Pinch Punch...

First Day of the Month... Hi Everyone, hope you are all well.. What a day weather wise it was Today! Well it was here! I hope you had better weather where you are in the world.. I know us Brits are obsessed with the weather and why shouldn't we be..? I'm sure we are the only country in the world that can have all 4 seasons in just one day! Well at least it didn't snow today but it did everything else... geesse!!
Anyway, as it's the 1st of the Month you know what that means Blogland.. Yep that's right Blog Candy!!

And the winner this Month is Becky Bex.. Well done Becky, we'll have your goodies waiting for you next time you are in the shop...
And now for the Winner of the Santa Card..
You may recall the Blog Post on 19th October? You know, the one with the sitting Santa... I was so chuffed with the feed back about this card that when it came back from the publishers I decided to give it away to a lucky blogger who left a comment.. Well, congratulations to Shelly Evetts.. The card will be winging it's way to you very soon..
Also a big well done to Kathy Orta & Samantha Strachan, our new followers winners. Enjoy your prizes ladies.....
So now the Blog Candy is all dealt with shall we get on with some crafting?? OK!!
This weekend saw the start of the new Do Crafts promotion for Nov/Dec'09. Much of the later part of this year has been focused on Christmas, so it is refreshing, for me anyway, to see some new products unrelated to the season.. There is also a return of an old favourite.. the Dimensional Butterfly Punch.. All Pinnacle Crafts Club Members will be aware that this product is now available again, but for those who are not aware of it here it is. These have been flying out of the shop this weekend, lots of customers were tempted just by seeing me playing with the Punch on the counter. So here are the cards I have been making with this great Punch..
I wanted to try something a little bit special to show the Punch off to it's best. OK, it took me a little time and a few sheets of paper to work out all the measurements to get it right, but I hope you'll agree it was time well spent??

First of all I cut out a 5 3/4" circle (real dial size ON) on patterned Blue card stock from my Cricut machine using Sweethearts Cartridge. The image I used was "His Ring" (pg 47 in the Sweethearts handbook) Blackout, shift & Real Dial Size. If you do not have a Cricut Machine, might I suggest using the X Cut Shape Cutter System to cut the circle? I then cut out a second 5 3/4" circle on some Blue Mirror card.
The next few images are just to show you how to line up the punch to get the Butterfly to fit..

Turn your patterned card stock over. On the back you will need to dissect the circle into 8.
To do this accurately I took a separate 5 3/4" circle, folded it in half, opened it and folded it in half again, by doing this will show you where the 2 lines cross, this will be the centre of the circle. I pierced through this centre point and laid this image on top of the back of my patterned card and made a mark with a pencil through this hole to locate the centre point on my patterned card stock.
Then, with a ruler and a pencil I divided the circle into 8 equal sections, passing the lines through this centre point.
Now for the punching.
Take your Butterfly punch and turn it upside down, line up the top 2 holes on each wing with a pencil line. Turn the butterfly punch back over and punch into the card.
Repeat this process on all of the pencil lines. I.E line up each pencil line with the top holes on either side of the Butterfly's wings.

Rub out your pencil lines.

You can lift up the Butterfly wings now if you wish..

So back to the actual card..

I now have my Butterfly's punched out on my pattered card and a 5 3/4" circle of complementary card.

Add Pinflair Glue to the back of the pattered card, oops I know, I forgot to rub out my lines on this one. The reason I say to rub them out is because the Mirror card reflects the underside of the Butterfly wings and therefore these pencil lines can be seen!

Lay one image on top of the other...

I added a few diamante gems, just to give a little bit of BLING!!!

I then took some Grey/Silver card stock and attached a piece of the same patterned blue card I used for the Butterfly's. I punched a border using Martha Stewart Doily Lace.
Finally!, (sorry I know it's a bit of a long post. I should have said grab a cuppa first shouldn't I!), anyway, finally I cut out my "For You" sentiment from the Sweetheart Cartridge and attached it to the card..
I'm really pleased with the result of this card it inspired me to do a couple more.
This time I used my Moroccan Lace Border Punch.

in Black & White

Using my Swiss Cheese Punch.. I LOVE this punch.....!

in White & Black

Again using the Moroccan Lace punch..

this time in Green

I hope this close up shows you the dimension of this punch and that you can see the reflection of the Butterfly's wings in the Mirror card?

So, why not take your dimensional punches a stage further? I've done all the hard stuff so hopefully you won't have to..
Thanks for checking us out. See you soon.
Pinnacles..