Circle Punch tutorial

Good morning! Hope your Sunday is off to a good start, and that you'll have some time to rest, relax, reflect, worship, stamp, etc! :o)

We had our first ground-covering snowfall here yesterday, 4" maybe, and now all the trees are covered - the pines are especially beautiful. All that shoveling got me in a Christmasy mood so I came in last night and put up a bunch of decorations - nothing fancy, just some lighted garland over the tops of our large LR furniture, decorative garland around mirrors, a nativity scene, some red berry stems, a clock that plays a traditional Christmas song on the hour, etc. Not sure about a tree yet - we're spacially challenged here (not a lot of square footage! LOL)

Do you have any circle punches lying around? Today I thought I'd share a little experiment with you. A while back I was so enamored with circle punches that I used every coupon for months stocking up on various sizes! (with little thought as to where I would put them all when I got home with them) LOL

Here are the results of my thinking "Hmmm....wonder how many ways I could use my circle punches?" I sat down with all the sizes of punches and made a prototype atc for each idea and put them in pages that hold baseball cards (nine pockets a page) in a three ring binder (yes, I use them for everything!! LOL) I can flip thru this and refer back anytime for ideas. I do the same thing with other topics which I'll try to remember to share in future.

Keep in mind these are all thrown together with scrap cs and not meant to be a finished item - more like a template.

1. I cut squares, then cut them on the diagonal, then punched the center for a photo corner effect.

2. I punched a circle, edged the it with brown ink, then folded one side over the other.

3. I folded the circles in half, glued the bottom side to a base atc, and the inside half to a white panel so the circles work as a hinge and the panel opens.

4. I punched two atc's at the same time, then 2 smaller circles. I adhered fine string between the two white circles, then adhered the string between the two atc bases so the white circle spins freely.

5. I punched four holes in white panel, threaded ribbon thru, and glued panel to atc (this holds the ribbon in place pretty well).

6. This is just a faux metal rimmed tag, made by edging a white circle punched as shown with a silver pen, then pop-dotting it for dimension.

7. These are two graduated circles attached to flap panels with eyelets. There is a piece of thin cording anchored under one circle so you can thread it around as a closure. Quick tip: place a smaller circle under the larger one as well as on top before closing eyelet and you'll have more room to wind the cording.

8. For this one, you can either use a slit punch to get the effect shown, or punch three circles and attach an eyelet as shown when attaching the circles to the white "tag", which pulls out of the pocket with the circles as the tab.



9. Pretty self-explainitory - waste not, want not LOL! Provides a cool retro feel.

10. CS buttons, tied on with embroidery floss *tip* for dimension, glue a smaller circle of cs to bottom of button before punching.

11. The black is a circle, then the white circle swings open using the brad as a pivot.

12. This is four circles - two white edged with black, and two black edged with white.

13. This is a cool effect. Stamp the same image twice. Punch one with a large punch, then mark the center of the punched out piece and punch again with a smaller circle punch. Mount as shown over the base image using pop-dots.

14. Pretty self-explainitory, just using the punches as a tag reinforcement to add interest.

15. This is a circle folded in half, then a ribbon folded over front and back, adhered with a brad, to make a tab on a mini-tag.

16. This one is using the spotlight technique, where a circle from a main image is colored and pop-dotted over the original image.

17. Olives!

18. Frosty!

19. A quick and easy way to frame with no fancy corner punches. *tip* If you draw a line across each corner first in pencil, you can line the punch up with this for even corners.

20. Punch any scrap randomly and glue the piece to a base and the color shows thru. *tip* Save the punched out circles for confetti.

21. A quick tag for stringing onto ribbon.

22. A slit cut in the center of the circles makes for different photo corners.

23. A circle cut in quarters, and you can layer them on top of the top panel or under it for totally different looks.

24. Kind of a reverse spotlight effect.

25. A spinner. Note that you can punch tiny circles in the edge for a gear effect to make turning easier. The white circle spins on the brad, just make sure you punch the spinning circle exactly in the center or it'll wobble and be off-kilter.

26. Make use of your alphabet stamps lingering lonesomely! A simple circle punch, a different color cs and pop-dots will add interest. *tip* try mixing different alphabets on the same word.

27. For these 3D flowers, cut slits as shown from edges to center, leaving an uncut circle in the center which will get covered by the smaller punched circle adhered to it. The leaves are circles cut in half.

Hope this inspires you to go dig out those punches and add them to your stamping techniques...

Thanks for looking!