Ornamental Frame Technique

I used my corner punch to create an ornamental frame on one of my Christmas cards. I had several friends asking how I did it so I decided to post this tuitorial. I appologize for quality of the pictures. My camera does poorly in low light. I will retake the pics during the weekend in daylight but for the following ones will have to do.

What you will need is EZ Success Corner Punch called Wrought Iron and a piece of paper.



Lets start with a rectangle. Detach the corner clip and punch your first shape. I made edge of the paper even with edge of the punch.



Now you have to punch the same shape next to it and repeat as many times as you need to achieve your desired lenght. Make sure the edged touch each other. I flipped the punch and punched the rest of the shapes up side down which let me see where exactly I am placing the next one.



The little tricky part is when you need to make a corner. Remember you started with paper edge even with the punch edge and to have your frame evenly punched you have to do the same on the other side.

To achieve that I took a pencil and when punching my last shape on the bottom I made a short line along the punch edge. That showed me where to trim the paper.

Once you have the paper trimmed, start punching the vertical side. Again make sure the two corner punches touch. Continue in the same matter all around your paper. As soon as you make your last punch, you will be able to pop the middle out and you will be left with a nice ornamental frame.



You can also make beautiful circles using the exactly same technique. The difference is that when making a rectangle frame you can decide the lenght and width of your frame as you go. If you want a longer one you simply punch one more shape before trimming the end of the paper. The circles seem little trickier in that respect. You have to cut it first and of course once it is done, you can't expand or shring it.

You might fing a better technique or some of you just might have it in their eye but this is what i did to make my circle even.

I punched my first shape. Then I placed ruler so that it came through the middle of the punched shape and marked the opposite side. This was a nice guideline for punching my second shape.



You will need to do the same for the two following shapes, placing them also in the middle of the existing ones.



You're nearly done. All you need to do is to punch the remining shapes in between the ones you already have a pop the middle out. You will then have an elegant frame to use on your cards or layouts.