Punch Tricks

Hi everyone! It's a beautiful fall day here in north east Maryland, sunny and cool! I just got back from a shopping trip to JA's and Mike's and have something really fun to share with you. Martha Stewart has a Christmas deep edge border punch out called Skyland Snowflake. The magic comes in that you can use it for a double edge border punch as well as a single snowflake in addition to being a deep edge punch. I hope the picture demonstrates this.

I began with a strip of paper cut 2 and 1/4 wide and used the punch in the typical way to go down the edge of the strip. That strip is on the far left in the picture. You can actually begin with any width and then trim to exactly 1 and 1/8 from the inside edge of the punched strip to the trimmed edge. I hope that's clear! Then line up the punch along the opposite edge so that the very center mark of the snowflake is lined up with that mark on the punch--this is on the end snowflake and punch again. This will give you your full round center snowflake. Move the strip and do the same again for each complete circle on your strip, however long it is. If it doesn't come out the first time, fudge on the width of your strip a little. Luckily mine came out the first time but I can see where you might have to adjust depending on your paper cutter, your eyes, etc.

Then to get one complete snowflake, use sharp paper scissors and just trim one out from the row, clipping carefully around the tiny scallop edges where necessary. This really expands the use you will get from this punch. It was $18 at JoAnn's and I used a fifty off coupon which made it $9 plus tax so I'm a happy camper. If all of this isn't clear to you, just drop me an email and I'll help you through it or post more photos if necessary. Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.