Paper Punch Layer Tips: Breathe Some Life into those Paper Punches
1 February 2012
Author: Catherine Matthews-Scanlon
I love finding new ways to use tools I’ve had forever and haven’t used in a long time – especially when they have a tendency to be expensive and take up a lot of room in my studio because I can’t bear to part with them. I can’t resist flower punches, but after I’ve had them a while and used them on a few projects the newness wears off and I don’t use them as much – if ever. I've learned a few paper punch layer tips along the way to stretch the uses I can get out of a single punch.
Layered punch projects I’ve done in the past have had the tendency to be flat – or I made them dimensional with 3D Dots. Layering the different sized punches on top of each other to create a fun layered design, which I totally love the look off, can only create so many looks! I was really excited when I recently discovered a new way to breathe some life into those older punches to get a lovely 3 dimensional look – and layering several different styles of punches is totally allowed!
To create these 3 Dimensional flowers you’ll need:
- Piercing Pad or Mouse Pad
- Variety of Sizes of Ball Embossing Tools
- Tweezers
- Craft Glue
- Cardstock and/or patterned paper
- Small and Medium Flower Paper Punches
The technique is pretty easy – and pretty quick as well!
Punch and Roll Your Flowers:
To get started, punch a lot of flowers – using a variety of styles and size punches – and different colors of patterned paper and cardstock if you want.
The trick to getting dimension on the punched flower is to place it on a piercing pad and roll a ball embossing tool gently over the center and petals of the flowers - doing this damages the fibers of the paper and causes them to roll up, creating realistic looking petals on the flowers.
When you use a larger ball – like 4mm to 6mm the petals will roll up just a little. When you use a smaller ball to roll the center and petals of the punch – as small as 1 to 2mm; the center and petals roll up a lot, creating a flower that looks like a flower bud.
When you layer the different flowers together you get a realistic, 3 dimensional paper flower to use on your cards, shadowboxes and other creations.
Layer Your Dimensional Flowers:
To layer the rolled flowers together; place a dot of craft glue in the center of the first flower and place the second flower inside, holding it with tweezers and use the ball embossing tool to press it down in the center so it adheres. Continue adding layers until your flowers have the dimension and fullness you are looking for. Make 15 to 20 flowers to get a realistic floral tree or flower branch.
To get the look of a peony or vintage rose like I’ve done on the Congratulations Card, use between 2 and 4 layers of the Medium Retro Flower mixed with the Medium and Small Daisy. Use the large and small ball embossing tools to get different sizes of each flower.
To get the look of a Lilac Branch, use the Small or Medium Daisy depending on the project size and a small and large roller. Punch 30 or more flowers from a pink or lilac cardstock and roll them to different degrees to get tiny flowers that are opened to different sizes. Stitch a real tree branch to your cardstock and glue the flowers to it until it looks like a lilac tree in blossom.
Use your imagination and these paper punch layer tips to see what beautiful flowers you can create from your punches and patterned paper.