Today’s marketplace is full of accessories and supplies for the creative scrapbooker. The costs can accumulate quickly, so the wise crafter should evaluate the flexibility of each tool before it’s purchased. One tool that is relatively inexpensive has a wide variety of designs, and many uses is the paper punch.
Perhaps the first crafter to use a paper punch discovered that she could use her handheld hole puncher to make piles of dots from different colored paper. Maybe she painstakingly glued each dot onto her design. Whatever the technique, today’s crafter has an almost endless supply of designs and uses. Paper punches are usually available from specialty catalogs or craft stores for anywhere from $1.50 to $12.00. They are sometimes sold in sets with basic shapes such as stars, moons, squares, hearts or snowflakes. Entire alphabets are also available for purchase. Sizes range from a half inch to jumbo paper punches up to 5 inches wide. The paper punches have become more like mini die cuts than the original hole punch circle.
Paper Punch Ideas
1) Use the paper punch to make a border for your scrapbook page. To do this, cut strips of paper using a paper cutter. Make all the strips the same width. Use one or more paper punches to make a pattern in the border. The page color will show through the areas that you punched. Glue the border onto the page. For extra flair, put the corners together and punch through both to get a design in the corners.
2) Highlight photos with a paper punch frame. Cut out a shape that is approximately ¼” to ½” larger than the photo a piece of paper that compliments the photo. Now do the same thing to a contrasting piece of paper. This piece will be layered right on top of the photo. Cut out the middle of the shape from both pieces of paper. Using a hole punch, cut out designs around the perimeter of the first piece that you cut. Layer in this order: photo, contrasting piece, piece with hole punches. The contrasting piece of paper will show through the paper punch outs, making a creative and attractive frame.
3) Save all the little pieces of paper that you’ve punched out from various projects. It’s best to sort these when you first cut them, using baggies, envelopes or small plastic containers. Use these little pieces to decorate pages, borders, make a confetti party page, etc.
4) Use balloon punches (available at craft stores) to add cartoon-like text above pictures.
5) Make a scalloped edge for a scrapbook page by punching along the edge of a piece of acid-free paper or cardstock, connecting the shapes like an old fashioned paper doll.
6) Make “pop ups” on a scrapbook page by using small pieces of coiled wire with a hole punched design on the end.
Maintenance
To lubricate a hole punch, punch through wax paper a few times. To sharpen an often used punch, use it on tin foil. If your punch seems to be “sticking”, rub soap on a piece of cardstock, and punch through it a few times with the offending hole punch.
Paper punches are a wonderful way to add flair to a scrapbook page. Whether used as a border, a highlight or a main feature of your page, you’ll find new ways to use them as you expand your scrapbooking techniques.
