There is just something about punches!

I definitely have a weakness for punches.  I use my Cricut daily and I really enjoy designing my own borders in Design Studio, however, I still buy punches (but only on sale or with a coupon!).

Today I went to the local Michael's store.  I was excited to see that they had hang tags for some new Cricut cartridges - Old West, Pagoda, Designer's Calendar, Paisley and Sweet Treats.  Unfortunately the cartridges had not arrived in the store yet (they are expected next week).  Now I have to decide which ones I really need...

I wandered over to the Martha Stewart aisle and found a lot of the new punches - the Punch Around the Page sets and the Deep Edge punches.  After great debate, I settled on the Floral Vine deep edge punch.  With a 50% off coupon, it was $9 (plus tax).

If you haven't seen these yet here is  a photo - these punches are huge! The new floral vine deep edge is on the top.  I put one of my older border punches below so you can see the relative sizes.

I did a little experimenting and figured out how to make an open top box using a sheet of 12 x 12 paper.  First I tried using a 7 inch wide strip of paper.  The punched design is about 2 1/2 inches so I could fit four punches and part of a fifth punch around the top.  I folded the paper at each punch pattern and then scored, cut and folded the paper to create a base.

I made a second shorter version with the leftover five inch strip of paper.  These would make cute little candy holders for table favors at a shower or tea party.

Next I experimented with  punching the full width of the paper.  First I started at the edge and worked my way across (the blue strip above).  I realized that it was a little off so I tried again - this time starting from the center of the three inch strip.

If you look at the two strips above you can see that the beige one looks neater since it is centered and both ends are at about the same point in the pattern.  These borders started from a plain three inch strip of 12 inch cardstock.

Next I tried  offsetting the designs - starting at the center on one side and moving the pattern to have the ends and the centers opposite one another along the strip.  Once again these started as plain 3 x 12 inch strips of cardstock.

 

Finally, I tried punching in the offset pattern, but I began with a 2 1/2 inch strip of cardstock.  I probably would not plan to use a thinner strip than 2 1/2 inches because the leafy sections come close to touching at this width.

It would take me hours to design a cut this in intricate in Design Studio and my Cricuts would not cut the tiny circles accurately so the punch was a good choice for me.

I have a lot of ideas for ways to use this punch - I think it will be fun to use for Spring projects.