CAS With a Punch!

I know card artists who make Clean And Simple look, well simple!  They inspire me no end!  Now and then I set a 10 minute time limit to make a CAS card.  I succeeded in making one, but it took me way more than 10 minutes!  Let me explain.

This is the finished card. White GP 110 lb cardstock punched and scored with a simple Thank You sentiment.  It looks like a 10-minute card, right?

(The spots of sunlight in these photos is what happens when I take the pictures too late in the day and the deck railing casts shadows.)

My new toy, a Martha Stewart "anywhere" punch. I've been eyeing these at Michael's for a few weeks and finally grabbed one with my 40% off coupon. 

When opened the paper fits between the dies.  The 4 dots on the corners are strong magnets that SNAP! the pieces together keeping the paper firmly in place.  The little red dot on the tip of my finger is a reminder to keep fingers out of the way --- these two parts really do SNAP! together FIRMLY!  Ouch! 

It's great that this punch works anywhere on the page, but, (and here's where the 10 minute time limit was blown out of the water) if you want to line up a series of the punch outs  it's hard to see exactly where they are to get them lined up.  So I made a pencil template with vellum and attached it to the card, positioning it where I wanted the finished cuts.  It helped quite a bit. The vellum didn't add thickness so I was able to punch through both layers cleanly.  The punch is pretty easy to push, just make sure the pressure is even from the top down.

The front of the card is lined with a piece of black lightweight colored paper.

Here's a closeup of the punch out.  It does finish the edges beautifully.

Well, there is my CAS card that took about 20 minutes.  Next time I'll get it under 10.  It took longer to take the photos and write this blog post!!  Ah, but it is all worth it.  Thanks for stopping by!  The time you spent here was greatly appreciated!