I love border punches!

I have been collecting border punches for a while and added a few to my tools this year when Martha Stewart came out with the "Punch Aroung the Page" sets.  I love to use these when making cards or doing a layout.  The extra detail and texture just adds to any project.  Here is a layout I just finished with photos from a visit we made to Virginia.  My sister-in-law has a beautiful farm in the Shenandoah Valley and I couldn't get enough of the country views.

I have been layering my punches recently and really like the effect.  In the layout above I put a bold blue under my border punch and made three layers of scallop punched strips in the center of this layout to make a nice break in the page.  It make take a little more work, but I do like to use regular border punches to make a frame.  The layout below I created from a Liz Qualman sketch.  I love her work!  This layout uses a wide Martha Stewart border "Trellis" punch and it made a frame that really stood out on the page. 

I had fun with this project because the punch had a wide enough spacing in the design to weave a ribbon through.  This added to the texture and color scheme of the layout.