Work It Wednesday

In this week’s Work It Wednesday, I’m talking about punches. There are about a million different choices in a sorts of shapes and sizes. Do you need punches to make your crafty life complete? Absolutely! Do you need ALL the punches? Absolutely! Okay, maybe not ALL of them.

My usual criteria for Tools doesn’t totally translate to an entire category of tools, but we’ll give it a shot.

How big is the learning curve? Punches are usually self explanatory. No learning curve.
Do I already have something else I’m currently using that does the job? Scissors. Seriously, I could hand cut everything.
Does this tool add (potentially unneeded) extra steps to getting my project completed? No, in fact it’s a huge timesaver because I don’t need to hand cut. Plus it gives exact edges.
How much does it cost? They vary between $5. and $23. Several of the punches coordinate with specific stamp sets and usually you can get a little bit of discount when you buy both the stamp set and the coordinating punch.
Do I even know what it’s for? Yep, it’s a punch. It punches things.

I’ve been a Stampin Up Demonstrator for a little over 10 years so I actually have most of the Stampin Up Punches, but were only talking maybe 45 punches. Sometimes having all of them comes in handy, specially when I’m working on home décor projects because then I have multiple sizes and styles. Do I need all of the punches? Maybe not, but without a variety of punches in different sizes I would not have been able to make today’s project.

This awesome shutter came from a local craft store. I wasn’t totally sure what I was going to do with it, but wanted something “Springy”. This is what I came up with. Everything except the banner was made using punches.

This project uses lots of punches, lots of ribbon, and lots of pearls. Since my banner starts mid-way down the shutter and continues to the bottom, I balanced out the top with lots of flowers in different sizes and styles. The ribbon tassels I made myself and yes, they take a lot of ribbon to make, but they turned out just like I envisioned. The color scheme is simple with just a few colors but it helps carry through that clean and fresh Spring look.

I keep looking at the calendar to see if it’s Spring yet. We’re so close! I’m kinda done with short daylight hours and freezing cold weather. Ok, YES, I live in Southern California but 60’ is COLD here. C’mon weatherman! Do your job and keep it above 75’ please. Anyway…. SPRING is just around the corner and I’m counting down. I so look forward to Daylight Savings and the longer days. Flowers blooming, sunshine filled skies, BBQs, sitting on the porch, the list goes on!

Before Spring has Sprung, I do have one more birthday card I received last month to share with you (I promise, this is the last one!). This one was made by my friend Annette. Wow! Just…WOW! Look at all those gorgeous flowers.

The flower pot is actually a pocket card. The card slides in and out and the top half of the flowers are the card! Here’s what it looks like when you open it. It actually slides all the way out, but you don’t need to see her entire message to me.