Run for the border!

Hi everyone! It's Technique Tuesday over at the Bella Digi Studio challenge blog and today is my turn to present another technique that can be used in your card making and crafting projects. I was using one of my Martha Stewart corner and border punch combos recently and believe I may have stumbled upon a solution to always get the perfect four-sided borders from these combo punches. I am sharing my technique with you today!


For this demonstration I used the Martha Stewart "Deco Fan" corner and border punch. To start, you will need to take your punches, and on a scrap piece of card stock, punch one corner and one accompanying border. Remember, it's very important that you only punch one of each as seen in the picture below. The reason for this is because we will be using this punched piece of card stock as a measuring tool.



Next, take the piece of card stock that you actually wish to punch and go ahead and punch your corner. Next punch your accompanying borders until you get close enough to the end that you know you may not be able to fit another border and corner punch in that remaining space. Here's an example...


Remember that scrap piece of card stock we started with? Here is where it comes into play. Take the scrap piece and place it flush against the edge of the card stock you are punching. See the picture below. What this is telling me is that if I were to punch my corner on the red card stock "as is", I will end up ruining my border, because the border punch would not line up.


So what you need to do is move the scrap piece along until the white and red pieces line up flush with each other. See the picture below. What this tells me is that in order to punch a perfect border, I need to cut out the excess red card stock beyond the white edge of the scrap piece. It is also telling me that I have enough room left for the corner and one of the "fans" in the border punch.


So I take a ruler and draw a line along that edge.


I then cut the red card stock along that line using my paper trimmer.


Now, I can go ahead and confidently punch my corner. This will leave me with what you see in the picture below.


Next, I took the border punch, lined it up as in the picture below and punched. You can always double check that it's lined up correctly by turning the punch over and looking at the back.


I was now left with this.


I did the same thing along the left side. I kept punching with my border punch until I got close to the end. Then I tested the remaining space with white scrap piece. Based on what I saw in the picture below, I knew I only had enough room to punch a corner.


So I lined up my scrap piece, drew a line along the edge and cut out the excess card stock.


I then punched my remaining corners and borders until I was left with the perfect four sided border!


Whew! I know this was a long post, but I wanted to take you through each of the steps. It may seem involved, but it is really rather easy! If you do this each time you use your Martha Stewart combo punches, you will never have to worry about imperfect borders again!

I hope you found this post informative and helpful. See you next time. Until then, Happy Crafting!