Paper Piercing

You will need:

• A card blank
  
  
• A hole reamer
  
  
• A template. Here I used a star shaped one but you can use circles, squares, oblongs, just lines, rows of lines and more
  
  
• A self healing soft mat
  
  

• Decide where you would like to place your lines of perforations
  
  
• Open the card blank or prepare a shape to be embellished
  
  
• Position the card over the mat right side up, and place the template over it
  
  
• Take your paper reamer tool and punch even holes in the cardstock, using the template as a guide
  
  

  

  
  
  
• Continue placing the holes in the cardstock until you have the desired effect
  
  
• Be careful to line up the template accurately if you want the line of holes to continue around a corner, to ensure the lines come out straight
  
  

  

  
  
  

• Make double or triple rows as in the photo above
  
  
• Vary your piercings - punch some holes in a line and then leave a gap before making any more
  
  
• For a spikier effect, start punching the holes on the wrong side of the cardstock
  
  
• Ink the spikier holes after you have made them
  
  
• Draw lines between the holes to resemble stitching - a white gel pen is very effective on dark cardstock, or use metallic (gold, silver, copper) pens to make the 'stitches'
  
  
• Create a 'running stitch' effect by drawing a line between every second hole like this ._. ._. ._.
  
  
  
  

  

  
  
  
• Investigate your local material shop to see if there are any dressmaking templates you could use as templates - some shops have star and circle shaped templates, for example. (Craft shops and stamping outlets also have kits to make this technique a breeze).
  
  
• Use real thread or other fibres to lace between rows of holes and form new patterns
  
  

Once you have started paper piercing, I believe you will find many uses for it!

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