Thank you so much for joining us for the September Stylin’  Stampin’ Squad Blog Hop! This month we are focusing on the tools of the stampin’ trade. Specifically, each of our favorite stamping tools. It’s amazing the kinds of tools that have been created to help us along in our paper-crafting addictions.  This month’s blog hop will showcase many of the Stampin’ Up! tools that are now available to us in the 2013-2014 Stampin’ Up! Idea Book and Holiday Catalog and even a couple of products that are so new they aren’t in either catalog. We hope you enjoy seeing how we use the old and new tools and are inspired to come up with some great projects of your own.

You should have just left stop number 9 on the Stylin’ Stampin’ Squad blog hop – Stuck on Stampin’. If so, you are in the right spot. If a link doesn’t work or you get off track, you will find the full blog hop lineup below.

Ok, so are you ready to see what I picked for my favorite tool?  I was going to pick punches (since, have you seen my wall of punches??) but that was well covered.  And so I decided to go with the less popular tool – the paper piercer and templates!

I promise the picture above includes all three of the templates included in the Essentials pack, but its hard to see, so here is a better picture of all of the options available to you in the pack.

This is my absolute favorite pack because I cannot live without my straight rows of piercing holes.  It is the simplest thing, but I use it all the time!  Now, I love the shapes and patterns as well, and have found they give lots of possibilities even if you don’t own the coordinating punch or framelit.

But to show you 3 of the ways I use my piercer, I created this card to share today:

Can you spot all 3 uses of the piercing tool and template?    Keep reading to see if you caught them all!

1.  Creating Faux Stitching

One of the coolest techniques I know with this tool is the faux stitching technique and it is so easy to do as well.  Yes, you can pierce your holes and then grab needle and thread and stitch on your cards…. or you can just do this.

Line up the more widely spaced straight line holes of your paper piercing template so that the seam between two pieces of paper (in this case, patterns from the Etcetera designer paper) is exactly in the middle between the two lines of holes.

Use your piercing tool to poke each hole and then draw your stitch lines in with your favorite color marker.  Looks pretty real, huh?

2.  Spotlighting with Pierced Patterns

Since there are so many patterns on the templates, sometimes they are perfect to coordinate with a punch or framelit for an extra accent.  In this case, I loved how the oval of holes helps accent the sentiment in the center of the scallop oval punch out.  You could do some faux stitching with this as well, but I thought the simple look was a bit nicer.

You can also do this without needing to use a punch.  Use any of the shapes to accent a stamped image on any project you are working on.

3.  Precision Placement of Brads

Ok, this is my go-to use for my paper piercer and template – placing brads.  I am a pretty loosey-goosey card maker and stamper.  I’m ok if my image is a little skewed (hey, its artistic that way!) and if I didn’t quite get that bow right.  But one thing I can’t stand, is if an element that is supposed to be symetrical – like brads in a row or in the corners of a paper – comes out slightly off.

So I ALWAYS pull out my piercing template when I’m going to add brads to a project so I can make sure they are spaced evenly apart and the same distance in from each corner.

To do that, you just align the black solid line on the template along the edge of your paper and then pick the same hole in the corner to use for placement.  Then just use the same corner of the template for each corner on your paper and you will get perfect corners every time!

So, there you have it…. did you figure out all 3?

I also wanted to take a quick moment to show one other little trick I did on this card…. yeah, it has nothing what so ever to do with piercing, but I thought it was cool.  It was how I got the doily for the background of the card.

I took a single doily and folded it in not-quite-half.  Then I took a piece of scrap paper and placed it between the top and the bottom piece of the doily.  I sponged the top piece in Pool Party; then I opened it up and sponged the bottom side with Midnight Muse.  It gives a neat effect with no cutting and only one doily!

and back to paper piercing…

I did a class on Paper Piercing a while back and so I thought I’d share a card we made in that class that gives you even more ideas for how you can user the piercing tool and template.

So I hope you enjoyed all the tips and ideas, and now are inspired to get out your piercing templates and start creating!

For even more inspiration and ideas for using the tools you have at home, keep on hoping and visit Bree for some fun with the Simply Scored!

Blog Hop Participants:

1. Shellie G. of Craft Smashup
2. Pam S. of Stampin’ in the Sun!
3. Tonya B. of Stampin’ with Tonya
4. Dawn S. of Dawn’s Creative Chalet
5. Darcy J. of DJ’s Stampin’ Place
6. Pamela W. of Stinky Tofu
7. Kim R. of Stamping with Kim
8. Justin K. of JK Cards
9. Heidi B of Stuck on Stampin’
10. Jennifer B. of NW Stamper <— YOU ARE HERE!
11. Bree R. of Craft-somnia
12. Diana E. of Stampin’ Fun with Diana
13. Jennifer C. of Happy 2 Scrap 4 Life
14. Jamie H. of Unique Ink
15. Kristina M. of Mama’s Sanity

Card Supplies Used
Stamps- Express Yourself (hostess set)
Ink- Midnight Muse, Calypso Coral, Pool Party
Paper – Very Vanilla, Whisper White, Daffodil Delight, Etcetera designer paper
Accessories – Paper piercer, piercing mat, Essentials Piercing Template, Scallop Oval punch, sponge daubers, white doilies, Mini Brads, stampin’ dimensionals

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