Using new corner/border punches

I made a couple of cards yesterday. By some amazing chance, I had my swap cards for the Team Meeting finished and had time to create something else. It kind of freaks me out when I finish things early. I'm so used to doing EVERYTHING in a rush at the last second! Could I possibly be becoming a non-procrastinator???

The first card is a card I made using the Movers and Shapers card die with the heart insert. It looked so plain and I wanted to do something around the heart hole so I ended up just using the Signo gel pen and making some little doodle scallops.

We were having our quarterly team meeting last night and my upline asked me to demonstrate how to do a mat with the new punches. I had been fustrated with the punches because it was hard to get them to come out right and I had places where the scallops didn't meet right and had to cover them up with flowers or butterflies or something. I was delighted to find out how to use them to make perfect mats. Patty Bennett had a list on her blog of measurements to pre-cut your paper to make different size mats and they were all perfect except the 4" one. I just couldn't get it to work. Then I found out how to do them from any size paper.

I had complained that the corner punch guides weren't big enough to keep the paper in unless you were very careful with it. Well, there is a reason for that! It is so you can insert the paper in farther to put the corner where you want it so you don't have to remember measurements or find where your chart is that you made of the measurements. I cut a 5X7 piece of cardstock and punched it this way, ending when I got nearly to the edge of the paper and it made a perfect mat for a standard 4X6 photo.

Begin by punching a corner. As I said, the paper guides aren't very pronounced so I always turn the punch upside down and insert the paper until it reaches the corner. Switch to the border punch and punch until you get nearly to the other end of the paper. Switch back to the corner punch and insert the paper so it aligns with the last scallop. You can see that the edge of the paper is farther out than the corner guide.

Punch the corner and then put your paper in the trimmer and line it up with the outside edge of the punched area. Trim off the excess. Continue punching until you get to the end and do the same thing. The last row should match up with the first corner you punched.

As I said, a 5X7 piece of paper makes a good size mat for a standard picture. I would say cut the paper an inch larger each direction than the piece you want to end up with. If you are low on a specific paper you want to use for a mat you might want to experiment on a scrap of cardstock to make sure it will yield the size you need before punching the paper you want to use.

Another thing you can do with the corner punches since you can insert the paper all the way in is a large border. I inserted the paper in as far as it would go so all of the "peaks" would be the same height. When I punched subsequent corners I held the punch upside down and made sure the very edge of the corner of the previous punch was barely showing. For this card I used Sweet Pea paper with the Friends 24/7 stamp set as well as a sentiment from the Whimisical Words Sale-a-bration set.

For the last card I matted the DSP on a rectangular mat and then made 1 1/2" X 1 1/2" squares to put under the corner peaks. I think I need to add some ink around the edges but I like how the card turned out. The DSP is the little 6X6 paper pad from the Sale-a-Bration catalog.