Rubber Stamps
Creative Accents with Punch Art
By Rebekah A. Parker
Mar 2, 2005, 09:07

Do you have a bunch of little scraps that are ready to be thrown out?  Have you tried Punch Art?  Punch art is an easy way to use up those scraps and add great accents to your cards.  You can use patterned paper, plain cardstock, vellum, mulberry paper, or even sticker paper to make your own punched stickers!  They are very versatile.

Splash Birthday Celebration!	You can use the actual punch and/or the punched out piece of paper.  I often save my punched out pieces for future use in stenciling a background/border or to use as a mount for something to show through.  The Stampin’ Up! (SU) Paper Piecing Punch is a great punch for using as a mount.  In this sample it resembles a slide mount.  I then used the pieces that were punched out to make a border on several cards.   SU Everyday Flex Phrases, SU Barely Banana and Rose Romance cardstock, Doodlebug Summer Splash PP, Basic Grey Raspberry Sorbet for the card base, slide mount and paper piecing punch outs  Adornments fiber.
Celebrate!	Here I used my SU Paper Piecing pieces and made a “candle” border.  The flame is a small stamp from SU Fun Shapes.  The “candles” were then punched using a small rectangle hand-held punch from Fiskars and the polka-dot ribbon was threaded through the candles.  Notice the SU Paper Piecing punched out piece is used as a background behind the Vellum definition “Celebrate” from SU Lexicon of Love.  I layered it on yellow paper to make the punched out area stand out.  MM small buttons.  SU Canvas background stamp, SU Pink Passion and Basic Black Classic Inks.
Summertime!	The small hand-held Fiskars rectangle punch is also great for punching on the edges of cards to help hold fibers in place as seen in the sample below.  Hero Arts "Summer" and SU A Little Love and Crayon Kids (sun that is not visible, stamped under "Summer") stamps, SU Ballet Blue cardstock, SU Ballet Blue and Barely Banana Classic Inks. Adornments Fiber.  Deja Views Textured paper.
Always Kiss Me Goodnight!	Creative Memories (CM) has an excellent assortment of punches with a variety of sizes in each shape.  In the sample below, I used two sizes of the heart punch.  The “kisses”, made with SU Alphadots, were punched out with a ¼” circle punch.  SU Real Red and Basic Black cardstock, SU Real Red Classic Ink. SU Soft Swirls in versamark for background.  SU Canvas background stamp to make "ribbon".
Strawberrry Shortcake Birthday Party!	For my daughter’s sixth birthday party, I stamped Strawberry Shortcake invitations and thank yous for her.  I used CM's heart punches and Emagination’s small and medium flower punches.  Using different sizes of the same punch allows you to layer and make your punch art stand out even more.  Eyelets and buttons make great flower punch centers.  The medium punched flower and heart made nice frames for the Strawberry Shortcake bubble sticker from American Greetings.  Stamps used are SU Wonderful Words, Fun with Shapes and Printworks "Birthday Party".  Vellum plaid background paper is Over the Moon Press, Raspberry Plaid and Lime Plaid.  SU Rose Romance and Gable Green cardstock, SU Basic Black and Rose Romance Classic Inks.  Doodlebug Eyelets.   Strawberry Shortcake Birthday Thanks
Fourth of July Parade!	True Love, You and I!
Shown above are my last samples of punch art using Silhouette punches and the corner rounder punch.  The Silhouette punch leaves a punched image on your paper as shown below.  These make nice borders and are enhanced with different color backgrounds adhered behind them.  I used EK Success’ Flag and Double Heart Silhouette punches.  The corner rounder is a great tool for making edges softer.  I wanted the edges of the Studio K “9 Stitched Embossed” background paper and the layered pieces to be rounded to blend with the circles.  It also flows together with the hearts.  Deja Views "Fresh Verse Love" vellum verse.  SU Mauve Mist, Lovely Lilac cardstock.  Flag card uses SU Thankful Thoughts, Real Red and Night of Navy cardstock.  SU Night of Navy Classic Ink and Brilliance White. CM Oval cutter system.  Background uses the Saran Wrap technique.	In my gallery you will find many examples using a circle punch to punch out the SU Smile smiley face.  A Pop-dot makes it jump off the page.  The smiley is perfect for our “Live, Love, Laugh” theme, and it goes great with the color scheme of bright colors.  It makes a very cheery card.  I plan to send as many out as I can for my RAK March Family/Friends challenge! http://www.pagesoftheheart.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/20473/sort/2/cat/500/page/1 http://www.pagesoftheheart.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/20464/sort/2/cat/500/page/1 March Family/Friends RAK Challenge link: http://www.pagesoftheheart.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4601

There are hundreds of varieties of punches available!  Punches for corners and borders.  Hand-held punches and Sissix Paddle punches that come with a “hammer”!  Slit punches and letter punches!  Explore the world of punches and broaden your paper crafting skills.  You will give your card embellishments a whole new look.

Paper Punch tip:  If your punches are getting dull or art starting to stick when punched, punch them through several layers of wax paper.

Here are a few links that have additonal information for making your punch art stand out on your creations!

http://www.craftavenue.com/punch_art.htm

http://www.emaginationcrafts.com/specials.htm

http://www.eksuccess.com/tips_list.php?sess_id=9301cb2dac02e125cf3affca83c90865

http://www.creativememories.com/ProductCollection/ProductCollection.aspx?gid=0&igid=135