Wednesday Trends-Paper Piercing with Jessie

If I have been asked once, I have been asked 100 times how I do my paper piercing, one of my "go to" embellishments on my cards, so I thought I would throw together a quick tutorial so you would know some of my tricks.

First, I stamp my image, color him, get him cut out, and then I go ahead and layer him. I NEVER pierce through one layer UNLESS it is a sentiment panel(which I normally do as single layer). 

I use the Stamping Up Piercing Guide, formally the Mat Pack. It is TWICE as big now, and I'm not sure I like it as well, but if you can't tell by the photos...it's the first time I've used this particular mat. I pierce a LOT and it kinda looks like someone's chewed on my other one, LOL! I try not to move the guide as much as possible, so I line it up to where I can use as many of the holes in one go...see here, it wraps around from the bottom, all the way to the opposite corner. 

I then use my paper piercer to poke my holes along the edge being sure to hold on to the guide so it doesn't slide around. I have tried out SEVERAL styles of paper piercers, and this Making Memories one seems to be my favorite. I bought it back in 2007, and have tried really hard to find a replacement, but I can't seem to find this exact one. any piercer will do, though. Be sure when you are poking your holes you go STRAIGHT down, not at an angle!!!! Trust me, it matters because when you go at an angle, the holes look less open, and sloppy. 

When I adhere my paper pierced panels, I ALWAYS use dimensionals. The reasoning for this AND not only piercing through one layer is that when you glue it down, and you don't leave a space between the bottom layer, and what you glue it to, it smashes the holes back up, and they don't look as open or good. That's why I go ahead and mat my image BEFORE I pierce my holes, because if you don't, when you glue it down, it just doesn't look as good. It is a little harder to do(poking through all those layers of card stock), but the end result is WELL worth the effort.

And here you have it, my finished results(and my challenge card for this week)!! I pierce the base, and the paper layer the same way. The top 4 layers(from my MME paper to the Blu Raspberry layer) are all glued together first, and then pierced.

Well, that is it for me for now!! If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment here, or send me an email at Jessi96@yahoo.com!!

Thanks and have a great day!!