Getting more mileage from your border punches

I love border punches, but I'm pretty picky about them. Not just any design will make its way into my craft room. I fell in love with the EK Success fleur de lis border punch that just came out a few months ago, though, and I had to have it.

Once I got it home, I thought perhaps I should buy the coordinating fleur de lis (non-border) punch to go with it since I was using it all the time. But then I realized I have a mini non-border fleur de lis punch built right in - in what I would usually just throw in the trash! So sometimes I save those cutouts and use them on the card. It saved me the price of another punch!

But then I read on someone's blog (sorry, I can't remember who or when) that they used their border punch like a corner punch to make decorative designs on the corners. So I decided to try it with my favorite fleur de lis border punch and see what it looked like. Here it is:



What do you think? Pretty, isn't it? I was thrilled because now my $7.50 (with a coupon) border punch can do triple duty as a border punch, a regular punch (to use for cutouts), and a corner punch! And what's even better yet, they all coordinate perfectly. So how in the world do you do it? Check it out:



Turn your border punch over and line up your paper in the middle of the design, making sure you're getting the whole corner. Then just punch it out!

Here's how the card turned out, using the corner punch as well as green punch-outs:



I based it on Mojo Monday Sketch challenge 70. The flower is a free digital image I got from the Dover sampler awhile back, and the round stamp is from a Studio G clear $1 set. The patterned paper is Making Memories, cardstock is from The Paper Company, and the card base is a 5x7" Hot Hues card from a set I picked up at Goodwill a few years (!) ago.