out of them negates that.

Sometimes when i buy a set of pattern papers, i either don't like the embellishments that come with them or the shop had run out of the matching embellishments.

With my vast number of punches ( and believe me there are alot) that is never a problem,as i can use my punches to create my own.

One of my all time favourite punches to use are the circle ones. I have these in many sizes....



and i turn to them everytime. They are quick and easy to use and you can use them in so many different ways.

First today we are going to look at making your own embellishments using circle punches.

I love making circle embellishments, and here are a few i have made in the last few months...
The first one is a design copy of a Love Elsie design. I happen to like this one and i have often made it myself using my circle punches so i can have one in just the right colour and design.

To make the blue flower that sits on the orange circle, you punch out a circle.


And the draw out the pattern like above but using a pencil so you can rub out any unwanted pencil lines. Basically you draw small triangles onto the circle making the point stop at the small circle i have drawn in the middle. You then have the freedom to have as many petals as you want. Cut out the little circles to make the flower.

The next example is using the KI memories lace cardstock. The ones that are more suitable for this are the lace cardstock that is small in design.

Use a circle punch to punch out a circle of the cardstock, as in the photo below.


Then adhere the lace circle to a solid colour cardstock, so the brown shows through.



I then outlined the edges and added the gems. This is a perfect embellishment for a card.

Here are another few circles that i have used.

I am a scrapbooker that focuses on the little details, and sometimes i get caught up in making these little embellishments and make them little pieces of art. So basically you can make them as detailed as you want.

Dont forget that you can use the outside of the circle punch as well. After you have punched out some circles you are left with this...


now dont throw this away, as you can use it. Using this i made this card...


I used the circle punched paper to create a frame for the little retro flowers. But when adhering it to the card, i used pop dots so the circles really stood out from the rest of the card and really framed the little flowers.



I also made this mini album. I made this from scratch but i knew from the beginning that it couldnt be a bulky mini album as it need to fit into the tin. So i picked out my circle punches and used them.

First i made the mini album. I used fairly thin cardboard so it would be thick enough to make it stable.

Each panel is 13cm height and about 21 cm across. I made several of these panels. I folded them in half and used a corner punch on the corners. I then adhered them all together.

click on pictures to enlarge them)

I then used the Fancy Pants pattern paper line About a boy for this album and covered all the sections..

I then put the album together. I focused on my sons life at the age of four for this, and i used my circle punches to embellish it.



please click on the photos to make them bigger..

I made two little envelopes when i did this album and i adhered them to two of the sections.


Inside them i put little tags...

On the back of these i wrote all the things that Harry does and loves.

As you can see i used my circle punch all the way through this album.



This week we are still doing the comments post for a prize. But this time for a chance to win a prize you have to post a comment about what you would like to see on these weekly blog posts.


Thanks for stopping by and dont forget to come back 2m.

supplies...

tins - provocraft
paper - fancy pants
punches - here
lettering - thickers
lace cardstock - ki memories