Aloha, all!
Welcome back to Tuesday’s Technique Tips blog post. This month’s theme is using your Stampin’ Up! Designer Series Papers and a punch to create a beautiful card front – no stamping images! While I love stamping – and coloring! – all the wonderful images in Stampin’ Up!’s catalogs, sometimes I just want to play with paper. I do have to let you know that this blog post took an unexpected direction while I was writing it. Read on!
Strips of Cardstock – With Style!
I’m sure you’ve seen many cards that have featured strips of cardstock decorating a card front. But with a punch like the Lovely Labels Pick a Punch you can make those strips of paper pop! 
I cut these vertical strips 3/4″ wide by 5-1/4″ high. When you use the Pick a Punch, you end up cutting 1/8″ off of the end on which you use it. So the final strip is 5″ high. The paper set that I used for this card is called World of Good, and is featured in the 2020-2021 Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog. I also cut the mat for the sentiment at the same width of the piece of Very Vanilla Cardstock on which I mounted all the punched strips – 4″. I cut the sentiment layer 1/4″ shorter – 3-3/4″. The sentiment layer is 1/2″ (one of the measurements permitted by the Pick a Punch) and the mat layer is 3/4″.
The Card Without a Punch
I was going to ask you to think about what this card would look like with plain strips of paper. But then I realized that it would only take a minute (or maybe 10) to recreate this card without the punch.
In fact it did take me about 10 minutes to make this. Don’t forget that I had the design all wrapped up and I just needed to make some 3/4″ x 5″ strips of paper. And I didn’t count the time it took me to clean up my work table afterwards. But still, it’s a quick card.
What Makes Both Cards Work?
Actually, the card on the left here isn’t all that bad. It’s neat and the colors coordinate well, as they should as they’re in the same set of papers. The other thing that helps make both cards work is that I mounted the strips on a piece of Very Vanilla Cardstock slightly smaller than the size of the card base. Even though I certainly could have mounted the strips on the card base itself, that extra layer lends a sense of thoughtful artistry to the whole card.
So is one card “better” than the other? Just to check this out, I posted both of these cards on Facebook and asked for opinions. The opinion of those who responded was mixed. I have friends who really like the textured look of the card that used the punch. But others preferred the clean look of the unpunched strips.
What do YOU think?
The Bottom Line
If you make a card with some care and an artistic touch or two, people are going to like it. I personally like the card with the punched ends as it gives some extra texture to the card (beyond what the paper itself provides). But, if you’d like to save some time and make a card quickly, just cut the strips and glue them on! People will love it. (By the way, when it comes to glue with a card like this, I like Multipurpose Liquid Glue. With the Multipurpose Glue, you have a bit of wiggle room (literally) so you can slide (wiggle?) the pieces into place perfectly.)
Have a great time with whatever you’re making this week!
