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By Stacey Mullins

Working with punch-outs™

      

Punch-Outs™ are a quick and easy way to add cool color to your 12"x12" and 8"x8" scrapbook pages. They make great accents on pages with patterned paper backgrounds, and we especially love them for jazzing up pages with solid cardstock backgrounds like this Disney mini album spread from LeNae. Just punch out the piece you want to use and glue it to your page–it’s as simple as that! Or, for extra flair, try attaching them with foam tape, accenting them with ribbon tabs or bows, or even distressing them by crumpling, inking or sanding the Punch-Outs™.

“Punch-Outs™ are great for beginners,” says LeNae. “They’re so easy to use and they can even be incorporated into the photos you use on your page! Obviously you won’t want to cover up important parts of your photos that show where you were and who was there, but you’ll notice that many of your photos have some extra space surrounding the subjects. I like to take advantage of that space by overlapping Punch-Outs™ on top of the photos. By adding accents over the actual photographs, you’ll cover up that extra space, helping to keep the focus on the subject of the photos rather than the space around them. Overlapping Punch-Outs™ onto your photos is also a great way to tie in the photograph with the rest of the layout. Rather than having all your photos matted and standing alone on the page, why not add a Punch-Out™ that overlaps the edge of the photo and extends onto the background paper? Take a look at some examples on this Mickey Mouse double-page spread and give it a try for yourself!”

Supplies:


Instructions
For the Left Page

  1. Use a sheet of 8"x8" black cardstock as the background. Cut a 5 1/2"x8" piece of red cardstock. Mat the long right edge on white cardstock, trimming the mat to 3/16", and glue the left edge of the red cardstock even with the left edge of the black background.
  2. Mat a vertical photo on white cardstock, trimming the mat to 1/16". Mat again on yellow cardstock, trim the mat to 1/8" and ink the edges black. Glue the matted photo centered over the red portion of the background. Add the “giggle” ribbon fragment Punch-Out™ over the top left corner of the photo, the “Mickey Mouse” ribbon fragment vertically up the bottom left corner of the photo and the “laugh” fragment overlapping the bottom right corner of the photo. Journal onto the red and white caption bubble and add it overlapping the photo.
  3. For the border: Use foam tape to add the “Happiest place on Earth!” Punch-Out™ at the top of the black border. Knot a 2 1/2" length of black/white gingham ribbon and use a Glue Dot™ to secure the knot in the top right corner of the Punch-Out™. Glue the “Meet Mickey” Punch-Out™ and add a silver star brad to the right side. Use foam tape to attach the yellow “Mickey Mouse” ticket. Finally, fold a 1" length of ribbon in half and secure the loose ends behind the top of the Mickey Mouse hat Punch-Out™ with clear tape to create a tab. Glue the Punch-Out™ at the bottom of the border.

For the Right Page

  1. Use another sheet of 8"x8" black cardstock as the background. Glue a 3 1/2"x8" strip of yellow cardstock 1/4" from the right edge of the page. Glue a 2 1/2"x8" strip of red cardstock centered over the yellow cardstock.
  2. Mat a horizontal photo on red cardstock, trimming the mat to 1/16". Mat again on white cardstock and trim the left and right edges to 3/16" and the top and bottom edges to 1/8". Glue the matted photo 5/8" from the left edge of the page and 2" from the bottom of the page. Journal the date onto the red cardstock under the bottom right corner of the photo.
  3. Fold a 2 1/2" length of black/white gingham ribbon in half and staple the folded end behind the left edge of the red “Mickey Mouse” ticket. Glue the ticket at an angle overlapping the bottom right corner of the photo. Glue the “cool!” caption bubble over the photo.
  4. Use foam tape to attach the “Warning” Punch-Out™ at an angle in the bottom left corner of the page, overlapping the corner of the photo. Glue the height requirement Punch-Out™ at an angle next to the “Warning” sign. Fold two 1" lengths of black/white gingham ribbon in half and use clear tape to secure the loose ends of one length behind the right edge of the “Mickey's Toontown” Punch-Out™ and the other behind the top edge of the red Mickey Mouse head Punch-Out™. Glue the Toontown label in the top left corner of the page and the Mickey Mouse head in the bottom right corner of the page, centered at the bottom of the red portion of the page border.

Quick and easy Punch-Out™ accents are available in tons of different themes and styles. Just click here to see them all!