Lace Borders with Iron Gate Fence border punch

I mentioned the other day that I had purchased the Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page Iron Gate Fence punch, right? I also mentioned that I LOVE it! This punch is worth every penny I paid for it because it is the embodiment of my style.

So, what can you do with it?

Obviously, you can do the usual "punch around the page" thing. You can also use them strictly as border or corner punches. Those are all fabulous, and I'll probably post a picture of those at some point, for reference. But let's kick it up a notch.

How about double-sided paper lace with a ribbon in the middle?

The smallest ribbon you can use for this is a 3/8" ribbon if you want it to look exactly like mine. You could try a 1/4" ribbon, but it might not tuck exactly right. Feel free to try it and report your results in the comments!

At any rate, let's talk about how to do this, and then I'll show you a bunch of examples and then a bunch of math figures.

For the 3/8" ribbon, you need to start with a 1" piece of paper in whatever length you need. Punch both long edges with the border punch, and it should look like the lefthand part of this picture:



For the 3/8" size, you could work with it as is, but you will have to trim for the other sizes. So let's just assume we have to. See the righthand part of the photo? That's what you want it to look like when you're done trimming. It might sound tedious, but it's actually very quick with a craft knife. Just be careful you don't tear the intricate design while you're trimming!

Then you're going to take your 3/8" ribbon and weave it through the remaining border. Check out the first two options with ribbon below (I inluded the first one just to show what it looks like beforehand):



You get two completely different looks, depending on which part of the design you thread the ribbon through.

But what if you just want to adhere a ribbon down the middle of a strip (like the very last example above) and not worry about weaving? Well, for a 3/8" ribbon, you'll start out with a 1-1/2" strip cut to your desired length. Again, you're going to punch both long sides with the border punch. Then simply attach your ribbon down the middle.

I know I mentioned before that I'm a "math geek," so you know I had to sit down and figure out what size the paper should be for each length of ribbon up to 1". So here it is ...

For threading through
start with 1" for a 3/8" ribbon
start with 1-3/8" for a 1/2" ribbon
start with 1-5/8" for a 5/8" ribbon
start with 2" for a 3/4" ribbon
start with 2-3/8" for a 7/8" ribbon
start with 2-5/8" for a 1" ribbon

No threading
start with 1-1/2" for a 3/8" ribbon
start with 2" for a 1/2" ribbon
start with 2-1/2" for a 5/8" ribbon
start with 3" for a 3/4" ribbon
start with 3-1/2" for a 7/8" ribbon
start with 4" for a 1" ribbon

I hope this has inspired you. Let me know if you try it and use it on anything. I'd love to see your projects, and I'll try to use these pretty laces on some cards in the near future to share them, too!