Monthly Archives: May 2016

Butterfly Border Punch Gate Card

Butterfly Border Punch Gate Card

I designed this card using the Martha Stewart Monarch Butterflies Trim punch.  It is a gate card meaning that it opens in the center.

The blue card stock and the ink for the vertical Happy Birthday rubber stamp on the right is Stampin’ Up! Bliss Blue.  Floral decorative paper is attached to the inside of the left front flap of the gate card.  Light green ribbon is tied to the left side fold and tied with a bow.

Materials

  • 5.5 x 8.5″ solid colored card stock
  • 4.25 x 5.5″ decorative paper
  • Martha Stewart Monarch Butterflies Trim border punch or similar border punch
  • Scoring tool
  • Pencil
  • Ruler
  • Adhesive

Instructions

  1. Start with an 5.5 x 8.5″ piece of solid colored card stock.
  2. Holding the card stock horizontally (5.5″ ends at the sides) , mark it with a pencil 1/4″ from the top on the left and right.
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    Step 3 – Pencil mark lined up along left edge of punch

    Hold the butterfly border punch upside down and place the right hand side of the card stock in the punch.  You should be able to see the pencil mark from the previous step in the punch window so that you can line it up along the right edge of the punch.

  4. Turn the punch right side up and punch a second time using the punching guide images on the top of the punch.
  5. Repeat the previous two steps on the left side of the card.  This time with the punch upside down, the pencil mark will line up along the left edge of the punch.  Punch the second time on the same side using the punching guide images.
  6. Holding the card stock horizontally (5.5″ ends at the sides) with the pencil mark side up, score at 2 1/8″ from the left and again 2 1/8″ from the right.  (A score board works very well for this.  This Martha Stewart score board is my favorite since it can score at 1/8″ increments all the way across and it’s 12×12″ for larger card stock.)
  7. Fold the card on the two score marks.
  8. Trim the top and bottom edges on both sides that were not cut by the border punch.
  9. Add a 4.25 x 5.5″ piece of coordinating colored decorative paper inside the card with adhesive inside the left front flap the the gate card.
  10. Finish by decorating as you like.

This card can be adapted for use with different border punches by calculating how much border to leave at the top and bottom of each side before punching, depending on the width of the punched design.

Fitbit Alta is Very Cool!

I got a Fitbit Alta this week as an early birthday gift and it’s really cool!

It’s much slimmer than my previous pedometer/watch (Max) and looks like a bracelet. It has a larger display than the other fitbits and it can show time/date/day of the week, steps, distance, calories, and active minutes with a tap to cycle through this info.  The display also lights up so that I can read the time in the dark.  As someone who is horribly near sighted, this has become a great way to check the time during the night.  As an alternative to turning on the display with a double tap, the display shows the time when I turn my wrist to look at the display, a very natural gesture for looking at the time already.

What I love most is that it buzzes when I get a call or text!  When I get a text, it shows the sender’s name and the message scrolls across the display.  With a call, it scrolls the caller’s name 3 times.  I often don’t hear my text alerts when my phone is in my purse or when it’s set on do not disturb, so I love this!

As the reviews say, it’s difficult to do the clasp at first, but this got easier after just a day.  It was also hard to figure out the tap and double tap to see the display at first, but I quickly got the hang of it.

Fitbit comparison page.