Triple Punches Review and Projects

Projects with Dress My Craft Punches

            Hi friends,Dr Sonia here and I am very excited to share a review post and project ideas on my first love Craft Punches . I was so thrilled when I came to know that  Shalini  launched Craft Punches under her brand Dress My Craft !
Shalini always maintains a high benchmark for the products she stocks in her shop and even higher standards for products under her brand Dress My Craft  so even before I got my hands on the new punches I knew they would be fabulous !!

And these punches have truly exceeded my expectations and that is not  just the "DT" in me speaking but a paper-crafter who loves fabulous tools !!

In this post I will demo the Triple Punches and show you how versatile they are with a couple of projects.

Triple Punches

Special Features of the Triple Punches 

• Size : They are pretty large and sturdy Punches and can punch  paper widths of upto 2.5 inches 
• No limit to the length of paper you can punch!
• Mechanism :All 3 Triple Punches act by the  "Lever mechanism" which is personally my most favorite punch mechanism as not only is it easier to punch paper using lever punches but it also gives cleaner cuts
• Can hold in hand and punch! Because of the levering mechanism you can hold the punch and punch with your hand instead of having to always set it on a surface to punch.This is an advantage when you want to use the negatives of the punch-outs as shown in my video.
• Layering Punches- The base of the 3 punches have markings of 1.5, 2 and 2.5 inches on wedges to fit papers of these 3 widths-  this makes layering of your punched out tags and banners super easy. 
• Wedged Paper feeder
  

  

  Triple Punch Mechanism

  The wedges on the paper feeder base are an especially useful feature as if you cut your paper to size and feed it into a wedge say 1.5 or 2 or 2.5 inches...you can easily align the edges of your paper so that you dont get a wonky or crooked tag/banner.
• Another advantage of the  wedges is it allows you to easily align paper widths such as 1 and 3/4 or 2 and 1/4th to make layering quicker and easier.
• Nonskid Base : The base has built in nonskid discs which is especially handy when you are working with big punches such as these.
  
• Heavy duty Punch : The punches can easily punch papers of 300g and it even smoothly punched ivory sheets!
• Punches Thin Paper too- now you may be wondering why am I listing this as an advantage of these Dress My Craft punches...well surprisingly some heavy duty punches  give jagged edges with thin paper as they are meant to be used with card-stock! Happily the Dress My Craft punches give fabulous cuts with thin paper too!
• Cut pieces are useful too! I  am sure there are many of you who like  to waste as little paper as is practically possible when you craft. I love it when I can creatively use the negatives and little bits which are left  with the main punched design . When you scroll down you'll see how easy it is to create chevrons and beautiful patterns with the negative bits of the triple punch designs!

Ok now that I have talked to you about the salient features let me show you some project ideas to show the versatility of the Triple punch designs

Apart from the obvious tags and banners here are more ideas

1. Layered Bookmarks
2. Mini Album/Box Closure Mechanism
3. Business/ID Card Holder Box
4. Accordion Box
5. Organiser/Gift Basket

Bookmarks

When I got the triple punches a few days back I was frantically making notepad holders as Teacher's Day gifts and these layering punches were quite  handy to quickly make some gorgeous matching bookmarks for my daughter's teachers. 

I used the Rounded Tag Punch to create the layered bookmarks. It is very easy to create layers quickly using the wedges and marking.
Crafty Tip
If you are using the increments of 0.5 inches width strips....increase your paper strips by 1/4th inch only to get the perfect margin.

One big time saver with this tag punch is the hole which also punches perfectly with the rounded top shape. You just have to add an eyelet and a thread to finish the  bookmarks!

The lemony bookmark was created by punch through very thin paper and it was layered on Dress My Craft Textured pink card-stock which is of 300g!

The chocolate bookmark below has a base made of ivory sheet through which the Tag punch worked beautifully.

I played around with the measurements of the strips to get borders of different widths.

Love how the punches work beautifully with different papers. The Blue bookmark was made with Dress My Craft Hydrangea Lawns and the pink one with Lemoncraft Fresh Summers...both papers varying widely in thickness but punched out beautifully with the tag punch.

The raspberry set was made with DCWV papers

The  green one below was made with Lemoncraft papers

In case you are interested in how I made the Shaker Notepad Holders here is the link : Teachers Day Gifts
 Box / Mini Album Closure

 The shape of the Rounded Tag is just perfect to make a stylish closure mechanism!

I created a acetate window box from this project : Foamiran Flowers Hanging Decoration and made a secure closure using the Rounded Tag punch.

 You just have to add an eyelet and thread a ribbon/twine to create the closure.

ID Card/Business Card Holder

These cute Mini Flip top boxes are designed to hold ID/Business Cards. They are made from  10 and 1/4  x 4 inch pieces of card-stock using the rounded tag punch.

Accordion Boxes

 This box looks similar to the boxes shown above but is much easier to make and is quite roomier too.

It is an accordion box which is 1/2 inch thick and you can size it at different lengths to hold tags, I love you notes, small photographs etc.

I designed them to hold Membership cards.

 The base is made from a single strip of cardstock measuring 2.5 x 10 and 1/4 inches

  Accordions on the sides allow partition of the inside of the box

 And the accordions allow the holder to expand when you open it.

The dimensions are perfect to hold Membership/ID cards and will make such cute gifts!

Chevron Pattern

Here are the backsides of the boxes showing how you can use the negatives of the punch-outs to create chevron patterns. They would look beautiful in cards too.

And here is a video showing the punches in action and a Tutorial to make the accordion holders

Organizer Baskets/ Gift Basket

Because the Tag Punch can punch through really thick paper...it is fabulous to make Mini Organisers or Gift baskets. These cute Organisers  have wooden dowel sticks threaded through eyelets in the tags and you can carry them around by holding the rods.

 You can make them as long as you want. These are 4 inches long and are perfect to hold tiny bottles of nail polish [above]  or crafting supplies such as Alcohol Inks [below]!

I hope you liked the project ideas and before I bid adieu don't forget to check out this post on the  Use and Care of your Craft Punches 
Supplies
Punches :-Banner Punch ,Rounded Tag Punch ,Rectangular Tag Punch 
Papers : Dress My Craft Floral Symphony, Dress My Craft Hydrangea Lawns, Dress My Craft Pastel Pink Textured Cardstock, K and Company Tim Coffey Cottage Garden Specialty Paper, Acetate
Dies : Gina Marie Picket Fence,Elizabeth Craft Designs 728 Bunch of Flowers,Magnolia Doohickeys Vintage Box Lacing Coffee

Sliding Recipe Card Holder with Memorydex

Hi friends,Dr Sonia here with a simple project which is not only practical and useful but elegant and cute in its own way!

I used the Memorydex system to make a Recipe Card holder. Though it's the times of pinterest and cooking apps I am still old school when it comes to cooking ...I need to see a recipe on paper while I cook ! 

And I am sure all of you will have at least a couple of cook books and mamma's favorite recipes and of course those tried and tested family favorites!!

My favorite recipes are scattered in various books and when I want to make one particular item I have to go hunt for the book it is in.....so when I got my hands on the memorydex system I was thrilled that this would be a cool, hassle free ,not to mention pretty way to organize my favorite recipes and have them on hand in my kitchen!

 I used food themed DCWV papers to add a bit of color to my recipe holder and used Spellbinders dies and adhesive backed glitter foam to add the headings.

Since a recipe holder is a practical project which is going to be put to a lot of daily use..I let the paper take care of the  prettiness coefficient as I didnt want to add bulky embellishments!

The slider cards have 2 slots in the lower part and this makes them easy to insert into the slider tray and also to the Memorydex spinner.

Here are the options to make the slider cards:
Memorydex Oval Dividers dies : You can use these to make 2 types of cards...one shape can be a divider and have headings and the other one can be used to write the recipes .

Tab style die: This is cool  if your want to add labels to the tab part. I already have a Spellbinders Address Bood die with tabs and a MFT tab die so I use those to make tabs.

Memorydex punch: This is especially cool to use as you are then not dependent on a die cutting machine and can punch holes into any paper shape

Here are all the materials I used in this post. It also has the memorydex spinner which I showed you in the post here : Memorydex Spinner.

If you click on the thumbnails you can go directly to the link at Crafters Corner website.

Memorydex Card Tray	Memorydex Spinner	Memorydex Oval Divider	Memorydex Punch	Memorydex Tab Die
Spellbinders Font Upper Case	Spellbinders Font one Lower	Spellbinders Swirl Bliss	Spellbinders Persian Accents	Tim Holtz Scissors
Sizzix Big Shot	Foam Tape	Red Tacky Tape	Glue Dots	Mod Podge Matte
Mod Podge Paper	Glossy Accents

I used the different styles of dies to act as separators between the recipes

I have to use glasses to read small print but not otherwise so I find it handy to have a recipe written in large font in my own handwriting rather than read from a book!!!

The trays are made of sturdy chipboard and have metal rods on which the cards slide. They are big enough to hold dozens and dozens of cards!

I hope you liked this simple idea!!