Do you have difficulties with cutting cardstock?

If you do have difficulties cutting card stock and paper, do not feel bad and by all means do not feel embarrassed, you are NOT by yourself!

Recently, I have had several stampers tell me that they have some difficulties with cutting cardstock and Designer Series Paper. Again, I say you are not in that boat by yourself, this is not an uncommon problem.

You certainly do not have to have grid paper or a Paper Trimmer; paper snip scissors will do the paper cutting job; but it does make it a lot easier to cut cardstock and DSP by utilizing them both.

First I will say, and this is just my opinion, I do not think there is a wrong way or right way to cut cardstock or DSP.

Today, I would like to share my thought (trick/tips) regarding cutting cardstock and DSP. This is just the way I try to do my cutting.

The way I trying cutting consists of one of two ways the majority of time. I will call them Scenario 1 and Scenario 2.  Let’s break both of these down.

• SCENARIO 1 – When I create a card with the sentiment as the main focal point.
  1. I pick out the sentiment that I want to use.
  2. I place the sentiment on a sheet of grid paper.
  3. I measure to the nearest 1/4″ mark both vertically and horizontally. For the “thanks” sample below, my measurement would be 1″ x 3″ for my base cardstock that I would stamp “thanks” on.
  4. So for any additional layers I would just add 1/4″ to each side. For example, my next layer under my base “thanks” would measure 1-1/4″ x 3-1/4″.
  5. If I am using a smaller image and want to use a punch, I place the sentiment on the punch to make sure it fits correctly. See the “Happy Birthday” and punch photo.
  6. My next layer under the “Happy Birthday” would be the scalloped oval.

SCENARIO 2 – When I create a card with a larger image more as the main focal point.

1. I pick out the main image that I want to use.
2. I still place the sentiment on a sheet of grid paper to see the minimum that I have to have, but I will increase the size a lot more because I want to use more of the base card. See the “Thoughts of You” card below.
3. In this example the minimum that i needed was 2-3/4″ x 3-3/4″. I wanted to use 3 layers and wanted to cover much of the base card. Base card face is 4-1/4″ x 5-1/2″. So I wanted to bottom layer to go across the card minus a 1/4″, and I added two 1/4″ or 1/2″ vertically.
4. Every though I kind of started with the first layer, my bottom layer is what ready drove the measurements.

So my tip is to try to keep it as simply as possible. At least to me, measuring in 1/4″ is the simplest way possible. Let me know if this was helpful or made it more confusing by leaving a comment.