September 2012 Challenge: Christmas Punch Art

Written and Created by PaperCraftCentral Susan

The September 2012 Challenge was all about punch art and maybe even making Christmas Cards for the Troops. (Sadly, the Cards for Troops Drive is now over but there are many other needy groups who will gladly accept handmade cards to serve their clients. You can still read about the eleven years we ran a Cards for Troops Drive on the page describing other groups who still want hand made card donations).

Sound a bit odd?

Well, the deadline for making Christmas Cards for the Aussie Troops was fast approaching, so I wanted to add a gentle reminder people could still contribute to the card drive if they wanted to, and give them a challenge at the same time.

Scroll down a bit further to see what I meant.

Oh, by the way....Did you know there are heaps of new ideas and supplies available all year round with the Stampin' Up! Ideas Book and Catalogue? If you live in Australia and need a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, I would be happy to talk about how you can get a free Ideas Book and Catalogue. Ask me about it. If you still want to see a digital edition of the catalogue, you can see one online here.

Hmmm. I'm still not being very helpful about the requirements for the challenge, am I?

OK, here is the information you are probably looking for.

September 2012 Challenge Details:

I had been playing with some new punch art images and I needed some little boy birthday cards so came up with the idea of making a Dragon and a Bug card, both inspired by other lovely Stampin' Up! demonstrators.

I called the first one the Dragin' Dragon, and the second one the Punch Buggy:

Here they are all complete!

Is what I wanted you to do this month getting any clearer? No?

Alright I will stop teasing. Lol!

Here's my idea - combine some punch art or Die Cut shapes with Christmas and  create a project!

You could make a card, or a series of cards, a scrapbook page, a 3d papercraft idea, or even an ATC or two or three.

As long as it is made of paper and follows the requirements in bold above, it is allowed.

How to Make Paper Punch Images

I am constantly amazed by what you can create using simple circles, ovals and rectangles.

If you look at the above example images, you will see that most of the punched shapes are just circles and ovals, with an occasional novelty shape thrown in.

Oh I did use the Stampin' Up! Petite Pennants Builder Punch (NLA) to make the Dragin' Dragon's spikes, by the way, but the rest of him is simple shapes.If you have a triangle shaped die or punch, you could use that if it is the right size, or just hand cut your own spikes instead. 

It was the same for the Punch Buggy. He is mainly circles and ovals with circle borders cut to size for the antennae, arms and legs.

When you want to make a new shape, you can study other people's projects and CASE (Copy and Share Everything) them, or you can study actual pictures of things and work out the basic shapes that they are made of, then cut those shapes with your punches or dies.

• Or you can just use an already designed punch or die set to create something you admire.
• Or learn how to make some paper flowers with your punches and dies. They will count, even if they are three dimensional.
• Bonus points if you look at your own craft supplies and figure out how to make a different shape from them than what they were originally intended for!
  

If you need further inspiration and tutorials, here are 450 more ideas on a Pintrest Board I found.

Make your September 2012 Challenge Project for a Cause:

If you want to make some punch art Christmas for a charity, please do, but don't feel it is a requirement to do so for this month's creative challenge. I just want to make a way for you to have some fun with all of the ideas together. If you do decide to create for a charity, do share with us which charity it is in case someone else wants to make for them as well.

The original challenge is over, but I hope you will still do it for fun. I'd love to see what you make.

Enjoy the September 2012 Challenge any time of year now and happy punching or die-cutting!

Did you know if you make a project for this challenge and tell me about it with a picture and description below, I will make it into a page for you on PaperCraftCentral.com?

Have fun!

PaperCraftCentral Susan