Tuesday's {Tip}

Today I wanted to share with you a VERY easy and fast way to make a postage stamp edge on your papers (either for cards or layouts). You will need a Creative Memories Mini Circle Maker, a Sharpie, pencil, ruler, and your paper. You will be using the smallest circle on the punch (the 3/4" circle punch). Now, I have created this same edge with a regular circle punch before; however, it is not as easy, and it doesn't come out as straight. I actually ended up tracing a piece of Making Memories paper and then using my hole punch because it was such a pain. And afterwards, I had to go back and erase my trace lines. It was definitely much more work. This technique is SO much easier!

Now, I cannot make videos, so I sure hope that you will understand this tutorial. I tried to take a lot of pictures to make it easier to understand. It truly is easy once you try it. To start, you will need your Sharpie to make a permanent line on the bottom of your punch. You want the line to be in the middle of the circles going across your punch. This won't hurt your punch, and you will always have it there to use in the future.

To begin, punch your first hole anywhere on the edge of the paper; however, if you are creating a corner and doing two or more sides of your paper, you will want to mark the corners before you begin. See below for those instructions. I always work with the punch upside down and by feeding my paper from the right to the left. To always work in this direction, sometimes it means turning your paper over to the other side when you are working on different edges. You will understand what I mean as you try it.

After you have made your first hole, slide your paper to the left. Align the edge of the circle you just made with the edge of the punch. Align the paper with the Sharpe line on the punch. Aligning the paper with your Sharpie line will ensure that you have a straight set of punches along your edge. And aligning with the left side of the body of the punch will ensure that you have equal spacing between each circle.

Continue to slide your paper across and aligning the circles with the edge of the punch and your Sharpie line as you make each new punch. When you are done, your paper should look like this:
To make a corner, mark each edge of your paper 1/2" from the edge with a pencil before you begin punching. Punch your first hole by aligning the pencil mark with the left side of the circle instead of the edge of the punch. Then turn the paper, and align the next pencil mark with the right side of the circle. The picture below shows the first circle already punched (shown at the top of the punch), and now you are aligning the punch with the pencil mark on the right of the circle to start the other side.
Once you have finished the two punches on the edge, it should look like this:
Now you can continue along the edge of each side as we did above. Remember, you may need to turn your paper over so that you can work right to left each time. Here is a card I created earlier this summer using this technique:
I used Creative Cafe and Basic Grey papers and the Unity Tiny Trinity stamp set.

This technique really is simple and fast with this punch. I hope you enjoy it! Please let me know if you have questions. It is a bit hard to explain but truly so simple. Blessings,